Instagram: Where Does the Spam Come From? and What Can You Do About It?

• On Instagram, users are flooded with dubious group inquiries.
• The network itself is working on a new messaging feature designed to fix the problem.
• Until then, a few tricks will help.

Hanover. They contain dubious links, loads of kiss smileys, or suggestive questions - but in any case, they are incredibly annoying. For a few weeks now, Instagram users have been increasingly harassed with group inquiries from spambots. Scantily clad women ask for link clicks and, in the worst case, get private data in this way.

The users of the platform seem to be driven insane by the massive spam in the meantime. In the social networks, some pictures show her mailbox, which is flooded with countless inquiries from sex groups. Some report that new requests are being sent almost every hour. Still, others demand: " Instagram, finally do something."

 

Caution: Never Click on The Links

It is not so easy to find out who exactly is sending the dubious group inquiries. In fact, to date, not a single case is known in which an Instagram scammer was actually brought to justice. However, the motives of the dubious group inquiries can very well be traced.

 

If you click on a link that is initially advertised as a porn site, you will be taken to a login screen that looks deceptively similar to that of Instagram. Here you will be asked to enter your Instagram username and password.

 

Dubious Flirting Sites Want Money

However, phishing account data does not always seem to be the goal.

According to a report by "Vol. at" you can catch viruses with some links, while others collect data such as e-mail addresses to then sell them on for money. Particularly sensitive: it is not uncommon for users who are ignorant to become accomplices if child pornographic content is shared in such groups. These groups should therefore be reported to the police immediately.

 

Spam on Instagram Is Not a New Phenomenon

According to Instagram, an anti-spam system is used to check spam accounts, which detects suspicious posts partly automatically and partly manually. Every day, millions of such accounts are blocked when registering. Most users would not come into contact with spam on the platform at all.

But the truth is also that Instagram has had a spam problem for years. Over time, a wide variety of meshes have established themselves on the platform - sooner or later the network took action against all of them. However, Instagram never really got the problem under control.

For years, spam messages were mainly to be found in the comment columns on public picture posts. Anyone who used well-known hashtags for their photos was quickly targeted by spambots. These then advertised all sorts of things in the comments. Many Instagram users also have to endure markings on dubious photo posts - and last but not least, spam messages in their private mailboxes.

 

Influencers Also, Use Bots

There are not always dubious dirty pages behind the spam: Established influencers also, use bots to boost their careers on the platform. With certain tools it was temporarily possible, for example, to follow other users indiscriminately or to like their posts - which in turn helped to generate new followers.

With the “mass story viewing” scam, it was possible to view the stories of other users en masse with the help of bots. They then became aware of an account and in the best case followed back. According to a study by Ghost Data from 2018, there are no real people behind 95 million accounts on Instagram, but rather bots or fakes.

If you believe the reports from the social networks, the current wave of spam with dubious group inquiries seem to take on a whole new dimension - and the promised tool for blocking such messages is not yet available for all users, according to Instagram. So how can you at least temporarily keep the spambots at bay?

What Users Can Do Against Group Spam

1. Convert Account

One possibility would be to convert your private Instagram account into a creator or business account. In contrast to private user accounts, the function to block certain messages is already available here. In the Instagram settings, the conversion is possible with just a few clicks. But that's not really the point: Business or Creator accounts contain numerous functions that are rather uninteresting for private users, if not even annoying. These include, for example, various analysis functions or the possibility of promoting your own posts.

2. Make the Profile Private

Another option would be to keep your Instagram profile as private as possible. In the Instagram settings, for example, it is possible to completely switch off the public display of posts and to only share posts with friends. It should also help to do without well-known hashtags - they really attract spambots.

3. Report and Block Accounts

In any case, Instagram users can report and block dubious spam accounts. To do this, you have to visit the spambot's profile and click on the three dots in the top right corner. However, this should be crowned with little success - the operators of the dubious groups send their messages from countless different accounts.

4. Turn Off Push Notifications

If nothing helps against the annoying group inquiries, deactivating the push notifications should be the most effective solution - this also works without a business or creator account. In the settings, the item "Notifications" and then "Direct messages" must be called up.

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