How Scammers Hijack Your Instagram

McAfee describes an Instagram influencer/brand ambassador scam where attackers compromise or impersonate accounts to send convincing “vote” requests that redirect victims to Instagram’s account settings, prompting them to add the attacker’s email; this enables password resets and full account takeover. The report walks through each step of the attack, demonstrates how the email swap and verification code process work, and recommends defenses including skepticism toward unsolicited requests, verifying contacts out-of-band, avoiding suspicious links, reporting suspicious activity, and enabling two-factor authentication.