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Instagram is a dumpster fire. I have a 3 letter instagram name and the amount of spam and attacks I get is insane... I get hundreds of password reset emails fr

Instagram is a dumpster fire. I have a 3 letter instagram name and the amount of spam and attacks I get is insane... I get hundreds of password reset emails from instagram daily and constant DMs and follow requests from scammer and bot accounts. I've tried contacting instagram about it several times but they never respond. Had to blackhole emails from security@mail.instagram.com to prevent my mail server filling up.

roomey 5y ago
I got a 4 letter one I never use and the amount of resets per day is crazy. I don't share my daily email with websites but for whatever reason I used it with this Instagram account. It's the only spam I get at this point. 20 email resets per day!! It can't be hard to fix that
wpietri 5y ago
Wow. I have an early Twitter handle and they let me turn off password resets without additional information. (I think you have to enter the email under which I've registered before it will send the request.)
- bredren 5y ago
  How early? My main is in the first 12,000.
  - wpietri 5y ago
    I just checked and this appears to be for accounts of any vintage. If you go here: https://twitter.com/settings/security https://twitter.com/settings/security Turn on "password reset protect" and it will require "either the phone number or email address associated with your account in order to reset your password". I'm not sure it adds a ton of security, but it definitely cuts down on the password reset emails.
    - skunkworker 5y ago
      I personally know someone with a two letter twitter handle that is a word in the english language, for awhile there they were inundated with password request attempts, but it took knowing someone 1-1 inside of twitter security in order to put additional locks on their account, beyond what any config will show unfortunately.
- nevster 5y ago
  I have a 3 letter twitter username and I definitely get password reset requests but not too often - about 1 or 2 a month
registeredcorn 5y ago
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gets hit with password reset attempts. It's strange because I don't have a short username; mine is noticeably long and weirdly specific. I've noticed that the reset attempts seem to come in waves. I haven't charted it, but sometimes I'll get somewhere between 20-30 reset attempts in 24 hours, and at other times, I won't get any reset attempts for a full week or so. The whole thing is very bizarre.
- qazxcvbnmlp 5y ago
  Same. I just ignore them.
guiambros 5y ago
This episode [1] of Darknet Diaries tells the story of someone with an early Twitter/Instagram account, and how it was targeted by scammers. Pretty scary. [1] https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/97/ https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/97/
- simonebrunozzi 5y ago
  I had my own "mobile + twitter hacked" story [0]. Solved it in several months. Yes, months, not days, not hours. [0]: https://simon.medium.com/mobile-twitter-hacked-please-help-2f65c691edf8 https://simon.medium.com/mobile-twitter-hacked-please-help-2...
x0n 5y ago
Same, I also have a three letter nick. Constant reset attempts, spam, fake offers of thousands of USD to transfer it.
tdrdt 5y ago
Doesn't this apply to the whole internet? Internet connects both good and bad people. The moment you create something that can be used to upload any type of content, some people will exploit it.
- staticassertion 5y ago
  Sort of. Tech companies have an incredible lack of investment in actual customer service though. With many services it's easy to get on the line with a human - even if it can take a while there's a straightforward path. Tech companies seem to invest far less into customer service, make it impossible to get on the phone with someone, resolve issues in a sane way, etc.
dawnerd 5y ago
I just have a junk instagram account to get around the login walls and get flooded with reset requests too. You'd think they'd be able to solve for this.
sneak 5y ago
Yet you still use Facebook's censored spyware, even with this terrible UX?
- almostdigital 5y ago
  This account is going to be a heirloom NFT in the metaverse some day :P
jhugo 5y ago
I had a 3 letter as well. I was getting daily password resets for years and then one day it was stolen despite 2FA and a random 32-char password. No idea how they did it. I wasn't a heavy user and Instagram doesn't seem to offer any support so I just created another account and moved on.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  Some sort of social engineering I guess :(
  - jhugo 5y ago
    Considering that Instagram doesn't provide any support (that I can find, anyway), social engineering seems unlikely. Unless they found someone who worked at Instagram and somehow socially engineered them to transfer the account?
rdl 5y ago
Same. Eventually (after 30-40?) they give you a link to turn off password resets attempts (or notifications of?) from devices you haven't logged on from in the past 90 days (I think?).

