Instagram and its parent company Facebook Inc. have been conducting a months long inquiry in the forum OGUsers.com, triggered by cyber criminals acquiring valuable accounts and selling them for a profit. Now, the company has decided to take strict actions against those engaging in these nefarious acts, and has banned the accounts, issuing cease and desist letters to users of the OGUsers forum that were engaged in these black market trading of lucrative accounts.
While all accounts on Instagram have similar rules to follow, some of them are considered more ‘valuable’ than others, for mostly superficial reasons. These can vary from those with a high follower count or verification badges, to those with catchy and early users name like single keywords. These accounts are usually originally owned by early users of Instagram, and those who were grab handles like @Sick or @Miracle or their first name only.
Since they are in such high demand and there’s absolutely no supply, these accounts are being acquired illegally through hacking, blackmail, swatting etc. and sold for up to $40,000. This is why Instagram has decided to ban a lot of accounts that it believes stolen from their original users.
These activities have been going on unchecked for years now. In fact, there has been a steady growth in commercialization of Instagram accounts. But now, extra care is being taken and Instagram is trying to reassign the handles to original users.
The acquiring of these accounts is done through various ways, such as sending users a disguised email to get their passwords, a sim swap (associating the users mobile number with the hackers phone) or blackmailing, often through illicit photos. These accounts are then traded and sold to prospective buyers on mostly the OGUsers forum. Of the accounts banned on Thursday, many of the original owners were subjected to harassment and threats of swatting, revenge porn and violence.
It’s interesting to note that OGUsers.com was also the forum that was used to conduct last year’s highly publicized Twitter hack that affected former US President Barack Obama, Elon Musk and many other celebrities.
The practice of resale of accounts is strictly prohibited under Instagram’s terms of services. Thursday’s actions are the most public and decisive action Instagram has taken against cyber criminals attacking users for commercial and personal gain.
To prevent future attacks, the platform is looking at providing additional security and monitoring to desirable and vulnerable accounts by getting them to sign up for a new Facebook Protect program, previously only available to government officials. Users, including those who have been attacked, have suggested that Instagram should start paying content makers, so that no one needs to make money in any other way.
