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I'm among the first 6000 users of Instagram and my first name username was stolen a few years ago. Support for verified accounts acknowledged the issue, but cou
by joao 4mo ago
I'm among the first 6000 users of Instagram and my first name username was stolen a few years ago. Support for verified accounts acknowledged the issue, but couldn't do anything about it.
This turn was an AI exploit, in my case was an outsourcing support 'exploit', where someone paid for my username to be manually changed and given to another user. There will always be a way to get access to accounts if human accountable support doesn't exist, with criminal consequences for employees that violate it.
- stronglikedan 4mo ago> with criminal consequences for employees that violate it lol, no. The day someone is criminally charged with "stealing" a username is the day that humanity has lost
- simonw 4mo agoThe good usernames generally are valued at thousands of dollars or more. Surely stealing something worth that much money should be a crime.
- parable 4mo agoYou might be interested in reading the court case against Eric Meiggs and Declan Harrington, which includes charges against the two involving extortion and SIM swapping for usernames. See page 10: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.215946/gov.uscourts.mad.215946.1.0_1.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.215... While it isn't directly "stealing", the government has brought charges against people in the past for username-related crimes. There are several similar cases, but this is the first one that came to mind.
- xandrius 4mo agoPeople are criminally charged for stealing food to feed themselves. I'd argue that's more a sign of lost humanity than stealing something which has a non-negligible economic value.
- cactusplant7374 4mo agoCan you sue? I assume there is a financial motive with this crime.
- jubilanti 4mo agoSue who? Meta? You "consented" in the Terms of Service to waive your right to a trial and only get forced arbitration by an arbitrator of Meta's choosing. Sue the anonymous person who stole your account and sold it to someone else, who is probably nowhere near your jurisdiction? Good luck.
- pocksuppet 4mo agoClickwrap terms of service are worth the paper they're printed on. You may still be able to sue.
- lenerdenator 4mo agoAt which point you are going to be competing in court with a company that has a current market capitalization of $1.6 trillion dollars.
- lynndotpy 4mo agoOnly up until the point the judge says, "Meta files a motion to compel arbitration and it looks like you're bound to that arbitration clause. You didn't send a letter during the provided 30 day window. It all checks out, good luck to you both." Then you will be competing in an American Arbitration Asssociation's 'Alternative Dispute Resolution', which is even less favorable for the consumer :D
- lynndotpy 4mo agoYou are 100% able to sue, but, in the US, the result of that suit is 99.9% that you will be held to that arbitration clause anyways, with an arbitrator of Meta's choosing. Arbitration clauses are very strong in the United States and have been getting stronger for years. Across both Democratic and Republican administrations, in state and federal courts, judges constantly reaffirm that these provisions are binding. Even literal shrinkwrap arbitration clauses on foods (Vital Proteins, Daily Harvest), etc. are upheld. Exceptions are rare, such as unborn babies getting sick who never signed a clause such as with Daily Harvest, or when a case is public enough to draw backlash such as with the Disney+ trial arbitration clause being used to prevent a man whose wife died at a DisneyWorld restaurant from suing. Even parents suing on behalf of their pre-teenage children (e.g. against Snapchat in an Illinois court) find themselves blocked by arbitration. There is no way merely having someones Instagram hacked and having "their username stolen" (not something possible, it's Meta's property) will make for such a rare scneario. Per Instagram's ToS, if you sued instead of filing a Notice of Dispute (i.e. arbitration), you would be forfeiting the provision where Meta pays for your arbitration and other fees for claims less than $75,000. You would also be risking a decision from the arbitrator (AAA, who you should expect to be biased to favor Meta) that you would also need to pay Meta's legal fees. If you try to sue, your lawyer will tell you all this. Not expecting to win a dime from Meta, your lawyer would only represent you if you have pockets deep enough to fight a losing fight.
- qingcharles 4mo agoI had a Threads account banned recently because I liked five posts too quickly and they said my account was "inauthentic", even though the attached Instagram account is just fine. I tried to use the Meta Verified support and they told me I had used my full quota of support already (!?) and refused any requests.
- prism56 4mo agoDelete the accounts and move on... They don't deserve your time and business.
- Marsymars 4mo agoCan you delete your accounts if you've been banned?
- csomar 4mo agoTell them you are now a EU resident and fall under GDPR.
- xandrius 4mo agoDefinitely yes, if you mention the magic words "GDPR".
- qingcharles 4mo agoThere are only two buttons available to me: - Download your data - Log out
- aurareturn 4mo agoAlso, never ever use a VPN and log in with your Instagram account on the web. They're highly likely to flag you as spam immediately even if your account is 10 years old and legitimate. You then will have to go through a process to remove the flag by taking a selfie with a paper written with some date and user name. Not guaranteed you'll get your account back. This happened a few times to my account. On the last time it happened, I had to ask my friend who works at Meta to file an internal ticket to try to get my account back. Meta's antispam seriously sucks. It's so primitive and so easy for a real user to get flagged.
- chasebank 4mo agoive had rappers offer me $10k for my ig username. i'm holding out for the bank to buy it.
- parable 4mo agoIt's against Meta's terms to buy and sell accounts, thus the bank would never do such a deal unless you structured it a certain way: create a business, the account becomes property of the business, then Chase buys the business and thus the account. This is how certain Twitter accounts were sold a long time ago. $10k for @chasebank (which is what I assume your handle is) is quite good regardless, though.
- dnnddidiej 4mo agoJust make sure to keep satiritizing chase bank there.
- beej71 4mo agoCan you ask the AI to reset it back to you? Knk