Is someone using an Instagram account to pretend to be you? Are you making a fake Instagram account because your favorite celebrity is not on the app yet and you want to claim some fame? There are so many reasons as to why a fake Instagram account might be made by you or by others.
Can You Find Out Who’s Behind A Fake Instagram Account?
Thankfully, if you want to learn who is the owner of a fake Instagram account, you can. There are quite a few ways that you can try and figure out who is behind a fake Instagram account.
How to Find Out Whos Behind a Fake Instagram Account
1. Use Grabify IP Logger
One way to learn who is behind a fake Instagram account is by using Grabify IP Logger.
To do this, go to grabify.link, then create a randomized URL, then start a conversation with the fake account, send them the link, and once they press the link their IP address will be revealed.
Refresh your page and you will have the fake Instagram accounts IP address.
2. Click Forgot Password, Then Enter Their Username Then Look At The Email Instagram Says They’ve Sent The Recovery Link to
A more sneaky way to try and learn who is behind a fake account is by trying to log into the fake account with their username.
Once you have typed in the username, tap on forgot password and Instagram will send a password reset link to the email that the fake account was made with. If you know this email or their name is the email, you can figure out who it is.
3. Look Through The Fake Accounts Following and Followers
By looking through the accounts that follow the fake account and who they follow, you can try and figure out who they are. Sometimes, people will follow their fake accounts with their personal accounts or follow their personal accounts with their fake accounts.
If you know someone who the fake account is following that has no other correlation to this account, there is a possibility that they have followed themselves and you just caught them.
The fake account may also just be following or followed by people involved with their real lives which will help you narrow down who could be behind the fact account.
4. Sync Your Contacts and Check If The Fake Account Comes Up
You can also sync your contacts into Instagram to try and learn who is behind a fake account. Once you do this, Instagram will tell you [username] is one of your contacts.
If you have the owner of the fake account in your contacts and they have attached their phone number to their fake account, this will quickly out them as you will directly see the fake account uses that contacts number.
5. Check If They Have ‘Multiple Accounts’ Link
Instagram also offers the feature of having more than one account linked to your device. Further from that, you can also link your other accounts to any of your accounts.
If you are starting to suspect that someone may be behind the fake Instagram account that you are looking into, see if they have this feature attached to their personal account.
If they do, you may be able to figure out what other accounts are linked to them and if one of those are the fake account you are looking into.
6. Sync Facebook Friends
One way that you can figure out who is behind a fake Instagram account is by syncing your Facebook with your Instagram account.
This way, people you are friends with on Facebook will be suggested for you to follow on Instagram. If the fake account has also linked their Facebook to this and you are friends with them on Facebook, their fake account will appear in your suggested area.
This can help you narrow down who is behind the account based on who your Facebook friends are.
7. Search The Name Behind the Fake Account
Sometimes, when people create a fake account, they will use their real names when making it. You can look into the name of their account by searching it on any search engine and learning who has this name.
Then, you can try and find this person’s real account by looking up their name on Instagram and seeing what accounts you come across.
8. Ask The Fake Account Who’s Behind It
A very straight forward and easy way to find out who is behind a fake Instagram account is to simply ask the fake Instagram account. You can do this by directly messaging the account.
Go to the fake account and below their bio, you will see Message. Select that and send them a message asking them who they are. They may not respond or they might not tell you who they are, but there is a chance that they will reveal themselves.
This way, you have some hope at learning who is behind the fake Instagram account.
9. Ask Friends If They Know Who’s Behind the Account
Similarly to asking the fake Instagram account who they are, you can also ask other people who may know the account as well.
Especially if this fake account is big in your friend group or maybe with your colleagues, there is a chance that someone around you will know who runs the fake Instagram account.
There is no harm in asking and it may even allow you to finally learn who is running the fake Instagram account.
10. Check For Clues On Their Profile
There also might be some little clues and hints on the fake Instagram account as to who the owner is. Maybe they are named Katie in real life and just decided to use the same name for their fake account, but changed it a little bit to Katy.
