Hey all, wanted to share a recent experience and get some input on my recovery approach.
WHAT HAPPENED
I'm running outreach for my company using a small bank of aged accounts (5–7 years old). All accounts had the main company handle in their bio.
The night before the incident, I "revived" two dormant aged accounts - logged in on the separate devices they'd been on for years, bought some followers from a JAP panel, updated profile pics, followed a few hundred accounts to fix the ratio, and changed usernames.
The next morning I logged both into my DM automation tool (IGDMpro) via 1x Ukrainian mobile proxy (LTEsocks). Loaded up a mass message campaign on one of the accounts, hit send - and was immediately booted back to browser. Went back in and saw an error. A few minutes later, all accounts on the tool had logged out, and I got suspension emails across the board.
Accounts suspended: 3 outreach accounts + 1 main brand account (got main account back within the hour via ID verification - scary)
Not suspended: 1 outreach account that was on a separate device, then logged into my tool on the same Ukranian IP
MY ANALYSIS
A few things likely combined to trigger this:
MY REBUILD PLAN & QUESTIONS
Here's how I'm approaching this going forward:
1. Separating devices cleanly
The device that got everything banned is being retired from this entirely. Not touching it again for any of these accounts. But interested in wether it could be revived/how to do that?
2. Logging into aged accounts on mobile first
I have a bank of aged accounts that haven't been touched in a while. Before running any automation, I need to log into each one on mobile to update their bios with the main account link (needs to be done in-app for the hyperlink to render). I'll be using a clean device for this - not the compromised one.
But I am still scared about that using the same IP as my main phone used on my main accs and don't want to risk them being banned.
3. Adding a proxy directly to my phone
My main accounts live on my home network on my personal phone - I don't want to expose that IP to any of the outreach activity. Plan is to configure a Ukrainian mobile proxy directly on a secondary phone, so even though it's on home WiFi, it's routing through the proxy IP before hitting Instagram. That keeps the home IP clean and my main accounts safe. Is this a good idea? How can I actually do this?
4. Using the same proxy pool for automation
Same Ukrainian mobile proxies from LTEsocks on the desktop automation tool. Consistency between mobile login and desktop automation on the same proxy = same IP fingerprint = lower risk of mismatch flags.
5. Account-to-proxy ratio
Planning to run 4 accounts per mobile proxy - does anyone have experience with this? I've seen recommendations ranging from 2–5 depending on activity level. At moderate DM volume I'm thinking 4 is the ceiling before it gets risky?
6. Warmup before any sends
New rule: any account that's been dormant gets at minimum 1 week of warmup through the tool (likes, low-volume DMs, profile views) before a campaign goes out. No exceptions. What time frames would you look at for this?
QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY
(Yes I did use ai to help me write this in a concise way, but not cos its just ai slop lol)
WHAT HAPPENED
I'm running outreach for my company using a small bank of aged accounts (5–7 years old). All accounts had the main company handle in their bio.
The night before the incident, I "revived" two dormant aged accounts - logged in on the separate devices they'd been on for years, bought some followers from a JAP panel, updated profile pics, followed a few hundred accounts to fix the ratio, and changed usernames.
The next morning I logged both into my DM automation tool (IGDMpro) via 1x Ukrainian mobile proxy (LTEsocks). Loaded up a mass message campaign on one of the accounts, hit send - and was immediately booted back to browser. Went back in and saw an error. A few minutes later, all accounts on the tool had logged out, and I got suspension emails across the board.
Accounts suspended: 3 outreach accounts + 1 main brand account (got main account back within the hour via ID verification - scary)
Not suspended: 1 outreach account that was on a separate device, then logged into my tool on the same Ukranian IP
MY ANALYSIS
A few things likely combined to trigger this:
- Reviving dormant accounts with sudden aggressive activity (followers, ratio manipulation, username change) in a single session = massive trust score drop - this was dumb
- Going straight from revival into automation with no warmup period (was planning on starting slow, but still dumb)
- One of the devices these accounts had previously been on may have been flagged - all accounts that had touched it got swept. Apart from the originally human made accounts on that device.
- The account that survived was on a completely separate device, same proxy setup - which tells me the device fingerprint was a bigger factor than the proxy
MY REBUILD PLAN & QUESTIONS
Here's how I'm approaching this going forward:
1. Separating devices cleanly
The device that got everything banned is being retired from this entirely. Not touching it again for any of these accounts. But interested in wether it could be revived/how to do that?
2. Logging into aged accounts on mobile first
I have a bank of aged accounts that haven't been touched in a while. Before running any automation, I need to log into each one on mobile to update their bios with the main account link (needs to be done in-app for the hyperlink to render). I'll be using a clean device for this - not the compromised one.
But I am still scared about that using the same IP as my main phone used on my main accs and don't want to risk them being banned.
3. Adding a proxy directly to my phone
My main accounts live on my home network on my personal phone - I don't want to expose that IP to any of the outreach activity. Plan is to configure a Ukrainian mobile proxy directly on a secondary phone, so even though it's on home WiFi, it's routing through the proxy IP before hitting Instagram. That keeps the home IP clean and my main accounts safe. Is this a good idea? How can I actually do this?
4. Using the same proxy pool for automation
Same Ukrainian mobile proxies from LTEsocks on the desktop automation tool. Consistency between mobile login and desktop automation on the same proxy = same IP fingerprint = lower risk of mismatch flags.
5. Account-to-proxy ratio
Planning to run 4 accounts per mobile proxy - does anyone have experience with this? I've seen recommendations ranging from 2–5 depending on activity level. At moderate DM volume I'm thinking 4 is the ceiling before it gets risky?
6. Warmup before any sends
New rule: any account that's been dormant gets at minimum 1 week of warmup through the tool (likes, low-volume DMs, profile views) before a campaign goes out. No exceptions. What time frames would you look at for this?
QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY
- Running mobile proxies directly on a phone for bio updates before switching to desktop automation - anything to watch out for?
- Is 4 accounts per Ukrainian mobile proxy sensible for mid-volume DM outreach, or would you drop that to 3 / a different strategy entirely?
- Has anyone found a safe way / strategy for reviving old aged accounts without triggering action on revival day?
- Each outreach account has the main account @ed in their bio. Could this risk the main account being suspended again? Or fine because it's one-way?
(Yes I did use ai to help me write this in a concise way, but not cos its just ai slop lol)
