Unfortunately, it is easy to create a fake profile on Instagram to become an Instagram stalker or use it for more malicious purposes such as online harassment. A new study found that there were around 95 million bot accounts on Instagram.
A fake Instagram profile may be claiming you or your partner is cheating, an anonymous Instagram profile may blackmail you with compromising sexual material, or a fake Instagram profile could be used to make threats to you and your family. There are so many malicious reasons why people use anonymous Instagram accounts to make someone else miserable. And they believe, and you may think, they are untouchable behind their fake accounts.
However, there is no such thing as anonymity, not even on the internet.
Instagram doesn’t make IP addresses of users available to the public. So if you want to know how to find someone IP address on Instagram, we explain two ways how you can find Instagram IP address.
What does an IP address tell you
Someone’s IP address gives you an idea of the location of that person. Even though the IP address may point to a specific area or neighborhood IP look up sites, an IP address doesn’t tell you more than a generalized location. An IP address gives you basic details like the geographical location, ISP, and more.
So you can use an IP address to get an idea of the city someone lives in, and because of this, many websites such as Instagram keep this information hidden. While an IP in itself can’t be used to track down the owner of the fake Instagram account, it can be used in conjunction with other methods to identify the anonymous Instagram user.
Two ways to find someone’s IP address on Instagram
1. Social Engineering to find Instagram IP address
As stated, Instagram doesn’t disclose IP address of users to the public, so you need to get the IP address outside of Instagram. One way to do this is through social engineering, which is the act of convincing the user to perform an online task that makes them vulnerable to an attack. Like scammers do. This means that you need to get the user to visit a link that will allow you to capture their IP address. You can use IP Grabbing Services like Grabify but you may be dealing with a more sophisticated antagonist who knows about web technologies and hacking techniques. Or someone who is careful enough not to click any link. Especially if you are online harassed in a severe way, or sexually blackmailed, the antagonist won’t easily be convinced to click on a link. In this case, services like Grabify most likely won’t help you. Another reason why Grabify often doesn’t work is because the link looks odd and deceptive, making the fake Instagram owner suspicious and unlikely to click the link.
But it is possible, depending on your investigative and social skills. It is important to note that you can get an incorrect IP address if the user is using a VPN, proxy, or Tor Network. In this case, it gets considerably hard to identify the owner of a fake Instagram account. Not even Instagram would have the real IP address in this case. However, our investigators can often bypass proxies and VPNs.
Rexxfield developed its own proprietary cyber crime-fighting tool, with which we can identify anonymous users on the internet. In this case, we can help you find someone IP address on Instagram. All our methods are legal, compelling, and admissible in court. Once we have identified anonymous antagonists, they often remove the fake accounts and stop their harassment out of fear of criminal or civil court action. But if they persist, our work helps you seek injunctive relief through litigation. We will work together with your lawyer or law enforcement in this case.
Contact our cyber investigators
2. Subpoena Instagram
Another, but more costly, a method to track someone’s IP address from Instagram is through a subpoena. Only lawyers and law enforcement can serve a subpoena on Instagram. Through a subpoena, you can ask Instagram to disclose all customer information related to the anonymous account, such as the name, email address, phone number, IP addresses, and much more.
Instagram will try to find any way not to disclose this information because of privacy violations, but through years of experience and expertise in our field, we know exactly what to ask for and how to ask for it.
We can help ghostwrite a subpoena that you can give to your lawyer to reduce legal costs. We also ghostwrite subpoenas for law enforcement to minimize their work, which makes it more likely they will take on a case.
Final note
You may be thinking of reporting the malicious Instagram account to Instagram. However, this won’t give you any information on who is the owner of the account, and the antagonist will most likely just open a new account. Additionally, if you want to involve the police, they often require an IP address or other evidence to act upon.
