Are fake Instagram accounts creating chaos for your brand and alienating your loyal customers?
Many businesses turn to us after experiencing the fallout from these impersonators.
Does this sound familiar?
Customer confusion from counterfeit products sold under your name.
An influx of complaints.
A frustrated marketing team.
At Red Points, we’ve enforced over 300k infringements on Instagram. We have a strong relationship with the platform and have been able to enforce 30% more infringements over the past two years.
What does this mean for you? Protecting your brand’s identity is possible!
In this guide, we’ll outline actionable steps to permanently ban fake Instagram accounts.
How to ban an instagram account permanently: step-by-step guide
You can get Instagram to review and ban an account for multiple reasons. In this section, we’ll cover reporting an account for impersonation and trademark infringement. These are two separate issues. If the account is stealing your photos and physically pretending to be you, read through the first section. If it’s using your company’s logo, brand name, or designs, skip to the second section.
Report an account for impersonation
Follow the steps below to report an account for impersonation. You might want to do this if you’re a social media influencer or if you manage an influencer who’s being impersonated.
Instructions for Mobile Reporting
- Visit the Instagram profile you want to report in the Instagram app
- Tap the three dots in the upper right for the menu and tap Report
3. Tap Something about this account
4. Tap They are pretending to be someone else
5. Choose Me or Someone else depending on who they’re impersonating
6. Once you select Me, Instagram will file the report.
7. If you select Someone else, you’ll search for another Instagram account and then file the report.
8. Now, wait until Instagram reviews the report.
Instructions for desktop reporting
- Visit the Instagram Help Center impersonation report form.
- Choose someone created an account pretending to be me if you’re being impersonated.
- Choose someone created an account pretending to be someone I represent if you’re reporting on behalf of someone else.
4. Next, fill out your full name and email plus the Instagram account name and username you’re reporting.
5. If you’re representing someone else, you’ll include your relationship to the person being impersonated.
6. Finally, upload a photo of yourself holding your government ID and click submit.
7. If you’re representing someone else, you’ll upload a photo of that person holding their ID.
Report an account for trademark infringement
These are the steps to take if an Instagram account uses your business’ logo or trademarked name and designs without authorization. This also serves as a DMCA takedown request.
Instructions for mobile reporting
- Like above, visit the offending profile on Instagram, open the menu, and select Report
- Next, tap Something about this account
3. Then tap Something else
4. Now, scroll down until you see Intellectual property violation and tap
5. Tap Report in Help Center to begin a trademark report. Instagram will open a browser window for you to fill out a detailed report.
6. Navigate to the links Learn more about trademarks then click fill out this form.
7. Select Continue with my trademark report and choose whether you or someone else is the right’s owner.
8. Continue filling out the form by adding your full name, address, email, name of the rights owner, and a link to the official online presence.
9. For each trademark, list what it is, where it’s registered, and the registration number.
10. Attach registration certificates if possible.
11. Choose how the content you’re reporting infringes the trademark.
12. Provide links to the content you want to report then submit the form.
While Instagram lets you submit this form on a mobile device, it can be time-consuming since you should upload documents to support your claim. Using the desktop trademark infringement form is better.
Instructions for desktop reporting
- Navigate to Instagram’s trademark infringement report
- Choose whether to report a trademark infringement or counterfeit goods.
- Select whether you or someone else is the rights owner.
4. Enter your contact information and the name of the rights owner
5. Add documentation proving you own the rights or are authorized to enforce them
6. Provide a link to the owner’s online presence.
7. For each trademark, list what it is, where it’s registered, and the registration number.
8. Attach registration certificates if possible.
9. Choose why the content infringes your trademark rights
10. Provide links to the content you want to report and any additional information
11. Submit the form
Common mistakes to avoid
Watch out for these common mistakes when filling out a report to ban an Instagram account:
- Submitting the wrong form: The impersonation form isn’t for trademark infringements. While it’s faster to submit an impersonation report, make sure you’re using the right report.
- Not documenting the infringement or impersonation: You have to provide enough evidence that someone is using your trademark to get the account taken down. Be prepared with your registration documents, an online source of your trademark information, and links to the offending content.
- Submitting identical reports too soon: Instagram warns that abuse of the report forms isn’t allowed and it can terminate your account for doing so. Takedowns aren’t instant, so you must be patient.
Report Instagram accounts in bulk with Red Points
While Instagram has its own manual ban Instagram account tools, manual removal is daunting if you’re dealing with multiple fake accounts. This is where Red Points can help.
Red Points is a brand protection platform that offers automated fake Instagram account reporting and removal. We stop scammers and impersonators on social media sites and offer continuous monitoring so they leave you alone for good. Here’s how we do it.
Monitoring and Detecting
By conducting 24/7 bot-powered searches on Instagram, Red Points locates scammers who might be infringing on your intellectual property with fake Instagram accounts and content.
This monitoring and detecting system is supported by image recognition, machine learning, and keyword searches based on your previously submitted intellectual property registrations (like trademark, copyright, patent, etc). With these methods, Red Points’ can then isolate, discard or validate fake Instagram accounts.
