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Ask HN: How to Reach a Human at Instagram

12 points by eloff ↗ HN
Hi HN. My wife's Instagram account has been deactivated and blocked because we moved and don't have the phone number associated with the account anymore. It's asking for the SMS verification code. All attempts to get help have failed, and many require being logged in. There seems no way to contact a human.

We're working with a friend back where we came from, trying to get the number back. It may not be possible.

Is her account of ten years just gone? She was slowly building up her audience hoping to be an "influencer" one day. The thought of starting over from zero is heart breaking for her.

Is there anything we can try?

10 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 37.6 ms ] thread
Jugurtha
Which attempts to get help have you tried?

Have you tried reaching out on Twitter? https://twitter.com/instagram

eloff
Yeah, we tried that, they just referred us back to the help page.
Jugurtha
Have you failed to get help through the help page and told the people Who replied through Twitter what the people who replied through the help page told you ?
eloff
Yes, I feel like we just get canned responses back. I'm not even sure there's a human involved in the process.
gerardnico
Ask the current phone owner to login for you and modify the phone number ?
raylad
In a related question, a twitter user registered the name of one of my companies (which happens to be trademarked), never posted any tweets, is following nothing and has no followers, and apparently last activity was about 8 years ago.

Twitter has refused to let us register the name although its clearly been abandoned.

Does anyone know any way to get them to release a name like this?

smt88
The only way is to talk to a Facebook employee. If you don't know any, try cold-messaging some on LinkedIn. If any went to the same school as you or have a mutual friend, that's a good way to get contact info.
Ir0nMan
A friend of mine last week had their Instagram "hacked" and the "hacker" was able to modify their email and phone number so now they have no way to even attempt recovery. There of course is no way to contact any human at Instagram. The account is now spamming crypto related spam to all followers. It would be immediately obvious to any human that this account was compromised.

Most interesting is that the Instagram help docs are not even accurate when followed. One specific example is that they mention in part "If you don’t receive a security code, tap I can’t access this email or phone number below Send Security Code, then follow the on-screen instructions." It turns out there is no text or mention of "I can't access this email or phone number" at all that shows up. The docs are just plain wrong.