Facebook won’t help you get your hacked account back

They have zero incentive to stop account hackers

Pete Lead
4 min readJun 22, 2022
I don’t understand this Photo by Emin BAYCAN on Unsplash

On 18 May my partner’s Instagram account was hacked. It was a sneaky attack. They used a hacked account which was familiar to my partner, and asked for help getting an access code from Instagram. This access code ended up being the 2-factor authentication code Instagram sends when you forget your password.

With 6 digits shared over DM the account was gone. The hackers used the code to log into my partner’s account, then changed the password and email address.

“I was trying to set up my account on my phone and Instagram asked me to find someone to help me receive a link, Instagram have me suggestions from two friends and you are one of them, the other person is not online . Would you help me to receive the link please 🙏?”

Honestly, the story that Instagram was helping someone access their own account is the least believable part of this message.

Instagram sent an email notifying the change of email address, and if this was not legit then “click here to report it”. The “click here” goes to a generic help page. The help page asks you to contact them. The reply is to fill in a form. The form goes into the pit of hell and dies there. 💀

There are a bunch of ways InstaMetaFace could stop this happening or make it easier to get your account back. But they don’t want to. Not…

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Pete Lead

I work with startups, teach entrepreneurship, and freelance in improv and leadership coaching.