Instagram Botting PSA

Partners,

As I referenced many months ago, I have built a program that rivals some of the best out there. I ended up not promoting it here because you are all humble god-fearing men. Since we last spoke I've amassed hundreds of customers and have been putting my Computer Science degree from University of Texas to full use. In addition to these accounts, I run a number of my own accounts for experimental purposes.

We stand outsmarted by Instagram. There is currently no way to overcome the verification loop. My accounts are getting picked off like clay pigeons at a shooting range. I've tried everything. I have changed proxies. I have tried running accounts without proxies. I have tried running my accounts with all different user agent settings. I have tried changing AWS settings, I have tried running locally, I have tried migrating to DigitalOcean. Age of account has nothing to do with it. This is happening with accounts in my portfolio that are brand new all the way to ones that are verified and have hundreds of thousands of followers. Aside from my daily grind as a cattle rancher, I design integration testing systems for yuppies in the big cities. I have the ability and knowledge to thoroughly test every hypothesis I have had. But, all has failed. We are at the mercy of Instagram.

I will continue testing and let you boys know what I come up with. In the meantime:

1. Stop taking new customers and pause/refund existing subscriptions if you can no longer provide the service you sold.
2. Stop running accounts unless you're testing a potential fix
3. Don't pay anybody who claims to have a fix unless they are able to demonstrate 100+ accounts running seamlessly.
4. Don't contact your proxy provider. It has nothing to do with proxies.
5. If you're using a web or desktop based management program, don't bother contacting the project maintainer. They are aware of the issue and are putting in overtime, like I am, to determine a fix.
6. If you know anybody who is an engineer at Instagram, consider bribing him for more insight into this.


YEE HAW

Could you send the login info of a sample account via PM so we can take a look at this?

Yeehaw22 said:

Partners,

As I referenced many months ago, I have built a program that rivals some of the best out there. I ended up not promoting it here because you are all humble god-fearing men. Since we last spoke I've amassed hundreds of customers and have been putting my Computer Science degree from University of Texas to full use. In addition to these accounts, I run a number of my own accounts for experimental purposes.

We stand outsmarted by Instagram. There is currently no way to overcome the verification loop. My accounts are getting picked off like clay pigeons at a shooting range. I've tried everything. I have changed proxies. I have tried running accounts without proxies. I have tried running my accounts with all different user agent settings. I have tried changing AWS settings, I have tried running locally, I have tried migrating to DigitalOcean. Age of account has nothing to do with it. This is happening with accounts in my portfolio that are brand new all the way to ones that are verified and have hundreds of thousands of followers. Aside from my daily grind as a cattle rancher, I design integration testing systems for yuppies in the big cities. I have the ability and knowledge to thoroughly test every hypothesis I have had. But, all has failed. We are at the mercy of Instagram.

I will continue testing and let you boys know what I come up with. In the meantime:

1. Stop taking new customers and pause/refund existing subscriptions if you can no longer provide the service you sold.
2. Stop running accounts unless you're testing a potential fix
3. Don't pay anybody who claims to have a fix unless they are able to demonstrate 100+ accounts running seamlessly.
4. Don't contact your proxy provider. It has nothing to do with proxies.
5. If you're using a web or desktop based management program, don't bother contacting the project maintainer. They are aware of the issue and are putting in overtime, like I am, to determine a fix.
6. If you know anybody who is an engineer at Instagram, consider bribing him for more insight into this.


YEE HAW

Click to expand...

At this point I am 100% sure that Instagram changed something. I am having some luck now with certain different user agents, but it might just be a coincidence. To retract some of my previous statement, I haven't ruled out that Instagram has just decided to totally lock down non-residential IPs. I'll need to run the accounts for some time before feeling comfortable reaching a conclusion in either matter. Unfortunately if this is the issue, there is nothing those of you using FollowLiker can do for the time being. If any bot/service maintainers want to talk on the phone or something pm me some info detailing what you've experienced so far and I'll give you a call next time I'm awake.

Yeehaw22 said:

, I haven't ruled out that Instagram has just decided to totally lock down non-residential IPs.

Click to expand...

That's 100% not the problem.
I myself and a lot of other people still run accounts on non resi ips.

