Beware hijacked Instagram account/ @_Oldwatchlady_

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Syrte

·Mar 28, 2022

Greetings to all,

This is to warn everyone the Instagram account of @_oldwatchlady_ has been hijacked.

Many watch collectors must be aware of the account which is visible with 25K followers.
I am posting this with the consent of the rightful owner.

The thiefs were able to change passwords and take control the account.
The owner of the account is telling me Instagram has not been responding when contacted by lawyers to warn them of the problem.

There have been a couple strange postings in the past couple of days. Now the hijacked account is posting a watch recently acquired by another Instagram user, suggesting that the account might now post stolen pictures — and might therefore serve to perpetrate scams.

Please report the scam and beware of this account.

 

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Scarecrow Boat

·Mar 28, 2022·Burt Macklin, FBI

Syrte

The owner of the account is telling me Instagram has not been responding

This is so unfortunate and something I am finding to be somewhat common. I shoot film and one of the developing labs I use recently had their (47.5k follower) account hacked and started promoting scam investment strategies. Their efforts to seek instagrams help went unanswered and they weren’t able to regain their account. Ultimately, they had to create a new one and start over.

 

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Syrte

·Mar 28, 2022

Indeed the couple of “weird posts” I saw over the past couple days looked like scam investment strategies.
Those didn’t get any traction, in fact they were so “out of character” that they vanished- but now it seems the thiefs have gotten their act together and started farming the account to use its followers.

 

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Syrte

·Mar 28, 2022

PS two weeks ago a colleague of mine told me my own account had been hijacked when she showed me in my security settings that someone was connected to my IG from another city. My colleague had had a similar problem which is why she showed me where to look.

Hankfully I’m too much of a bit player and my hackers had not bothered to change my password or the email address on the account - so I was able to change the password again and regain control of my account relatively easily.
I have now made it private though.

For the record, if you go in your IG settings and go into “security” you can monitor “connexion activity”.

 

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BlackTalon

·Mar 28, 2022·This Space for Rent

Thanks for the warning. Just went in to IG and enabled 2FA.

 

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dsio

·Mar 28, 2022·Ash @ ΩF

I’m going to take this opportunity to also remind people that we have TFA available here and the best option is the app version:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/adm...a-is-now-available-for-added-security.138893/

Scammers do try to phish passwords here and use your account to defraud others, don’t let it happen, use TFA today.

And to the same on your email, facebook, IG, and twitter

 

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thelinendial

·Mar 28, 2022

Instagram has two-factor authentication which stops many hackers in their tracks.

Go to setting, security and choose two-factor authentication.

The safest method is Authentication App.

If setting up your phone, make sure you know how to switch btw apps.

The Authentication App is safer because SMS is generally vulnerable to SIM Swap attacks.

As a final note, though most services now offer Authentication Apps, many revert back to sms when you are having trouble… including Google Mail! So it’s worthwhile to also add a PIN code.

Edited: Mar 30, 2022

 

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Syrte

·Mar 29, 2022

An unfortunate update. The hijackers have started contacting followers to offer the watch for sale and the legitimate owner of the account is warning that some people have lost some money over it. She posted publicly from another account she created, @olwatchlady.

 

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Syrte

·Mar 30, 2022

This is getting scary,
The rightful owner is asking PLEASE REPORT AND BLOCK THIS ACCOUNT.

The hacker is now sending direct messages to followers asking them to send screenshot of links— what links I don’t understand exactly but it appears they are trying to get info in order to hack other accounts.

Two step authentication is the only way to secure your accounts and protect.

This is a sample message which a follower has received.

Edited: Mar 30, 2022

 

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thelinendial

·Mar 30, 2022

Wow, very sorry for the real account owner. It must be very stressful.

 

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Syrte

·Mar 31, 2022

thelinendial

Wow, very sorry for the real account owner. It must be very stressful.

Indeed. also here’s an explanation from a member on the Military Watch Ressource Forum:

“The "send me a screenshot of the link" message (shown above) is an attempt to get around two-factor authentication. It's happened to me several times now from other watch-related accounts that I follow that have also been hacked.

They say it's so they can get back in to their account and show evidence of their connections on Instagram - but what they are actually doing is triggering a text to you to reset the password on your own account. When you screenshot it and send it back, you are effectively giving them the unique URL that enables them to go in to your account then change the password, associated email and associated phone.

So don't screenshot and send back the link!!”

@dsio could some genius computer geek craft a poison pill that would destroy their computer and their ability to control the hacked account?

Edited: Mar 31, 2022

 

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connieseamaster

·Mar 31, 2022

OWL has her account back.

 

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Syrte

·Mar 31, 2022

connieseamaster

OWL has her account back.

Thanks for the update! That’s really good news for her.

 

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janarnold

·May 23, 2023

Thx for the heads up on the @oldwatchlady situation. Glad to hear she got her account back! But OMG, it's such a drag that hackers are messing up IG like this. It’s like they can't come up with anything original, just rip off other peeps' stuff. SMH. So, here's a thought - to help protect our posts from these low-lifes, why not boost our own visibility with more views? Yup, you can actually buy Instagram views. No, seriously! It's all legit, so no worries about breaking any rules or anything. Picture this: your posts are popping up on the explorer page, getting loads of reactions, and just going viral. Let's give these hackers a taste of their own medicine, and show them we won't be messed with!

Edited: May 30, 2023

 

C

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chronolux

·May 23, 2023

Glad she got her account back. This is why I use two factor authentication on all my accounts. Also, I think Instagram is implementing an option where you can pay a subscription service to have 24 hour access to the Meta support team.

 

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30t1

·Jun 13, 2023

They got mine. my stuff is basic all my watches or tools, things like that. Not because of followers, I have 1k. But they posted stuff for sale on it. I reported it 30 times a yet nothing.

 

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dsio

·Jun 13, 2023·Ash @ ΩF

C chronolux

Glad she got her account back. This is why I use two factor authentication on all my accounts. Also, I think Instagram is implementing an option where you can pay a subscription service to have 24 hour access to the Meta support team.

Two factor authentication should be used on OF too in order to protect your account 👍

 

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Mark020

·Oct 2, 2023·not the sharpest pencil in the ΩF drawer

Interesting first post

 

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dsio

·Oct 2, 2023·Ash @ ΩF

Mark020

Interesting first post

Thx for the tip report any of these you see, its a scammer, banned now