Short Story : 

My name is Corina, and I'm the creator and designer of Cocorrina & Co. It has been about 6+ months that imposter accounts are scamming our followers and driving us to the blacklist of the Instagram algorithm. Artists, creators, and small business accounts that are not "qualified for a verification checkmark" struggle as numerous scam accounts pretend to be them and spam and trick their followers into fake services and products. 

As a result, our followers believe we're spamming or stealing their money and end up blocking us one after the other. Our engagement has fallen, our audience no longer sees or trusts us, and we're being unfollowed by the thousands so that the people who pretend to be us, stop harassing them. Instagram either ignores this or isn't aware. In fact, reporting these accounts doesn't work as Instagram sees no violation. More to that, if an account is not verified, then reporting an impersonating account is only possible through the Intellectual Property Violation form. Then it takes a few days and about 2-5 back and forth messages with Instagram support, in order to convince them how this account impersonates your account. Mostly, after 2-5 messages and a few days, usually the impersonating account is taken down. There are cases, were we didn’t manage to convince that an account is impersonating us, so the case was dropped. 

This has to stop. After I went and openly shared the whole story on Instagram about how these scam accounts have affected our small family business and hundreds of others, @pastel.magick suggested an orange or any other coloured check mark to verify small business accounts, creators and artists. We're not celebrities, but we pay Instagram for their services (ads, etc.), and they make money from us (ads as well) and offer business tools, and we have linked our shops to sell via Instagram.

 

SMALL BUSINESSES AND THEIR AUDIENCE DESERVE TO BE PROTECTED FROM THESE SCAMMERS ON A PLATFORM WE PAY, AND IT MAKES BILLIONS FROM US.

 

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Longer Story : 

I've been on Instagram since the first month it opened and grew my account by sharing everyday moments (70k+ followers). About 4 years ago, I opened my first business account (Cocorrina & Co) by sharing my artworks which also helped grow an organic audience of 375k followers. I've dedicated all my time and energy to sharing, building a community on Instagram, and always passionately using every new tool they introduce to us. 

About 6 months ago, I started getting hundreds of messages with pictures from other accounts that looked identical to mine asking me if it was me. These accounts have the same bio, profile picture, website link, posts, and username as they could (usually, they add or remove a letter). They would message my followers, pretending to be me, offering tarot readings (which I don't do), and scamming them into transferring their money.

There were a few incidents where some impersonator accounts would ask my followers not to shop via my shop but tell them what they wanted to buy and to pay them the amount. A few people accused us, thinking I was scamming them, while we had impersonator accounts blackmail us and ask for money in order for them to stop impersonating our brand account. 

This wasn't just one occasion; it still repeats with new accounts popping up all the time! I then started to see this happening to other accounts as well, and then a couple of months ago, it became the new norm to post in our feeds "this is my only account" & "I will never contact you for a reading" or ask our followers to report these accounts. 

The funnier part is that if you're not a verified account, other people cannot report that this account "is pretending to be someone else" because the celebrity, public figure, business or organisation option is only for verified accounts. 

Oh. And man, we've tried to get verified so many times. As a brand, we have active trademarks in many countries, publications, and collaborations with big brands; We have worked with celebrities like Deepak Chopra, Anthropologie, Vanity Fair, TIME, and Elie Saab, to name just a few. And yet, Instagram doesn't think we are qualified.

You'll ask, why don't you report the scam account is pretending to be you (which is also an option)? Simply because the first thing these accounts do is block us. So we cannot see or report them. 

We have gotten in touch with Instagram SO many times and have claimed SO many reports by now; it feels like we need to have an employee to only create reports daily. And while we struggle through all the above and have screenshots of these scam accounts blackmailing us, the reply we always receive from Instagram is the same: "Instagram doesn't see a violation." 

We can only take down scam accounts after insisting over and over again and not giving up, and after we have exchanged quite a few emails, these accounts will be taken down. Imagine doing that every day and only after these imposter accounts have already scammed and spammed our followers.

 

THE RESULT?

We end up being blocked and reported by our very followers. They either fall for the identical accounts and think we're scamming or spamming them or are so tired of different impersonator accounts spamming them that they end up unfollowing and blocking us.

Due to that, we are getting blacklisted from the Instagram algorithm and being shadow banned. I've had so many followers, friends, and even family who interact with my posts every day tell me that there are times that I disappear entirely from their feeds. 

