Description: A phishing campaign has reportedly been impersonating Meta support using a fake chatbot interface to hijack Instagram Business accounts. Victims received emails claiming ad violations and were directed to a fraudulent site mimicking Meta's support. There, a simulated chatbot instructed users to add the attacker’s Authenticator app as a secure login method, enabling account takeover. It remains unclear whether the chatbot used AI or was human-operated via a bot-like interface. See editor's note.
Editor Notes: Some ambiguity in the reporting exists over whether the alleged chatbot interface is an actual chatbot or a human-operated interface mimicking one. In the former case, this would constitute a more clear-cut AI incident. In the latter, it may represent a newer category of AI incident—one in which attackers exploit emerging user expectations around automated systems by mimicking the interaction patterns of AI-driven support tools.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown generative AI developers developed an AI system deployed by Scammers impersonating Meta support , scammers , Phishers and Fraudsters, which harmed Meta users , Instagram users and Instagram Business users.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown chatbot interface and Instagram
Incident Stats
Incident ID
999
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-03-12
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Social media is widely used in marketing, helping businesses to generate ads that attract potential customers. But what if you received an email stating, "YOUR ADS ARE TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED"? What steps would you take? The urgency of the em…

A new phishing campaign has been tricking users into giving out access to their Meta Business accounts especially Instagram. The scam, detected by the Cofense Phishing Defense Center, uses fake chat support, detailed instructions, and attem…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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