Hello.
I have been working on solving this issue so I will share what I have so far hoping it will help.

1. SMM Panels seem to be working. I can't say they all are working obviously I have no idea as there are probably thousands of such panels. However - I know of a handful of them and they haven't had any trouble for even a second. So - this is weird.

2. This issue is apparently ONLY when using API to login. I did something just out of curiosity. I opened up three incognito browser windows and logged each of them to unique location and logged one Instagram to each of these browsers - did the challenge code - got back in and viola! No problems at all. I'm basically logged in to 3 different locations via 3 different VPNs at the same freaking time - I tried liking with one location - following with another and commenting with the final one. No issues. This is so weird.

3. I had already tried various proxy providers. It really doesn't look like this has anything to with proxy. I might be wrong but that is my gut feeling. Its just completely and solely affecting API login. You can do as much hanky panky you want via browsers and mobile. No questions asked.

4. I have even tried various accounts on Instagram. Fresh ones. Aged ones. Guess what? I even tried using accounts that were 100% hand grown from day one. Still the loop. So this is not affecting accounts that were grown by botting. I tried to log in hand grown aged accounts and I still get checkpoint. I doubt this is spam control. (Again - SMM panels are still working)

5. My custom bot is coded to mildly scrape for likes/comments from various links. My bot does not do engagement (like,comment,follow,unfollow,dm,upload media).
None of the above. It mildly scrapes for likes/comments. So it is not technically a spam bot as it does not perform any actions repeatedly. But I'm still having issues with API login.

Again this is super confusing.

6. Tried user agents / fake agent. Tried new servers. Fresh IPs. Various types of IG accounts. NO LUCK AT ALL.

Once again - you can do all the hanky panky you want via phone or browser (i-macros) - so that is some weird update (if it is some anti-spam).

My take on this is that is some kind of bug.

Lets hope it all goes away soon! Really tired trying to work this problem out!

Partners,

Judging by the research disclosed in this thread: github slash mgp25 slash Instagram-API slash issues slash 1734, it seems that Instagram has beat those of us who bot at a large scale. 'Spam' is down 95%. It isn't clear if they've become better at detecting bots, instead the prevailing theory seems to be that they are able to mark all proxies as spam with high accuracy.

So here is what you have to do:

- If you are running a business on top of FollowLiker, give your customers their money back once you hit the infinite loop and close down your business
- If you are running your own bot, you need perfect residential ips

Yeehaw22 said:

Partners,

Judging by the research disclosed in this thread: github slash mgp25 slash Instagram-API slash issues slash 1734, it seems that Instagram has beat those of us who bot at a large scale. 'Spam' is down 95%. It isn't clear if they've become better at detecting bots, instead the prevailing theory seems to be that they are able to mark all proxies as spam with high accuracy.

So here is what you have to do:

- If you are running a business on top of FollowLiker, give your customers their money back once you hit the infinite loop and close down your business
- If you are running your own bot, you need perfect residential ips

Click to expand...

so yor saying it down to being ip related and your saying virgin resedentual ip will work?

you recon that ig is flagging all proxies as spam ....

redarrow said:

so yor saying it down to being ip related and your saying virgin resedentual ip will work?

you recon that ig is flagging all proxies as spam ....

Click to expand...

Yes and yes

I'm sorry but it is not adding up.
Reason being some of the largest SMM panels are running PERFECTLY. I'm talking about panels that have bases of 500,000+ Instagram accounts. I can confirm that 100%. Followers, Likes, Views, Auto Likes - EVERYTHING IS WORKING! This is NOT spam related.

'Mass-botting' that Git Hub is claiming doesn't add up either. My bot is not a 'mass botting' kind of deal to start with. My custom bot doesn't even do engagement of any kind (follow,unfollow,like.comment) NOTHING. My bot scrapes for likes and comments mildly.

Finally - to my surprise I can confirm that I can login via PC using free VPNs. Imagine that. Forget buying proxies and residential proxies. I'm able to login to one freaking account on 3 different VPN locations and simultaneously perform actions with one account.

Oh did I mention that Follow Liker is WORKING when I'm using not using a proxy so that raises another question about API login and check point. For last 10 or so hours I've been running follower on hard settings and doing mass follow/unfollow. Its working.

