Australian surf influencer Blaze Roberts had her Instagram account hacked.
Australian surf influencer Blaze Roberts had her Instagram account hacked.
Australian surf influencer Blaze Roberts has slammed Instagram, saying the social media giant allowed hackers to take over her account and squash her source of income.
The 18-year-old athlete claims a group of hackers sent her a phishing email using Instagram's branding, asking her to verify the account.
They thentook over both Roberts' email and social media account and began posting sexually explicit images to her 40,000 followers.
The influencer told A Current Affair that when she regained control of her email, she found photos of the hackers in her sent messages folder.
Instagram policy is to ask its users to prove their identity by sending a photo of themselves to the security team holding a piece of paper with the code they've been asked to write down.
"I kept messaging Instagram with screenshots and photos to try and send them the proof and they kept saying they didn't have enough proof and they didn't know what I was talking about," she said.
The hackers. Photo / A Current Affair
The hackers still have control of her account, Roberts said, and posts of pornographic material continue to be shared on her behalf.
"I don't know if I've ever sent my address to a friend, I don't know if I've ever sent my bank details to someone I know. So, the fact that they have access to that information is terrifying."
"Whether you have 100 followers of you have 100,000, this is scary to anyone."
Technology Expert Trevor Long told the programme hackers tend to target influencers chasing a ransom in return for control of their valuable accounts.
"There's either a ransom going to be asked for to get the account back, they're going to scam her followers by getting their information or asking them for money," he said.
"Or they might be posting things that are going to send her followers to other places."
