By Tyler Wright
A Selby-based photographer has had her business impacted by a social media scam, leaving her ‘disappointed’ at Instagram parent company Meta’s lack of action.
Garden Imagery owner Kathie Thomas said she was contacted around April last year by someone she thought was a friend; asking for help verifying their account.
Unbeknownst to Ms Thomas, a scammer was behind the account – using the verification she provided them to change the phone number and email address linked to her own.
“I really saw it was someone that I knew who was contacting me saying they wanted help, and I genuinely believed them. Turned out that they’d already hacked this other person’s account and that’s how I got stung,” Ms Thomas said.
Despite contacting META within 24 hours of the hack to prove her identity, Ms Thomas said she has not been able to retrieve her account – and the more than 1000 followers that came with it.
“I was posting to this Instagram account on a regular basis (three or four times a week), and I started up a new Garden Imagery account, but there was no way I could build up all those followers again because people think they’re still following me on this other account,” Ms Thomas said.
“It’s disappointing and for those who earn their full time income from Instagram or via Instagram, and I know there are a number of photographers who do…that would be so devastating for that to happen to them.”
Ms Thomas also said she has recently received “over 100” messages from contacts looking to verify if messages they have been sent from @ryaugardenimage_ asking for their help are legitimate; which they are not.
“They need to report that person as they’re pretending to be someone they’re not, to unfollow them, because that hurts. The more unfollows they get, the better,” she said.
Meta was contacted for comment.
