While social media can be a fun place to hang out with friends, especially these days, there is always a risk of getting your identity stolen by someone on the internet. People stealing identities and creating fake accounts is not a new thing to scam others. And recently, a popular reporter faced a similar issue. However, in a turn of events, Instagram blocked her original account.
The incident happened with Angie Moreschi, an award-winning investigative reporter at WPXI (the Pittsburg-based NBC-licensed TV station). Recently, she found that someone took all her personal details from her online profiles and created a fake Instagram account.
Getting hacked on #socialmedia is a nightmare! Happened to me on @instagram. I'll share the awful ordeal of trying to get the FAKE account down tonight at 6. Watch to see what happened & how you can protect yourself. @WPXI #InstagramHacker #fakeaccounts #CyberSecurity pic.twitter.com/elgZ8ZG9q7
— AngieMoreschi (@angiemoreschi) September 9, 2020
Only a few typos differentiated the fake account from the real one. For instance, it was “Ange Moreschi” instead of “Angie Moreschi” in the fake one.
Now, the purpose of this fake account was to get Moreschi’s friends to “apply for a grant” through a program called the World Wide Fund. The person claimed that this organization helps widows and the unemployed population financially.
Now, as experts suggest to report fake accounts as soon as you encounter them, Moreschi did the same. However, it backfired for her.
After submitting the request, Instagram asked Moreschi to send a picture of herself holding a government-approved ID. Now, when the journalist declined, as she reportedly felt uncomfortable, Instagram immediately disabled her real account.
So, to revive her original account, Moreschi finally sent the required picture. However, it took Instagram four days to block the fake account. And, as of writing this article, her real account is still unusable.