Since this whole thing began, I'm losing 1000+ followers every week instead of gaining followers, from 40k+ likes per post; now, I can barely get 1 or 2k. At my lowest points, I've cried and felt hopeless, worthless, like I'm not good enough. I've thought of completely deleting my account and even at some point selling our business, fighting every day for my work to be seen on a platform that has given me the tools, and I have worked my @@ off to be seen. This is entirely personal and vulnerable to share, as I always put on a happy face and try to be optimistic.

Groups are talking about this, trying to raise awareness, and I've spoken with many artists and small businesses that have been greatly affected. Their businesses are closing, and they are feeling hopeless and depressed. I know of accounts with a previously MASSIVE following and engagement, having completely withdrawn and completely given up.

While I don't have great strength in engagement these days, I feel like if we all start talking about this, hopefully, we'll raise awareness. @pastel.magick and others suggested creating a different coloured check mark to verify business and creator accounts since we're not celebrities. This could help! Our audience will be able to know who is an impersonator account, we wouldn't get blocked that easily, and our audience could report the scam accounts by saying who they are pretending to be. A red, purple, pink, black, orange check mark, NO MATTER THE COLOR.

I'm only hoping we can raise enough voices for Instagram to notice this issue because I feel like we're not heard enough. There are ways to fix this!

I'm sending all my love and strength to those suffering from this issue. I truly hope we're able to make a change and fix this.

x

Corina 

 

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Artwork copyright reports and Impersonating accounts / Take down Claims Reports for Cocorrina & Co.

 

If an account is being impersonated and the account is not verified, the option given by Instagram to report the impersonating account, is made only through the Intellectual Property Report form. 

Only in June - July 2022 we had more than 8 fake accounts, who impersonated us, and after many back and forth emails, and many days for each report, we managed to take down these accounts.

 

Some scam / impersonator accounts were:

 

https://www.instagram.com/coccorrina.co​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.coc​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.cor​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.c​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.1​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.2​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.3​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.4​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.co345​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina.coa​

https://www.instagram.com/cocorrina1.co

 

And some of our Report numbers are: 

 

Intellectual Property Report #296997095490129

Intellectual Property Report #1310612776055011

Intellectual Property Report #935097250718040

Intellectual Property Report #359925839233388

Intellectual Property Report #435492811668264

Intellectual Property Report #459588975961240

Intellectual Property Report #964032684253352

Intellectual Property Report #4936098833135059

Intellectual Property Report #512121543693216

Intellectual Property Report #1014779746099291

Intellectual Property Report #865826871480810

Intellectual Property Report #721826765654016

Intellectual Property Report #708103370205578

Intellectual Property Report #1637236729996394

Intellectual Property Report #1426636644445323

Intellectual Property Report #376348904384622

Intellectual Property Report #395132245767845

Intellectual Property Report #2902782353358617

Intellectual Property Report #750964079589058

Intellectual Property Report #690372562163984

Intellectual Property Report #1706268606391703

Intellectual Property Report #1208543743015775

Intellectual Property Report #662766848344680

Intellectual Property Report #3269089230081701

Intellectual Property Report #4648235741948347

Intellectual Property Report #1598278530545872

Intellectual Property Report #695018665143765

Intellectual Property Report #1706067033078140

Intellectual Property Report #526701608891526

Intellectual Property Report #513010580286438

Intellectual Property Report #1106217676619748

Intellectual Property Report #1033782317520969

Intellectual Property Report #403967457782002

Intellectual Property Report #509268367243045

Intellectual Property Report #303130431898441

Intellectual Property Report #2388106874662179

Intellectual Property Report #719665299243767

Intellectual Property Report #703117774279285

Intellectual Property Report #555578196164313

Intellectual Property Report #1226848361446753

Intellectual Property Report #1730009504011613

Intellectual Property Report #1364059027425314

Intellectual Property Report #366516952215663

Intellectual Property Report #3207337979504211

Intellectual Property Report #1055569231728729

Intellectual Property Report #591058892335983

Intellectual Property Report #5398201446907107

Intellectual Property Report #718283136108605

Intellectual Property Report #340328421615616

Intellectual Property Report #5324252577687491

Intellectual Property Report #754324569141603

Intellectual Property Report #732125124757064

Intellectual Property Report #5379261758803128

Intellectual Property Report #5208431392604858

Intellectual Property Report #1479485052484653

Intellectual Property Report #1086319258948687

Intellectual Property Report #564333051804304

Intellectual Property Report #334726898850706

Intellectual Property Report #1804856869703846

Intellectual Property Report #256433766361467

Intellectual Property Report #256433766361467

Intellectual Property Report #1251776114902279