Scammers Tricked Instagram into Believing Head Honcho Adam Mosseri Was Dead

A scammer reportedly managed to lock down the account of Instagram head Adam Mosseri by pretending that the executive was dead. Some scammers offer to shut down a targeted individual’s account by using “random obituaries” to show the Facebook-owned platform they are dead for as little as $60.

Vice News reports that a scammer successfully locked the account of Instagram head Adam Mosseri after pretending that the executive had died. Moserri’s Instagram account was locked due to Instagram’s memorialization feature where users can report to the company that an account holder has died, Instagram will then block anyone from logging into the account and remove the account’s ability to upload content.

The scammer behind the hack, who goes by the handle Syenrai, told Vice News: “I find it ridiculous how Instagram lets such things even happen on their platform in the first place. The entire banning community needs to be discovered and reported to Instagram so they can put an end to this—it’s basically the dark side of Instagram.”

Syenrai gave Vice News screenshots of emails that they sent to Instagram in order to trigger the memorialization. Instagram requested a death certificate, obituary, or news article that includes the full name of the deceased person, so Syenrai created a fake obituary online.

Hackers have been offering services such as having accounts removed or banned from websites like Instagram for some time. Syenrai is one such scammer and detailed how the process works. For accounts with less than one million followers, Syenrai simply takes a recent obituary of a deceased person online and uses that as proof.

“I have a method which is as simple as finding an online obituary of a person who recently passed away,” they explained. “I then submit a memorialize request for the victim’s account using the random obituary I found, and it takes 1-2 days for support to process.”

They added: “As long as the obituary is recent (within same week) the target will be memorialized. It works 98% of the time.” Some scammers offer services like this for as little as $60.

An Instagram spokesperson told Vice News:

Like other internet services, Instagram has online forms to help people report suspicious activity or to let us know a friend or family member has passed away. Unfortunately, some people abuse these forms, so we hire investigators and cybersecurity specialists to detect scammers’ tactics so we can improve and make it increasingly difficult for them.

If a user believes that their account has been incorrectly memorialized, they can fill out a form. The form notes: “We’ll only be able to grant you access to this account if we’re able to verify that you’re the account owner.”

Syenrai commented: “It’s very important to have your correct date of birth, and at least one picture of yourself archived, this helps prove you are the account owner in either instance of being memorized or being banned by someone.”

Read more at Vice News here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com