A certain URL is said to have been added to users' profile bios

Jul 27, 2013 08:28 GMT  ·  By

Yesterday, various Instagram users started to complain on Twitter that their accounts had been hacked, and that photos of smoothies had been posted to their accounts without permission.

Furthermore, a certain URL appears to have been placed in the profile bios of these users, some reports on Twitter claim. In some cases, users who have tried to reset their passwords were locked out of their accounts, a recent article on The Verge notes.

Some of the reports claim that the aforementioned photos of smoothies have disappeared before they could remove them, but that the ULR added to their bio hasn’t. Users should refrain from clicking on these links, despite the fact that they might look like BBC news links.

For the time being, however, it’s uncertain how many people were affected by the hack, and there's no info on whether the hackers managed to tap into Instagram servers to harvest passwords and account info.

In late June, a scam message made the rounds on Instagram, showing pictures of fruits and linking to a bogus BBC News message that supposedly promoted a fruit diet.