Then again there are SMM panels and certain botters that are NOT facing any problems.

I'm starting to believe that this is a bug of some sort on IG side. If you check blackhat old thread of last year - this problem happened an year ago - a lot of them sorted it out by doing nothing but waiting - and some of them came up with a small solution too. Look into a similar thread done in the past year.

Anti-spam, proxies or mass-botting - this is not the case this time. There is a bug as far as I can think.

xWGx said:

I'm sorry but it is not adding up.
Reason being some of the largest SMM panels are running PERFECTLY. I'm talking about panels that have bases of 500,000+ Instagram accounts. I can confirm that 100%. Followers, Likes, Views, Auto Likes - EVERYTHING IS WORKING! This is NOT spam related.

'Mass-botting' that Git Hub is claiming doesn't add up either. My bot is not a 'mass botting' kind of deal to start with. My custom bot doesn't even do engagement of any kind (follow,unfollow,like.comment) NOTHING. My bot scrapes for likes and comments mildly.

Finally - to my surprise I can confirm that I can login via PC using free VPNs. Imagine that. Forget buying proxies and residential proxies. I'm able to login to one freaking account on 3 different VPN locations and simultaneously perform actions with one account.

Oh did I mention that Follow Liker is WORKING when I'm using not using a proxy so that raises another question about API login and check point. For last 10 or so hours I've been running follower on hard settings and doing mass follow/unfollow. Its working.

Then again there are SMM panels and certain botters that are NOT facing any problems.

I'm starting to believe that this is a bug of some sort on IG side. If you check blackhat old thread of last year - this problem happened an year ago - a lot of them sorted it out by doing nothing but waiting - and some of them came up with a small solution too. Look into a similar thread done in the past year.

Anti-spam, proxies or mass-botting - this is not the case this time. There is a bug as far as I can think.

Click to expand...

How were you able to confirm that some of the largest panels are working? I'm not as involved with that realm and it is somewhat opaque to me. To me it seems that any of these services would be using python scripts to aggregate interactions and should be heavily affected by the same problem we're seeing.

It doesn't seem that Instagram has gotten better at detecting bots (mine does engage), just that they now are basically leaving all proxies stuck in the validation loop. Interestingly, it didn't happen to all of mine immediately, and some are still fine though I've had most turned off for the day.

I think it makes sense that not using a proxy from a residential IP results in no problems.

The guys on github reported "95% less spam" and I'm seeing way less interactions across all of my accounts. It seems to me like this is affecting the majority of bots. Though I still fail to understand why all my accounts weren't immediately locked down. There is definitely a missing variable here

Yep all my current accounts added are working fine (with proxy), although, any new ones I add get stuck in the verification loop.

I am able to confirm as I use various panels on a daily basis. I can confirm that they are all working 100%. (The ones that I use of course)
Botting - FL is working for me when using home IP and home IP based IG account. So that is WEIRD too. If FL is able to login via API that means that API is not the issue. Let me do more trials today - will report end of the day if I come across any work around.

I think I'm close to understanding the issue.
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS ALL TRIAL AND ERROR AND I MIGHT BE COMPLETELY WRONG.
Here is what I can conclude upon 72 hours continuous testing by myself and a team of coders.

1. API Login + Local Hosted Bot (Local IP/Home IP)= SUCCESS
2. Web/App Direct Login + ANY PROXY (Any freaking proxy) = SUCCESS

3. API Login (Server hosted bot) + Proxy of ANY SORT (Any freaking proxy) = FAIL

I can conclude this pattern time and time again. I can fuck around with proxies when logging in via browser. As I said - able to login to same account on 3 proxies via browser without any issues. Able to login (API) via FL when using home IP.

A dozen people over Git Hub having no problem with self hosted local bots. Only when they go on server it raises the verification loop. Hence my conclusion.

The only way moving forward is to find a provider for stable clean Residential IPs that are static. Lets see. Going to give this a try. If this works then this might be the only way out.

I still feel this is some sort of bug. I pray it is.

Eitherways if the Russian panels have fixed it without a hiccup and are able to stay logged in to 500k+ accounts then this is not an anti-spam update to me.

