In a common Instagram spam strategy, an obviously fake account adds you (and a load of other victims) to a group chat. Unfortunately, depending on what kind of account you have, you might not be able to stop it from happening. Here’s what you can do instead.
If You Have a Professional or Business Instagram Account
If you have a professional Instagram profile, you’re in luck. You can control who can add you to groups.
To do so, open Instagram and go to your Profile. Tap the three-line menu icon in the top-right corner.
Tap “Settings” in the menu.
Tap “Privacy” on the Settings screen.
Tap the “Messages” option on the Privacy screen.
Tap “Only people you follow” under “Allow others to add you to groups.”
Now, only accounts that you follow will be able to add you to chat groups.
If You Have a Personal Instagram Account
If you have a personal Instagram account like most people, there’s currently no way to stop someone from adding you to a group—even if your account is set to private. This was the case as of March 2021. Yes, this is pretty ridiculous, but we’re hopeful that Instagram will roll out a fix soon.
Instead, you’ve got three options:
- Turn off notifications for group requests.
- Leave the group.
- Block the account that added you.
To turn off notifications for group requests, go to your Profile, tap the menu icon in the top-right corner, and then tap Settings > Notifications > Direct Messages.
Under Group Requests, tap “Off.”
Now, at least when someone adds you to a group, you won’t get a push notification.
To leave a group chat, first, tap the “i” icon in the top-right corner of the chat.
Tap “Leave Chat” under the list of chat members, then tap “Leave.”
If you want to block the account that added you, first, tap the three little dots next to the account’s name under Members.
Tap “Block” to block that chat.
This will stop the spammer from re-adding you to the group. (You can also tap Report > It’s Spam. However, this won’t remove you from the group or block the sender.)