How my Instagram got hacked and How I recovered it

As a social media influencer who is constantly depended on their online followers and online content, the worst nightmare ever will be his/her social media account getting hacked. Not that the hackers can misuse your identity, but the thoughts of working and growing your online presence not only scares you but only add woes to your already broken soul. And, if you are using social media just a way to maintain your social status, I bet it will make you feel the same way, maybe.  Unfortunately, this happened to me, and I became the victim of what one might call an identity theft.

It all started one fine Friday morning, right after my birthday when I woke up and wanted to scroll through my Instagram account to check on the amount of likes I received on the picture which I uploaded the day before. And Lo and behold! I couldn’t sign into my own account as it signaled me that I was using a wrong username and password, I checked and re-checked the spelling again for infinite amount of times, but to my dismay it didn't work, a minute while, I logged in with another account of mine to check if there was something wrong with my phone, surprisingly,  I could sign in. When I searched for my real account username, I was shooked, not that my account was still there, but the name of my profile has changed to something funny and weird. That was the moment I knew I have become the victim of someone whose account has got hacked. I was literally flabbergasted, or panicky to be précised, but I had to stay clam because it was not gonna help me also because I knew what I had to do.  

The thought of someone else using my account surely did alarmed me, I could imagine what he/she could do using my profile. The thoughts of building my online presence all over again was a daunting challenge to my already panicky situation. Before things got worse, I decided to head over to the Instagram support page, and there I found the option where we could report the account with ‘I think my account was hacked,’ option and I followed the instruction as directed. About half an hour later or maybe after a lot of re sending the report, I received an email from Instagram help, asking me to verify that the profile was mine and no one else’s.  And this is what I was supposed to do, they sent me a code where I had to write it on a piece of paper with my full name and Instagram user name and clicked a mugshot (I surely looked sad and awkward). 
I slept with the problem hoping the next morning will bring me some luck…. And the waiting game seemed shorter than expected. The next morning, the first thing I did was to check my mail and boy, oh boy! the email was something which  I wanted to hear/see, I have regained my account, but there was a catch, I signed in with the hacker’s username and it took me to the page where I could make the new password, now the catch was that, you will be taken to another page which gives you the option to change the email ID from the hacker's to yours, I deleted the hacker's id and replaced it with mine.

Pheww!! I could finally recover my account,  and trust me, it was the most reliving thing, at that very moment. Once I could sign into my account, I checked my activity logs to see if the hackers had posted or commented any irrelevant thing, I also changed my username as well as my password.

Now, remember if you ever become a victim of being hacked, don't forget to do the same, as it will help you keep your account secure from the hacker. I also removed some suspicious account and made my profile private for a week or two. I did lose some followers, which might be cause I asked my close ones to report the account. I turned on my two factor authentication, all in the name of security. I did not upload any content for another week coz the incident got me thinking that I should not give another chance to whoever the person was.

The internet is such a scary place, but at the same time it is where I get to connect my blog to numbers of users or brands, and I cannot stop using it just because I am scared of those bugs who are behind the screens and waiing for their chance to ruin some people's hard work. I have been a victim of someone hacking my Facebook once, but that did not stop me from using the social media platform.
For once I did think of wiping away all my pictures just coz I was too scared to encounter another of such incidents but no, every picture which I have on my instagram account has a story behind and I didn't want to wipe them away because of some stupid miscreants. I don’t really know how the hacking took place, not that I am careless or my password was easy, but one thing is for sure, maybe it  would not have occurred had I not logged out of my account, but then that is also another way of inviting trouble. Right?

I hope no one becomes a victim of being hacked and getting their identity misused, but if you do, you can always follow the steps I advised, but I do hope you will not get a chance to use them.

Stay safe People!

Safe from people who wants to be you!