Why all of a sudden are men requesting to follow me on instagram and sending me private messages

[Corkmom]

Hi guys ive been using instagram for a few years. I dont post much, but all of a sudden ive these random men requesting to follow me, they then try to message me. This hasnt happened to me before?? My account is on private i just checked. Any advise would be appreciated! I know nothing about it to be honest

[TenThousandSpoons]

If you “like” stuff on certain pages Or follow someone, some other people will then ask to follow you, I think in the hope you will follow them to get their numbers up. Not sure about the private messages though, I’ve not had that.

[Corkmom]

Ive had a 55 yr old yesterday ask me was i single! Ive had random people add me before but its the private messages they have never happened before. Only 5 mins ago i got another 2. Im panicking incase my user name is being used on a dating site or something.

[LaurieFairyCake]

It's just possible that with the lockdown men are needing to find ever more sleazy ways to hit on women now that they can't sleaze over people normally ....

Arseholes

[Corkmom]

I know! Im a married mother of 2 boys! I think it is so strange though this has never happened before now! And no women doing it.

[Corkmom]

I was just interested to know if this is the norm

[P1nkHeartLovesCake]

Because they haven't dipped the dick in a while would be my guess.....block them

[Corkmom]

Def!

[Divebar]

I have had a number of men approach me on Instagram which was surprising because I only had a tiny picture of myself on my profile but no selfies as such. Mostly they were catfish accounts using stolen images ( which I identified with reverse image searches). I had quite a conversation going with one because I was fascinated by his bull shit. Once I challenged him he shut the whole account down. My friend was approached by a guy and asked me to look up his images for her and he was a catfish too. Lo and behold I ended up getting messaged by him too so I assume he was trawling through her friends looking for women to target.

[JaneJeffer]

I get that too. Mine is on private but I naively allowed a few to follow me when I first joined and then they started messaging me which I ignored and got this from one charmer. I delete follow request from random men now!

[Corkmom]

Why do they bother though! Christ all mighty what do they think is gonna happen! I just blocked 3 of them and i now have 2 more requests. Its getting annoying now

[JaneJeffer]

It is very annoying. I also saw a man following me who I don't follow and I don't know how he did that!

[Divebar]

I’ve never had multiple approaches on the same day so I wonder if it’s one weirdo with multiple accounts ( seems very coincidental otherwise). You can tend to spot the catfish accounts by looking at who they follow... generally about 300 people all of whom will be women.

[Bigpooh13]

Yep big old catfishes. I like to tease them abit then tell them I'm skint. Off they go.

[LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow]

only problem I have had on insta was putting on pictures of my rainbow toe pedi....ooooh the weirdos that brought out

I must have very enticing feet :o but sadly for the weirdos I no longer post pictures of my feet.

[GalaKC]

Lol they get everywhere, I wouldn't worry. My IG account is just a photography one, I never post photos of myself on it and the only place you could see me is my tiny profile pic. Still get the weirdos sliding into my DMs like filthy water through a crack.A recent one approached me with this opening line: " I am not calling you a hoe or anything, but would you like me to become your your Sugar Daddy? Women love to be pampered and I will take care of all your bills". Masterpiece of charm. I wanted to answer I'm not calling you a creep or anything, but would you mind fucking off? 😂😂😂 I am 45 years old, ffs!!!!😂😂😂

[saraclara]

I've had the same thing happening for the last few weeks. It's entirely new to me. They all appear to be men of around my age, and of a type.

I mentioned it elsewhere and was told they were bots.

[FingersXrossed]

I had a random bloke start following me and comment on a photo, "Hi it's really nice to hear back from you, how is the weather over there?"

Never spoken to him before, weird.

[BunnyBoilerRhian]

I've been getting alot of these lately. Over the past 6 months I've started to follow alot more aviation/airline based accounts, mainly because I'm job hunting in that sector. I get lots of imaginary pilots requesting to follow me and some send me messages telling me how gorgeous I am . Alot of these accounts are hours old, they may have uploaded photos but they're all 7 hours old kind of thing. Then they disappear free a few day .
I also get lots of Crypto currency nutters.

[alisanitman]

Male/man here. While researching the harassment theme to try to better support the females in my life, I came across this post.

Sexual harassment is disgusting and unfortunately, the digital world also brings out the worst in people who cowardly hide anonymously in the metaverse.

I put together a short guide with pertinent hyperlinks on how to protect your Instagram account to assist anyone who arrives here.

How to protect your Instagram account from sexual harassment

1- Report offending accounts

2- Protect your account and identity

a. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)

b. Set up account recovery

c. Use a strong password or passphrase

d. Adjust your privacy settings

i. Make your account private

ii. Restrict access to comments, tags, mentions, and stories

iii. Block or restrict users

e. Beware of scammers disguised as "fans"

3- Post Mindfully
a. Do not reveal sensitive information in the background, computer screens showing personal items, or objects like letters with your address, IDs and bank cards.

b. Avoid geotagging posts near your home and work address. Hiding your location will reduce your exposure.

c. Watch your own behaviour, chose hashtags carefully, and avoid reposting rubbish

4- Start over
Creating a new or second profile allows you to start with strong, protective settings:

a. From the start, use strong security and strict privacy controls as mentioned above.

b. Only follow people and accounts that are important to you
only allow people you know are "safe" to follow you e.g. trusted family and close friends

My personal Instagram strategy
I maintain 3 profiles:

Open: I used it sometimes to get a wider perspective of what's going on in the World like news, politics, and style subcultures like the drill and egirl/eboy to understand my kids better. This profile gets a fair share of fake news, radical politics, tasteless nudity, gang culture, drugs, guns, racism and other negative stuff. The Sensitive Content Control is turned to More.

Work: this is a public profile is used strictly for business. It is a business account to portray corporate identity, nothing personal, no selfies. Here I want as many followers and likes as possible. Only follow clients, suppliers, and business-related accounts. There are many guides teaching how to do this. If YOU are your business e.g. a public figure like an actress, dancer, model, or writer, you will have further challenges and probably should still consider separate profiles to split your private and public personas.

Personal: my personal profile is more focused on my areas of interest, following only family and close friends. All other accounts have been unfollowed. I train by watching only interesting posts, quickly dismissing unwanted ones and ads out of interest. I like science, technology, psychology, self-improvement, relationships, poetry, investments, nutrition, health, funny cats, gardening, astrophysics, art, medicine, meditation and fitness. I try to share only the best posts and only follow very specific well-curated accounts. The Sensitive Content Control is turned to Less. I always think twice before opening a forwarded post or Instagram link because I do not want to upset my strategy.

If what drives you on Instagram and social media is the dopamine fix of likes, comments and followers, a professional or open personal profile is what you want. But be prepared for the trolls.

Finally, for my own mental health's sake, I limit my daily max Instagram time to 1h in summer and 2h in winter using Digital Wellbeing, which is one of many screen-time apps and built-in functions on mobile phones.

I hope this late reply can help you somehow @Corkmom @Bigpooh13 @BunnyBoilerRhian @Divebar @FingersXrossed @GalaKC @JaneJeffer @LaurieFairyCake @P1nkHeartLovesCake @TenThousandSpoons @saraclara .

[stbrandonsboat]

I've had American drug dealers messaging me 🤦😂