“They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
1–10 of 111 posts
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#2Are IG accounts worth something on the black market?
I don't doubt a few people would want the "Alex Stevenson-Price" alexprice. But, I'm guessing there are a lot more who want the "Other Famous Alex Prices" alexprice.
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#3The underground marketplace for desirable social media handles (OG Handles) was explored in this excellent episode of Reply All: The Snapchat Thief [1].
In that story the basic technique was a SIM-swapping attack [2]. Fraudster calls the cell provider, claims to be the victim and that they lost their phone. Cell provider then ports the phone identity over to a new SIM. After that the fraudster just resets the account's password and gets the 2FA SMS (or even easier, one-time passwords) to their newly connected phone. Don't know if that same basic technique still applies nowadays, but in any case the most surprising part of the episode to me was how large and mature a black market there was for these account handles.
[1] https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_swap_scam
e: Corrected, original post incorrectly said new number, not new SIM.
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#4Are IG accounts worth something on the black market? I don't doubt a few people would want the "Alex Stevenson-Price" alexprice. But, I'm guessing there are a lot more who want the "Other Famous Alex Prices" alexprice.
Apparently, this is a thing: https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/97/
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#5Are IG accounts worth something on the black market? I don't doubt a few people would want the "Alex Stevenson-Price" alexprice. But, I'm guessing there are a lot more who want the "Other Famous Alex Prices" alexprice.
Yes. I know 4 letter ones (even just random gibberish) are going for ~$50-100. 3 letter ones are $500-1000 at least. So anything which is a dictionary word or a noticeable abbreviation are worth much much more
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#6The underground marketplace for desirable social media handles (OG Handles) was explored in this excellent episode of Reply All: The Snapchat Thief [1]. In that story the basic technique was a SIM-swapping attack [2]. Fraudster calls the cell provider, claims to be the victim and that they lost their phone. Cell provider then ports the phone identity over to a new SIM. After that the fraudster just resets the account…
If you can do that with social media accounts then I am sure private corporate logins must have also been breached hand over fist.
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#7The underground marketplace for desirable social media handles (OG Handles) was explored in this excellent episode of Reply All: The Snapchat Thief [1]. In that story the basic technique was a SIM-swapping attack [2]. Fraudster calls the cell provider, claims to be the victim and that they lost their phone. Cell provider then ports the phone identity over to a new SIM. After that the fraudster just resets the account…
If you can do that with social media accounts then I am sure private corporate logins must have also been breached hand over fist.
This is why everyone keeps saying SMS 2FA is bad.
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#8Are IG accounts worth something on the black market? I don't doubt a few people would want the "Alex Stevenson-Price" alexprice. But, I'm guessing there are a lot more who want the "Other Famous Alex Prices" alexprice.
Yes. I know 4 letter ones (even just random gibberish) are going for ~$50-100. 3 letter ones are $500-1000 at least. So anything which is a dictionary word or a noticeable abbreviation are worth much much more https://files.catbox.moe/5jp5qw.png https://files.catbox.moe/7gdx6k.png
Payment in BTC, what a surprise.
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#9I read this thread, considered sharing here so I'm glad to see it discussed. If you follow the thread he comes to the "conclusion" or suspicion that it was an inside job.
Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”
#10Are IG accounts worth something on the black market? I don't doubt a few people would want the "Alex Stevenson-Price" alexprice. But, I'm guessing there are a lot more who want the "Other Famous Alex Prices" alexprice.
Yes. I know 4 letter ones (even just random gibberish) are going for ~$50-100. 3 letter ones are $500-1000 at least. So anything which is a dictionary word or a noticeable abbreviation are worth much much more https://files.catbox.moe/5jp5qw.png https://files.catbox.moe/7gdx6k.png
It's so baffling to me, is there any research on whether a short name benefits marketing outreach or anything like that? I'd think a 4 letter gibberish name would put me off, if anything. I get if it's, like, "Mark" for some famous Mark, but if it was "ghfa", what's the point?