Over the past week, a number of users of the popular photo sharing app Instagram and parent company Facebook have been locked out of their accounts and prompted by both services to upload images of their government issued photo IDs to regain access, as CNET first reported on Tuesday.
Concerned users seeking to regain account access have turned to several outlets online, including Yahoo Answers, to try and determine whether or not the prompts asking for images of their IDs are real or are hacking attempts.
TPM itself has received a number of emails and communications from users reporting that they have been abruptly locked out of their accounts and asked to provide photos of their IDs. Here’s a screenshot of one such prompt from Facebook:
More frustrating still for some users, not all IDs have been accepted, leading Facebook and Instagram to send follow-up emails asking users to provide more documentation, including their birth certificates, if necessary. Check out the transcript of one such email forwarded to TPM below (name edited):
