Hello dear friends and welcome to my blog. This blog is a very old and very special place to my heart. I used to come here every single day before the rising of social media. I have many friends that still remember that place. I wrote the last blog post here in 2011 that was years ago 😉 My boys weren’t born then and I was a mom of 2. So many things changed in my life since. I feel the same but different at the same time.

Today I want to share exactly what happened to me and how my Instagram got hacked. To be aware and not fall in the same trap as I did. I was fortunate enough to know somebody who knows somebody that works at Facebook. And this special lady helped me get my account back. But I know that this is not the case for everybody and it is really annoying when nobody FROM Instagram and Facebook reply to your emails, messages and you feel alone. NOBODY. You have to know that nobody will answer you back. You are not a business account WITH A MANAGEMENT TEAM. You are not worth talking with or dealing with. You feel like a helpless child alone in this whole planet. In any case this is what exactly happened to me. Maybe this will not be the case with someone else. I sent seeking help messages. I reported. I sent emails. I got a single email from Instagram sent from a robot saying to send all the details in an email: what exactly happened, what was the name of my account before it got hacked and the email linked to my account. And I replied. I sent all the proofs etc AND NOBODY ANSWERED BACK. NO ONE. NOT A SINGLE PERSON. But this is not what I am writing today about. Today I want to share how the hacker worked to steal my account so you don’t fall in the same trap if it happens with you.

It is very simple…

One month ago, my daughter suggested me to write a request to Instagram to get verified. She told me that a verified account is protected and better for me and that I can have it easily because I have a high number of followers. So I sent a request to Instagram. 3 weeks after I received an email from “Instagram” with my name and Instagram logo and address etc saying that my account is ready to get verified and that I need to contact the Instagram support team. I was so happy and of course I did not for a single moment think that maybe it is a spam. I replied to that email asking how should I get in touch with that “support team” An hour later someone talked to me by whatsapp. The whatsapp number is US based with the Instagram logo etc and this someone told me that again my account will get the verified badge and they need me to do some steps in order to. And me, like a complete idiot, I followed the steps that he was telling me to do on whatsapp. He told me that now I will receive a code by sms and that I should screenshot it and send it to him. Then that I will receive another code by email and that I should screenshot it too and send it to him. And that was exactly what I did. Then I received an email from Instagram saying that someone is trying to access to my account and when I clicked on the link that says that it is not me, the link was already expired and the hacker changed already my password and my email too. Very simple. I helped him to change the password. He accessed my account and he clicked on the : I forgot my password. Instagram sent me a code to change the password. And I sent him that code!!!! Do you see how simple that was. And can you imagine how dumb and angry I felt?

Then he told me that the account couldn’t get verified and it will be deleted now unless I pay to Facebook a certain amount of money. I, at that moment, understood that it was a hacker but it was too late.

This is the whole story. I can say that I helped the hacker hacking my account. So please be aware. If you will get verified from Instagram you will get verified without anyone talking to you, without any email and any whatsapp sent. You will get verified without receiving any email and without asking you to do anything. Click on a link. Screenshot a code etc 😊 Instagram will get you verified without your help 🙂

This is the whole story my friends. Thank you for reading it. It is a sad story but luckily it ended well. My account on Instagram is 10 years old. It has all my memories and family moments. It has all my kids pictures. And my work. All the blankets, quilts, projects I did. All the little moments I shared there day after day.

When the hacker changed the account into private I could not see any picture of mine anymore, any hashtag. I felt sad, angry. I felt that it is so unfair. All my hard work through the years gone. Gone in a moment. And nobody was there to help me get it back. I couldn’t sleep for many nights. Then I decided to start over with a fresh account. I lost hope recovering lemondedesucrette. I opened a new account lemondedesucrette2. And started little by little contacting you, you the greatest persons in this wonderful community. You that I can call friends without even meeting you in real life. And you started sharing the sad news on your stories and people were able to find me again on Instagram and follow me again. And everytime I got a new follower I was like crying with joy. And I was ready to continue with that new account, new page, new projects. Start over from zero and continue. Sharing my everyday, my crochet, my colors etc

AND then, yesterday, the good fairy contacted me and told me that she will try recovering my original lemondedesucrette and she succeeded.

AND MY ACCOUNT WAS BACK.

Please be aware dear friends. There is evil on this planet. But there are good humans too. Fortunately.

Sending you all my LOVE.

Angie