Update on this - see here - SO MANY people have the same issue. Its starting to sound more and more like a bug.

downdetector .com /status /instagram

Even a few people on their Twitter are mentioning the checkpoint problem.

UPDATE

Out of the blue EVERYTHING seems to be working 100% perfectly.
I DID NOT CHANGE CODE OR SHIT.

Logging in via bot (IG API) - working 100%.
FL + proxies + mass actions - working 100%.

I'm about to conclude that this was indeed a bug.

Will update in 6 hours if all keeps going well.

So far no more checkpoint loop.

Yeehaw22 said:

Partners,

Judging by the research disclosed in this thread: github slash mgp25 slash Instagram-API slash issues slash 1734, it seems that Instagram has beat those of us who bot at a large scale. 'Spam' is down 95%. It isn't clear if they've become better at detecting bots, instead the prevailing theory seems to be that they are able to mark all proxies as spam with high accuracy.

So here is what you have to do:

- If you are running a business on top of FollowLiker, give your customers their money back once you hit the infinite loop and close down your business
- If you are running your own bot, you need perfect residential ips

Click to expand...

Stop giving out this bullshit advice until this situation is totally clear.
You are just talking theory here if you really got connections to the big ballers you would know that there is no consistent pattern at the moment.

People WITH residential ips, NON botted and WHITEhat accounts are also affected.
There will be more information soon so stop freaking out..

Borilla said:

Stop giving out this bullshit advice until this situation is totally clear.
You are just talking theory here if you really got connections to the big ballers you would know that there is no consistent pattern at the moment.

People WITH residential ips, NON botted and WHITEhat accounts are also affected.
There will be more information soon so stop freaking out..

Click to expand...

Correct.

xWGx said:

UPDATE

Out of the blue EVERYTHING seems to be working 100% perfectly.
I DID NOT CHANGE CODE OR SHIT.

Logging in via bot (IG API) - working 100%.
FL + proxies + mass actions - working 100%.

I'm about to conclude that this was indeed a bug.

Will update in 6 hours if all keeps going well.

So far no more checkpoint loop.

Click to expand...

nope still not working!

did you test atleast 10 accounts? if it did not work on all 10 account, then it means nothing.

leena said:

nope still not working!

did you test atleast 10 accounts? if it did not work on all 10 account, then it means nothing.

Click to expand...

Hey! No. I'm logged into 5 of them via my custom bot and another 5-7 on FL. So far so good.
This thing is VERY random. The bug. So I guess we just have to wait it out like the last time it happened back in '16.

Borilla said:

Stop giving out this bullshit advice until this situation is totally clear.
You are just talking theory here if you really got connections to the big ballers you would know that there is no consistent pattern at the moment.

People WITH residential ips, NON botted and WHITEhat accounts are also affected.
There will be more information soon so stop freaking out..

Click to expand...

Partner, I didn't claim to have connections to big ballers or to have any affiliation with the Big Baller Brand. I prefer to wear cowboy boots. As I said above, I have access to a couple hundred of real accounts from paying customers and a group of roughly 15 experiment accounts that I use to aid in my development. I also consult to a smaller operation (sub 100) that just sits on top of follow liker but I tend not to get on well with the big city types!

I believe that the GitHub rustlers have jumped the gun a little bit. Them boys are having a field day over there because they viewed my post and one of their contributors did one test and showed that his resi IP was clear but his proxy wasn't. The reason I was hesitant to get into this business is because it seems obvious that Instagram could shut down the spammers relatively easily. While I haven't been able to prove anything exhaustively, I misstated findings in my original post and it seems that one misstatement has been accepted as fact by them.

The one thing I will say is that there is no evidence anywhere on the internet that people with resi IPs and whitehat accounts are affected. Since basically everyone bots (and the people who pay for these services have no idea what's going on), it's likely that seemingly legit people who signed up for services like mine are just complaining because they don't understand what the service they've purchased is doing.

I'm running a sub group of 175 accounts right now, every one is on a unique proxy. I haven't had any additional accounts shut down.

I understand the motivation behind raining on my parade, but I see nothing of value from anyone criticizing me. A lot of the clueless selfish people on the forum fishing for answers could learn a lot from the way engineers handle problems on open source projects, even ones who apparently see us as the enemy.