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Hackers Targeting Instagram Accounts of Influential Profiles for Ransom in a Recent Campaign

 

The high-profilers and big shots should now be prepared to safeguard their Instragram account, as the hackers are targeting Instagram accounts of influential profiles. The hackers are also asking for hefty ransom amount after hacking the Instagram accounts.

 

In recent incidents, some of the prominent people were not able to access their Instagram accounts. Their accounts were hacked, and the hackers demanded ransom in the form of Bitcoin to give the access of their accounts back. The hackers threatened the victims that if they do not pay the ransom, their accounts would be deleted. This series of attack targets the high profile instagram users, who have huge following and tremendous social influence.

 

There were many victims of this Instagram attack, and almost all the victims have received a similar message from the hacker named "Pumpam". The strategy of the hacker seems same in all the cases of hacking, which gives a hint that the attacks are linked to the same hacking campaign. An email is sent to the victim whose account is hacked, which says that the hackers are now in possession of victim's account and ask the victim to email to a specific address for starting the recovery. The email message also says that if they receive no response from the victim within three hours, then the account would be deleted.

 

The email from the hacker lets the victim know that the account has been hacked. The Instagram officials also intimate the victim through an email that their account email address was changed. However, the victims when tried to revert their accounts email address, they were unsuccessful in doing the same. The agony of losing the account to the hackers was so much that a few of the users even ended up paying the ransom amount to the hackers. But paying the ransom didn't always work, as some of the victims claims that their account still got deleted.

 

Several victims however were unhappy with the Instagram, as the Instagram officials didn't help them out in getting back their accounts control. The Instagram's customer support was very generic in their response about the issue, which frustrated the victims more.

 

At this point, only a few facts are known regarding this hacking campaign. Users of Instagram should be very vigilant about the security of their user accounts, and should make sure that they have a strong and secure password.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/9/2018

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