Instagram -- off to a bad start

I wrote a few days ago about  my new Instagram practice, to post every day with images of my art, past and present.  I was so pleased to see dozens of new followers, many of them from blog readers, and kind words from many of you left here on the blog and on Instagram.

But then I realized last night that the account has been -- I don't know the right word: hacked? cloned? spoofed? hijacked?  Somebody stumbled on my real Instagram handle:  kathy_in_ky   and created a fake handle:  kathy_in_ky1.  Then they stole my photo and the first eight days of my posts to populate the fake account.  I have no idea how they did it, but apparently they next figured out how to make the fake account appear in our regular feeds.

This morning my daughter-in-law got a strange message from the fake account, which led her to realize the discrepancy.  She and I have both reported to Instagram, whose automated system has promised to investigate and block.  So far the automated system has let me know that they see nothing wrong with the fake account that would cause them to take it down, but said I could try again.  So much for automated system response.

If you are one of those who have signed up to look at my work on Instagram, please be on the lookout for the hijacked account.  If you see new photos every day from now on, you're safe, because the fake account is not putting up new content.  But if you see a reference to     kathy_in_ky1, they've found you too.  You can hit the three dots to the right of the account name and block this sender.  If you're feeling vengeful you can also "report user" and say that the account is pretending to be somebody else.  

And then, if necessary, I hope you'll sign up again with my real account!  Because I'm having lots of fun finding photos of my art to share with you.

Here's what I'm going to post today:

Daily calligraphy