Why did Instagram delete my accounts?

lexidobe · February 23, 2021

Hello everyone, I am having a bit of an odd issue with Instagram deleting my account. About 2 weeks ago Instagram logged me out and asked me for my number to verify my account because they detected suspicious activity. Not sure what was going on, I verified it and got back in. They asked me for verification several other times and I got back in no problem until it gave me an error and refused to accept the code they sent me for verification. I tried to log in, but I got a "no users found" error. I tried to make a new account with the same email, but then I got an error saying my email address was already taken even though there were no users found under that email. Wtf.

Anyways, I created a new email address to make a new account and the same thing happened again- I was prompted to verify my account a few times within about 2 weeks and then the verification failed and my account seems to be gone but I can't create a new account with that email either because it says it is taken. I never got any type of notification that my account was deleted nor was I informed of any violations.

I don't understand why this happened. I never posted anything even remotely objectionable, I do not spam with excessive likes, follows, posts, comments, etc. The only thing I can think of is maybe someone maliciously reported my accounts even though there is nothing to report. However, I would think that someone at Instagram would verify the complaint before deleting an account. but I can not think of any other possible explanation.

If anyone has any idea why this may have happened please let me know as I have no idea and do not want this to happen a third time. Thank you in advance!

LogicalDrm · February 24, 2021

Did you try to open support ticket with them? We can't know what their reasons are, or if the account or app/site was even real at some point. Like it could very well been hacked and locked as a result of malicious activity. You may or may not have been emailed about it, depending on whether hacker changed email once they got access.

In any case, we can't help. Anything to do with accounts of any service, only way to solve is to contact that service's support.

Kilrah · February 24, 2021

If you never changed your password my guess is someone figured it out and is screwing with you.

If you have an account blocked the first thing to do when you get it back is change password (and enable 2FA when available).

lexidobe · February 24, 2021

Thanks for your responses. I did try to contact Instagram for support but I was unsuccessful. They do not provide an option for help getting back into your account nor do they provide a phone number or email address to contact an actual person, they just have an automated email reset.

I did change my password when I created a new account just in case it was hacked and my new password was very secure as well and the odds of someone guessing it are just about zero.

The only other thing I can think of is perhaps I have some type of malware on my PC that is causing the problem somehow since I am only logged into Instagram on my PC and I always leave the tab open. But I regularly do scans with a couple different antimalware programs and I don't visit sketchy websites, so I don't really see that being the problem either.