Or, maybe the initials of the fake account are the same as their real account. A lot of times when people do make a fake anything, they struggle to separate from their true identities and leave little traces like these behind.
Another little hint that might exist is in the bio of the fake account, where they may give away too much information and you can use that to figure out who they are.
Can Police Track Fake Instagram Accounts
Another thing that can happen with your Instagram account, if needed, is that the police can track it. This will only happen if you are doing things with your fake Instagram account that are illegal and require the police to step in for the safety of others.
Is is very rare for this to happen, but can if you are making threats, posting nude or sexual content without the consent of the person in the content or if they are a minor, and if you are infringing upon something that is copy righted.
As seen, tragically, in society recently, people have been posting warnings about potential mass shootings. If you are posting such things, the police will be able to obtain a warrant to track you and learn the information behind your fake Instagram account.
Remember, this only happens in situations where it is needed and the police can actually obtain a warrant to track you. Otherwise, the police will have no reason to track your fake Instagram account and will leave you alone.
Can Someone Track My Fake Instagram Account
1. If You Add Your Real Number and Email
One way that people are able to track your fake Instagram account is if you add your real number and your real email to this fake account. By adding your real information, you are tying the account to information that is undeniable to you.
This will allow anyone who has your phone number to know that one of their contacts is on Instagram and it is your fake account that appears with the number.
Additionally, by using your real email, any information that is emailed about your fake Instagram account from Instagram will be going to your real email.
This will absolutely allow anyone to see that this fake Instagram account is yours because your email was used to create the account.
2. If You Use Your Name
Another way that people can easily track your fake Instagram account is by creating the fake account under your real name.
Even if you have a common name that is popular where you are located, people will still assume it can be you behind this fake account because you have the same name.
Even anything similar to your name can be linked back to you and allow people to track your fake Instagram account.
The best thing to do to avoid people being able to track your fake Instagram account based on your real name is to make the account under a fake name that is in no way similar to your real name.
3. If You Follow Your Personal Account or It Follows You
If you decide to follow your personal account on your fake account, or decide to follow your fake account with your personal account, this will be an easy link between your real identity and your fake Instagram account.
When creating a fake account on Instagram, do not interact with your personal account at all. Never interact with your fake account with your personal account either.
If either account is following the other, this can make people who are tracking the owner of the fake account include you into people who might be the owner of the fake account.
Play is safe if you have a fake Instagram account and never interact with anything personal of yours.
4. Instagram Might Know
One way that you can be traced back to your identity from your fake Instagram account is by Instagram itself. Instagram will have access to anything your account has ever done, personal and fake.
Since you can have multiple accounts on the same device, Instagram can tell that you are easily fipping between both your personal account and your fake account.
While this knowledge is not given to the public, know that Instagram most likely does know who you are if you utilize your personal account and your fake account on the same device. Instagram may also know because they can track what internet connections, locations, and times you decide to use your fake Instagram account.
If this information lines up with your personal account, even if it is on separate devices, Instagram can realize these patterns and learn that you are the owner of the fake account.
5. If You Link Your Facebook
Other social media platforms are another really easy way for people to be able to track your fake Instagram account.
As you have seen while on Instagram, Facebook often links up with it and the two apps share information with each other. Facebook might recommend some people to be your friends because you follow them with your Instagram account.
This means if you link your Facebook account to your fake Instagram account, these suggestions and mutual friends will show up.
This could allow people to realize you are running a fake account through information shared to Facebook.
This could even happen on other social media sights, like Snapchat and Twitter. Anytime you link these accounts, a lot of information is shared and can easily lead people back to your real identity.
How to Prevent Your Fake Account From Getting Found Out
1. Don’t Use Your Real Details, including Name, Number, and Email
When you first create an Instagram account, there are certain details you need to include in order to make an account. Instagram will require your name and email to officially make an account.
