How We Got Our Instagram Back

How did we got our Instagram account back for Dash Kitten is a bit of a puzzle. Let us tell you why we think this!

Mum tried all of our email accounts (staff and personal!) and eventually succeeded with the one account she was meant NOT to be able to get online with (the supposedly compromised one).  

Critical Point in the Instagram Help Process You Might Get Wrong:- 

1. If you account is mostly cat pictures (or fashion, or dogs, or crafts…) DO NOT Click “This Account Includes Pictures of Me”.  
2. This leads down a rabbit hole of “Put this number on a piece of paper and take a picture of  You with the Paper” confusion. Not what you might need for a pet account which is 90% cat.
3. Use Option 3 This account contains pictures that I’ve created….” 

We Got Our Instagram Back – Here’s What We Think

We did learn some stuff, so we are passing the information on, in the hope it might help you if you get stuck with IG Help :-

• At no point do you ever seem to communicate with a real person at Instagram – ever. The ‘Emma’, then ‘George’, we emailed via the Hacked Account page, did not respond as people, but as sophisticated ‘autoresponders’ that look for and check certain key trigger words.
• How do we know this? Instagram asked Mum to confirm – via our Dash Kitten email linked to IG – with a copy of their email, to verify that this the account was the account we used. 
• Unfortunately, we couldn’t. Because the email we were asked to respond to, bounced.  We got a Facebook automatic email response. “We can’t help you – try the help page ….”
• Mum eventually got us back, we think, by setting up a support ticket letting them know we got bounced and enclosing a copy of their email to us)..
• Confused. Well we were. 

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We Got Our Instagram Back BUT

We don’t know if we were hacked ‘officially’ or if Instagram changed its API, or something, so our recovery remains a bit of a puzzle. A fellow blogger had similar issues but was not hacked.

We just thought you should know these things to try and keep your account safe, if you are on Instagram :-

• Do use a REALLY fun but weird password that you might remember like – AesopFUn83 or AesOPfun83 
• Do not put your telephone number in if Instagram asks for it. The phisshing page may be blank with no Instagram Logo.
• Do keep a hidden note of your password, at home, if you are worried you might forget. Think about it – no hacker is going to be sat on your shoulder at home. 

So we are back. Dash Kitten’s memory is safe and we have a new and fancy password!

Silver Kitten
Code Breaker 😉