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    20

    Jul 2022

    Last Updated: 20/07/2022
    Community
    Community

    Harrogate blogger blackmailed by scammers reclaims Instagram account

    by Thomas Barrett

    | 20 Jul, 2022
    Comment

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    Scammers in Turkey tricked their way into a Harrogate blogger's Instagram account and demanded money to hand it back.

    screenshot-2022-07-20-at-12-13-09

    A Harrogate blogger who was blackmailed by scammers is relieved today after managing to get back into her Instagram account.

    Lucy Playford has run the Harrogate Mama blog and social media channels for six years and provides updates on family life in the town and visits to local businesses.

    But Turkey-based scammers tricked their way into her Instagram account, which has 6,000 followers, and demanded money to hand it back. She feared the account was lost forever.

    However, there has been a twist in the tale — a day after a Stray Ferret article highlighted the blogger's plight, she has managed to get back into her account.

    Ms Playford described yesterday how it happened:

    "The hackers posted on my account tonight at a little after 9pm, thankfully due to your reporting and so many people knowing I’d been hacked lots of people contacted me to let me know the hackers were posting.
    "This quick alerting led me being able to see the hackers had changed the name of my account to HarrogetaMama (deliberately spelled wrong to trick people) – and they were trying to extort money from my followers asking for investment."


    The suspicious Instagram post posted last night.



    Ms Playford added:

    "This meant now I could see what the account had been re-named, I could go through the verification process with Instagram again. This time the selfie verification process worked and I received retrieval codes from Instagram, albeit in Turkish, so Google Translate came in handy!
    "After over two hours' work between my husband and myself we managed to get back into the account. We have now changed the username back to HarrogateMama, changed the email address and set up the two-factor authentication.
    "The swift action of so many people alerting me to the hackers posting meant I could get my account back.
    "Lessons learned and message to spread about ALWAYS setting up two-factor authentication."