If you are making a fake Instagram account, do not use your real name or email to keep your identity away from anyone finding out. It is very easy to make a fake email account to use for your fake Instagram account.
Go to any email site, such as Gmail.com or Aol.com, and simply just create an email account using a fake name that has no correlation at all to your own. You can also make it as basic and common as possible so your name is not questionable.
Then, use this fake email and fake name to create your Instagram account. This way, there is no connection to your real name and real email, making it harder for people to find out who you actually are.
2. Don’t Click Any Links Someone Sends in The DMs
If there are any direct messages sent to your fake Instagram account, you can view these messages, but do not click on any links that may be sent to your direct messages.
The links often hack that once you click on, will take you to a page that is incredibly difficult to navigate off.
Once you are on the website that the link takes you to, it can obtain information from your phone and whoever sent you the link can get their hands on this information then.
The best way to avoid these hacks is simply by not clicking on any of the links that may be sent to your fake Instagram account in your direct messages. This will help you further protect yourself and keep your identity hidden.
3. Don’t Follow Your Personal Account or Follow Your Fake Account From Your Personal
When you create your fake account, do not make any connections to your real identity, no matter how minor these connections may seem.
One mistake people with fake accounts often make that end up playing a role in revealing their identity is by following themselves with their fake account or even using their fake account to follow themselves.
If people are trying to find out who is running the fake account, they will check out everyone that the fake account is following as well as their followers.
If your personal account is either being followed by or following this fake account, those who are investigating the fake account will try to figure out what the connection is to your personal account.
This can lead to them learning who you are. So, to keep your identity as safe as possible, do not follow your personal account and do not follow your fake account.
4. Don’t Link Your Facebook
Social media platforms often link together without you even realizing it. Since Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company, these two apps tend to link together.
This means the people who you are friends with on Facebook might show up on your Instagram page saying you should follow them because you know them.
To avoid this with your fake Instagram account, do not link your Facebook to your fake Instagram. If you use fake information like an email and a name, this should not be a problem at all.
Facebook will offer to link the accounts, regardless of the information, simply because you are using both apps on the same device.
Just continue to click ignore and this will make sure your fake Instagram and real Facebook never link together, keeping your identity better hidden.
5. Don’t Use Your Network to Create the Account
Another way that a fake Instagram account can be linked back to you is if you use your network or home internet connection to make said fake account. Everything you do online leaves behind some sort of trace.
The network on which an Instagram account is made on is one of these traces. If you are in the process of making a fake Instagram account, go somewhere that has free public internet access.
Whether it be a coffee shop or maybe a local library, there are plenty of places that you can utilize to go to that have free public Wi-Fi for you to make your fake account on.
Once you get there, just make sure you get properly connected to the internet connection and then you can make your fake account.
This is yet another step you can take to keep your identity protected and be less involved with your fake Instagram account.
6. Use A Throwaway Phone to Make The Fake Account
One of the best ways to make sure that no one can figure out what phone is being used to create a fake Instagram account is to use a throwaway phone to make the account.
That way, if someone can figure out what phone made a fake account, there are no ties to you as the phone no longer exists. If you are going to do this and use a throwaway phone, make sure it is one that has access to the internet.
If you buy a throwaway phone that has no way to connect to the internet, you will not be able to make the account because the throwaway phone you bought has no way to access Instagram.
This means that you will have to spend a little more money on this throwaway phone, but it will be better for you in the long run as it will keep your identity more hidden than if you were to make the account with your own personal phone.
This is another way you can help keep yourself unassociated with your fake Instagram account.
7. Don’t Use the Account In Your Home Location
Everytime you go online, you leave a little digital footprint. If anyone decides to track this footprint to try and find out who is running a fake account, they may be able to learn it is you if you use your fake account from your home.
Only use your fake account in public places where anyone could be. Do not use it in a location that is specific to only you or a place you frequent often. The more public the place, the better.
By not using your fake Instagram account in your own home and other places that are niche to you, you will better protect your identity and keep yourself protected.