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“They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

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Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#21

Post by D13Fd »

ZantaWB wrote: post #3

The 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…

What good is a SIM-swap to defeat 2FA if you don't have the password in the first place?

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#22

Post by D13Fd »

darth_avocado wrote: post #20

There was a story a while back about only fans bribing fb admins to ban competition or something. Would not be surprised if that was the route taken here.

Yeah to the extent this is all true, it sounds like they have someone inside instagram.

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#23

Post by jeffbee »

I have a very short instagram handle that I've never used. People are constantly trying to take it over. I get the email "we've made it easy to get back on Instagram" sometimes hundreds of times per hour. I don't think they have any kind of rate limiting or account abuse protections. It's also true that you can disable Instagram 2FA without 2FA via various Facebook apps, which is ridiculous.

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#24

Post by Justsignedup »

This is the #1 problem with google/facebook/other giant companies - zero due process. They build a business around minimal human interaction with our staff and it shows when real problems come up.

I'm frankly sick of hacker news being a facebook/google/whatever ticketing system. And yet, there's no alternative.

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#26

Post by derwiki »

hobo_mark wrote: post #17
ZantaWB wrote: post #3

The 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…

Ok sure, but how do you get the person's phone number in the first place?

One of those data breaches we hear about all the time

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#27

Post by stonemetal12 »

WilTimSon wrote: post #10
haunter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Initialisms tend to be a bunch of random letters, so can make good targets for multiple people. "ghfa" could be Git Hub something something.

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#28

Post by barbazoo »

ZantaWB wrote: post #3

The 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…

Doesn't that mean they also need access to your email account?

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#29

Post by legohead »

D13Fd wrote: post #21
ZantaWB wrote: post #3

The 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…

What good is a SIM-swap to defeat 2FA if you don't have the password in the first place?

I just checked Snapchat's "I forgot my password" and there were two options -> Phone Number or Email Address. So there you go.

Re: “They wanted my Instagram handle, and somehow they've now got it.”

#30

Post by cryptoz »

Instagram itself does this kind of thing. Your handle isn't yours anyway, it's theirs. Instagram owns 100% of the handles and you just have to deal with that- same as every site, but Instagram is well-known for stealing your handle and giving it to someone else.

The took somebody's handle and just gave it to the "royal family" who I guess was so entitled beyond belief that they jut couldn't take the idea that they would need to pick a new name if the one they wanted was taken.

https://fashionweekdaily.com/instagram-handle-sussexroyal-co...

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