How to protect your Instagram account from phishing and fraud

Instagram has provided many tools to help people keep their accounts safe from phishing attacks and suspicious activity, and there are constant efforts to improve and update its security features.

Here are five basic steps to help keep your accounts secure:

Security Check: A new feature to help people keep their Instagram accounts secure. A security check will guide those whose accounts may have been compromised through the necessary steps to secure them. This includes checking login activity, reviewing profile information, verifying accounts that share login information, and updating contact information such as phone numbers or emails for account recovery.

Enable two-factor authentication: We highly recommend setting up two-factor authentication, a security feature that helps protect your Instagram account and password. Two-factor authentication means that when someone tries to log into your account from a device that we do not recognize, you will receive a notification or be asked to enter a special login code. Go to Security in your Settings and enable it with just a few clicks using your phone number or an authentication app like Duo Mobile or Google Authentication.

Availability of login requests: When you set up two-factor authentication on Instagram, you’ll receive an alert when someone tries to sign in to your account from a device or browser that we don’t recognize. These alerts will tell you which device tried to sign in and where it is. You can accept or decline the request instantly from your already logged in device. You can view a list of devices that have recently signed into your Instagram account at any time in the Settings menu, then Security, and then Sign-in activity. If you don’t recognize recent login information, you can sign out of that site or device and tell us it wasn’t where you signed in.

Update your phone number and email: Make sure your email and phone numbers associated with your device are up to date. That way if something happens to your account, we can reach you. These steps allow you to recover your account even if your information has been altered by a hacker.

Instagram won’t send you a direct message: Over the past few months, we’ve seen an increase in malicious accounts sending people through direct messages to try to access sensitive information like account passwords. They may tell you that your account is at risk of getting banned, that you are in violation of our intellectual property policies, or that your photos are being shared elsewhere. These messages are often misleading and violate our policies. When we discover these types of scams, we take action against them, but we also encourage you to report the content and block the account. Remember: Instagram will not send you direct messages. If Instagram ever wants to reach you about your account, we’ll do so through the “Instagram email” menu in your settings, which is the only place you’ll find a direct, real connection to us on the App.
Report suspicious content and accounts: While we’re always improving our technology to combat new trends and techniques that may be used by hackers and spam accounts, you can also report suspicious content by clicking the three dots at the top of the post. You can report parts of it, either with a message, or by posting. By going to the account and reporting directly from the profile.

To ensure Instagram’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness and encourage the use of safety equipment on Instagram, it has partnered with content creators and influencers such as Khalid Mokhtar, Amr Maskoun, Ali Othman, Mazen Yasin and Adel Al-Advani. To encourage dialogue and dialogue with Educate all users on our platform about account security, and the need to take the necessary measures to protect themselves from Instagram scam attempts or hack attacks.