In 2022 my GardenImageryau Instagram account was stolen and name changed to ryau_gardenimagery.
A person tricked me into thinking they were someone I knew and they needed my help. I blindly followed their instructions thinking I was helping them – I was. I was helping them steal my account. As soon as I learnt what had happened I contacted META for help to get the account back, but the thief had already changed the phone number and email address attached to the IG account so none of the things META told me would work to help me get it back. NOTHING.
And it seems that META don’t understand that. What I don’t understand is why they couldn’t reverse what happened – they are an IT company after all. Or why they couldn’t just block this person, this thief. Surely they can see in their records when the contact details were changed.
The thing that really hurts is the thief has left my logo up there, my posts, my web address (this website) and my name. So, for all intents and purposes, it appears to be me but it’s not me. It’s some unknown thief who is attempting to do the same thing to my followers, as well as sell bitcoin.
Ten months down the track I’m STILL getting PMs from people via Facebook Messenger asking if it’s me that’s having problems with my account or do I know my account has been hacked? Of course I know, but the thief has blocked me. I did put comments on several of my posts saying the account had been stolen trying to get the followers’ attention. But then they blocked me. Why can’t META just close the account down if they really, truly, can’t return the account to me? That’s what I don’t understand.
META, if you see this post, this is the REAL me. Kathie Thomas. I own the business name GardenImagery here in Australia. My photo is here and my logo. I don’t know what else to do to prove to you that I own that Instagram account that you seem to not care about or do nothing about, while some hacker, some thief, continues to work at tricking people so they can steal their accounts too. To what benefit? I have no idea. In the meantime I encourage all those who contact me to report that person as pretending to be someone they know, to unfollow and then block. It’s all I can do.
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