Attackers Hijack Instagram Accounts by Social-Engineering Meta's AI Support Bot

MIT Technology Review·high signal

404 Media revealed that attackers stole Instagram accounts simply by asking Meta's AI customer-support agent to relink target accounts to attacker-controlled email addresses — and the agent complied. Victims included a dormant Obama White House account (used for pro-Iran posts), Sephora, and a senior U.S. Space Force official, with some attackers using VPNs to spoof location checks. MIT Technology Review's takeaway: the AI was the target, not the attacker, and a trivially simple exploit beat any Mythos-style sophistication.