Miss Joey Tng (27-years-old) a popular influencer with over 200,000 followers on Instagram had her account taken over by a hacker through a phishing scam.
Miss Tng said that she received an email on 25th April, stating that her Instagram account had violated copyrights, and required her to furnish her account details (including her username and password). The next day she realized that her Instagram account had been taken over after finding out that her account email address had been changed.
The hacker who took over her Instagram account threatened to delete her photos and sell her account if she did not pay him a ransom of $550 in Bitcoin.
For fear of losing her Instagram account which she had been running for 10 years, Miss Tng agreed to the ransom amount.
However, after Miss Tng had paid the ransom, the hacker did not return her Instagram account. Instead, the hacker demanded for more ransom money, and a photo of her which would make him “happy”. This prompted Miss Tng to make a police report.
The police are currently investigating the case.