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Your situation is apparently common nowadays with OG usernames and can get very dangerous. I had no idea this was a thing until I listened to an episode on Dark
by pkrotich 5y ago
Your situation is apparently common nowadays with OG usernames and can get very dangerous. I had no idea this was a thing until I listened to an episode on Darknet Diaries [0] recently.
In the old days, I remember people going after short domains in the same manner. ICANN ended up adding locking (auth codes) - perhaps IG and other social sites can learn from it.
Be safe!
[0]https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/106/ https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/106/
- china 5y agoI'll have to listen!
- guiambros 5y agoCame here to post the same episode. Strongly recommended; it's eye-opening, and it will give you a good idea of the incentives and the type of people you're dealing with (although you'll see the techniques are the ones you are already know: SIM swapping, social engineering, escalation of personal attacks, etc). Good luck defending your handle!
- gkoberger 5y agoHere's another podcast episode about it, and I remember it being really really good. They actually befriend a scammer who is pretty open about how it works: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k
- Apreche 5y agoTL;DR: The only methods discussed in this episode are SIM swapping and password guessing. Neither of which are relevant for OP. Unless OP is lying, there must be some other method used.
- supercoffee 5y agoReply All also did an episode about this a few years back. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k tl;dr There's underground marketplaces where shady people buy and sell OG usernames for money, which creates an incentive for shady people to steal them from the original owners.
- pkrotich 5y agoPerhaps incentives don't line up... but I'm wondering if social media sites like IG should make renting out usernames a thing - obviously there's a market for it. If I'm taking social media hiatus, for example, I wouldn't mind getting paid while away.
- malux85 5y agoSooooo how does that work? I rent your username while you’re on holiday for a month and then spam your followers with crypto scams and viagra ads? Or they decouple followers from the username so the username becomes a transient thing, which then gets ignored, and becomes worthless?
- pkrotich 5y agoI prefaced it with perhaps incentives don’t necessarily line up… maybe there’s a clever way to go about it. I was thinking it will be pre-approved category of content… there’s already such model with sponsored content influencers post.
- pmlnr 5y agoThat is basically how domains work, but there are grace periods for recovery.
- boppo1 5y agoHow is my username made in the last 4 years different from an OG username?
- heurisko 5y agoI'm not up-to-date with what OG means. Apparently OG "original gangster" usernames refer to common words such as "@Miracle", that were registered by early adopters. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/style/instagram-account-fraud-ban.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/style/instagram-account-f...
- edoceo 5y agoOr that guy @slack on Twitter. Or @gusto on same
- pkrotich 5y agoYes indeed - I thought everyone knew that /s :) You’ll be amazed how much googling I do when having conversations with friends - I wasn’t born in the West and things like movie references leave me confused af! But I hide it… thank goodness for urban dictionary
- delgaudm 5y agoLooks up "af"
- PostThisTooFast 5y agoThe other problem is people not capitalizing abbreviations as they should. You see even major news organizations doing it. The entire nation of Great Britain appears to think there's a space agency called "Nasa." Ignorant AF.
- JSONderulo 5y agoHalfway through this pod. This is terrifying.