- Validation and prioritization
Red Points’ automated Instagram account ban tools allow you to set prioritization rules to validate high-risk infringements first, tackling the most damaging and persistent fake Instagram accounts.
As soon as these fake accounts start appearing on Instagram, Red Points’ automated system will kick into action. Red Points’ Impersonation Protection Software reviews suspicious Instagram accounts and applies automatic takedowns based on your own pre-established rules, like price range, stock, platform, etc.
You can also manually assess infringements that fall outside the scope of your rules. This in turn will teach Red Points’ software via machine learning how to respond to similar cases in the future.
Following enforcement, Red Points allows users to understand and assess the overall economic impact of reporting bogus Instagram accounts. You can view the amount of revenue you have recovered and get specific information such as the number of incidents per asset. Ultimately, this will help you understand the true economic value of pursuing, reporting, and taking down fake Instagram accounts.
Lastly, you’ll be able to access custom reports packed full of relevant data related to the scammers and the incidents, and request specific information that goes from a number of enforcements done by infringement type to the average days from notification to take down.
How many reports are needed to ban an account?
It’s a myth that you have to report an account so many times for it to get banned. Instagram prioritizes banning accounts based on different factors, and severity is one of them. Impersonation and trademark infringement are both severe violations and usually lead to bans instead of warnings. How thorough your report is can also affect how quickly an account is banned, so be sure to collect evidence and supply all documentation.
Be clear in your descriptions, because Instagram uses automated and human resources to review reports. The bottom line is you should only have to report an account once for impersonation or trademark infringement if you provide a complete report.
What Is an Instagram ID?
Depending on where you look, there are two definitions for what an Instagram ID is. First, it’s simply your Instagram handle. Easy enough. However, there’s also a numeric Instagram profile ID. This number isn’t easily accessible. You have to open the Instagram profile on a desktop computer, view the source code, and search for the profile ID number which comes after “profilepage_”.
The good news is that Instagram’s impersonation and trademark reporting forms don’t require the numeric Instagram ID. They just require the account’s username and full name, which are shown at the top of the profile.
In fact, the impersonation reporting form doesn’t have a place for you to add a numeric Instagram ID. The trademark report form does have a box for additional information. You can add the ID here if you’re concerned about the account changing its username or full name frequently, though it isn’t required.
What happens after reporting an Instagram account?
After you file a report, Instagram will notify you that it received the request. You can track the status with this notification. Instagram’s team considers your evidence and looks at the offending account to see if it goes against its community guidelines. There are a few possible outcomes:
- Instagram decides the account doesn’t go against community guidelines and rejects your report
- Instagram removes a specific post from the account
- Instagram gives the account owner a warning
- Instagram takes down the account entirely
You should get a response in 24 to 48 hours. The account owner won’t know who submitted the report (though if they’re impersonating your brand they can guess).
What if you don’t hear back?
If you submit the Instagram trademark infringement form and don’t hear any response after 48 hours, don’t panic. First things first, try resubmitting the form. There’s always the possibility of technical errors, so your form is not received. If there’s any change to the situation, you may also want to update the information first before resubmitting the form.
If the second form is ignored again, then you can try emailing Instagram’s support team. There may be underlying circumstances causing this delay, for example, if the support team requires more time to evaluate whether the infringement actually occurred. The support team may also ask for further information and proof before they can approve the report.
What if the Instagram account doesn’t get deleted?
Your report could be rejected if Instagram’s team doesn’t think the evidence supports your claim. Remember to file the right report in the first place. You shouldn’t file an impersonation report if your brand logo is stolen, for example. Also, be sure you select the right option between reporting a single post or entire account.
You can reach out directly to Instagram’s help team for more clarification on why they didn’t approve the report. However, we know it can be frustrating to go around and around with support while a bad actor is profiting off your brand.
How Red Points speeds up the process
We have a strong relationship with Instagram, having taken down over 300,000 accounts for brands. Working with us gives you an edge—you have a team on your side to work with Instagram and make sure infringements are resolved.
We’re constantly improving our removal abilities and have seen enforcement speed up by 53% over the last year. If your manual reports don’t work, reach out and see why we have a 95% enforcement success rate.
Take Jacaranda Finance, for example. The growing financial company attracted both customers and scammers as it grew. Bad actors copied all of its social media content to impersonate the brand and lure customers to a scam website.
The team was able to report this one account, but they realized more would pop up in its place. Jacaranda partnered with Red Points to detect and enforce 94 fake social media accounts in the first two months. Their team could relax knowing customers woul only find the legitimate Jacaranda profiles on social media.
What’s next
So, if you’re facing the disruption caused by fake accounts impersonating your brand, the steps outlined in this guide will empower you to take action.
Start by identifying the impersonating account, then use Instagram’s reporting features to submit a complaint. Make sure to provide detailed evidence of the impersonation, such as screenshots and descriptions of the fraudulent activities.
At Red Points, we understand the impact these fake accounts can have on your reputation and customer trust.
Our comprehensive brand protection solutions not only streamline the reporting process but also provide you with the tools necessary to track and manage infringements effectively.
Connect with one of our experts to put proactive measures to proactively report and ban Instagram accounts infringing your brand, allowing you to focus on what you do best—growing your business.