roomey 5y ago

I got a 4 letter one I never use and the amount of resets per day is crazy. I don't share my daily email with websites but for whatever reason I used it with this Instagram account. It's the only spam I get at this point. 20 email resets per day!! It can't be hard to fix that

wpietri 5y ago

Wow. I have an early Twitter handle and they let me turn off password resets without additional information. (I think you have to enter the email under which I've registered before it will send the request.)

bredren 5y ago
How early? My main is in the first 12,000.
- wpietri 5y ago
  I just checked and this appears to be for accounts of any vintage. If you go here: https://twitter.com/settings/security https://twitter.com/settings/security Turn on "password reset protect" and it will require "either the phone number or email address associated with your account in order to reset your password". I'm not sure it adds a ton of security, but it definitely cuts down on the password reset emails.
  - skunkworker 5y ago
    I personally know someone with a two letter twitter handle that is a word in the english language, for awhile there they were inundated with password request attempts, but it took knowing someone 1-1 inside of twitter security in order to put additional locks on their account, beyond what any config will show unfortunately.
nevster 5y ago
I have a 3 letter twitter username and I definitely get password reset requests but not too often - about 1 or 2 a month

registeredcorn 5y ago

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gets hit with password reset attempts. It's strange because I don't have a short username; mine is noticeably long and weirdly specific. I've noticed that the reset attempts seem to come in waves. I haven't charted it, but sometimes I'll get somewhere between 20-30 reset attempts in 24 hours, and at other times, I won't get any reset attempts for a full week or so. The whole thing is very bizarre.

qazxcvbnmlp 5y ago
Same. I just ignore them.

guiambros 5y ago

This episode [1] of Darknet Diaries tells the story of someone with an early Twitter/Instagram account, and how it was targeted by scammers. Pretty scary. [1] https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/97/ https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/97/

simonebrunozzi 5y ago
I had my own "mobile + twitter hacked" story [0]. Solved it in several months. Yes, months, not days, not hours. [0]: https://simon.medium.com/mobile-twitter-hacked-please-help-2f65c691edf8 https://simon.medium.com/mobile-twitter-hacked-please-help-2...

x0n 5y ago

Same, I also have a three letter nick. Constant reset attempts, spam, fake offers of thousands of USD to transfer it.

tdrdt 5y ago

Doesn't this apply to the whole internet? Internet connects both good and bad people. The moment you create something that can be used to upload any type of content, some people will exploit it.

staticassertion 5y ago
Sort of. Tech companies have an incredible lack of investment in actual customer service though. With many services it's easy to get on the line with a human - even if it can take a while there's a straightforward path. Tech companies seem to invest far less into customer service, make it impossible to get on the phone with someone, resolve issues in a sane way, etc.

dawnerd 5y ago

I just have a junk instagram account to get around the login walls and get flooded with reset requests too. You'd think they'd be able to solve for this.

sneak 5y ago

Yet you still use Facebook's censored spyware, even with this terrible UX?

almostdigital 5y ago
This account is going to be a heirloom NFT in the metaverse some day :P

jhugo 5y ago

I had a 3 letter as well. I was getting daily password resets for years and then one day it was stolen despite 2FA and a random 32-char password. No idea how they did it. I wasn't a heavy user and Instagram doesn't seem to offer any support so I just created another account and moved on.

kingcharles 5y ago
Some sort of social engineering I guess :(
- jhugo 5y ago
  Considering that Instagram doesn't provide any support (that I can find, anyway), social engineering seems unlikely. Unless they found someone who worked at Instagram and somehow socially engineered them to transfer the account?

rdl 5y ago

Same. Eventually (after 30-40?) they give you a link to turn off password resets attempts (or notifications of?) from devices you haven't logged on from in the past 90 days (I think?).