Hacked Instagram or TikTok account: the signs and what to do

October 27, 2026 · 6 min read

A strange message sent to your friends, a story you never posted, an email saying “Your email address was changed”… Social media accounts get hacked fast, and the consequences can be serious: scams sent to your contacts, blackmail, or losing the account for good. Here’s how to spot it and react.

Warning signs

• An email from the platform about a change of email, phone number or password that you didn’t make.
• A login from an unknown device or city in your list of active sessions.
• Messages, posts or follows you didn’t make.
• Your password no longer works.

Beware of fake emails: hackers often imitate these alerts to steal your password. Always check from the app itself, never by clicking a link received by email or message.

Check your login history

Both apps show active sessions in their security settings. But that list only shows sessions that are still open: a hacker who has already logged out no longer appears there.

Your data export contains the full history: every login with its date, IP address and device, plus changes of email, phone and password. FollowersChecker’s Security tab analyzes that history and flags:

• devices that appeared recently;
• logins in the middle of the night from a rarely used device;
• changes of email address or phone number;
• optionally, logins from an unusual country.

An alert isn’t always a hack: a new phone, a trip or a VPN can trigger one too. But an email address changed without your consent is a very serious sign.

You still have access to your account

1. Change your password right away, to a long, unique one you don’t use anywhere else.
2. Log out of all other sessions from the security settings.
3. Check the email address and phone number on the account, and fix them if needed.
4. Turn on two-factor authentication, ideally with an authenticator app rather than SMS.
5. Remove third-party apps you don’t recognize from the apps connected to your account.
6. Warn your contacts if messages were sent in your name.

You lost access to your account

• Instagram: on the login screen, tap “Forgot password?” then “Need more help?”, or go to instagram.com/hacked. Instagram may ask for a video selfie to confirm your identity.
• TikTok: on the login screen, use “Forgot password”, or report the problem from the TikTok help center.

Be wary of people on social media offering to “recover your account” for money: it’s almost always a scam.

Stop it from happening again

• Never give your password to a third-party site or app, even to “see who follows you”.
• Use a password manager to have a different password on every site.
• Be wary of messages like “Your account will be deleted” or “You’ve won a verified badge”: they are classic phishing attempts.