If you have had problems with your Instagram username, either because another person has the same name as you or they wanted to steal your identity by pretending to be you; In this article we will tell you some tips to solve this problem, with the solutions available to the social network itself. Keep in mind that this method will not be valid depending on the case that has been presented. Although it is always an option to change the username.
How to claim the username of an account from Instagram?
In the world there are billions of people and many of them can share both your names and even in extreme cases your surnames. So it is not uncommon that when you create an Instagram account and enter your username, the social network notifies us that this name is already occupied by someone else.
The latter does not mean that our name and surname have been stolen from us, but rather that by chance of life, someone else is called like you and registered first on Instagram and naturally, put their names to create their user. Under this scenario, nothing can be done to claim the username, much less require Instagram to take that name from someone else for us to take.
For identity theft
When someone else took both your name, your photo and your profile in general to create another Instagram account and impersonate you; this in itself is already a crime and a fairly serious infraction and here you can make the proper claim. Keep in mind that it is only applicable when the aforementioned is true, since if the person only took the name, but both his photos and his profile are totally different from yours, it is not identity theft on Instagram.
Now, continuing with the identity theft complaint, you can go to the Instagram support and/or help center to make the claim. There you must fill out a form indicating the problem that has been presented to you, so that the social network can take action on the matter. You must select the corresponding options and after a check carried out by Instagram, to verify that the information you provide is correct, it will then proceed to block the account.
If the username is commercial
In this second case, we refer to when you have a trademark of your business, company or product and another person takes all this information, creates another account posing as your brand either to scam or to make you a dirty competition.
The procedure will be the same as the previous one, however, you must make sure that the options you mark on the form are to select that it is a commercial account, the username. Since you can also be more specific if what was stolen was a photo, a video, even comments.
After you have completed these steps, try to select the option “I would like to claim a username” so that this name remains solely and exclusively to your brand. In this way, there will finally be a field in which you will explain why you think this affects you.
hacked account user
When someone else has taken your own main account, the way to proceed here is by going to the “Recover account” option and there choosing if it is a personal or business account and the option “My account has been hacked”. After doing the above, Instagram will ask you for more details of what happened so that the social network can make sure if your account has really been hacked or not; then you will have to follow the instructions provided.
Wait for deletion of inactive accounts
The technology of this social network has advanced so much that if it detects any account of a personal or commercial user that has been inactive for a couple of months, it will automatically delete said account as well as all the information in it and of course, the username. that this account had, will be free for use. Basically, you will have to see if the user who has the name you want to place has been inactive and if so, wait for the same social network to unsubscribe to take the username.
Buy username
Another way to claim a username is through purchase and in this case, you will have to contact the owner of said account to negotiate the username and see if this person is willing to sell it to you. If so, you can get that name you want so much.
How long does it take for the claimed account to become available?
Depending on the type of matter involved and the seriousness of it, Instagram may take some time to verify the information you provided; If everything goes well, in a short time you will have a response from the social network to find out whether or not you can finally take the username. In case it is more complicated, it will take more time.
What are the solutions for accounts with common names on Instagram?
In these cases, the only solution is to simply vary our username with some additional letter, number or symbol to differentiate it from the other username. When you proceed to create an account on Instagram, either from the website or from the mobile application, the platform informs you that the username is already taken. So it will recommend some alternatives that we can take to create our account without problems.
