Fake Instagram Account Copying Your Business? Report It

A customer sends you a screenshot of a DM. An Instagram account with your shop's name, your logo and your product photos is offering a promotion and asking for payment to a bank account you have never seen. The username is one letter off yours. Your own account is fine. Someone has copied your business.

The short answer: save the evidence, report the account from its profile as pretending to be a business, and if your brand is a registered trademark, consider a trademark report as well. At the same time, tell your customers which account is real and how you actually take payment.

This guide is for Malaysian business owners and the people who run their Instagram. It covers both reporting routes, which evidence fits each, what to do when customers have already paid, and the scams aimed at business owners in this exact situation. It is general information, not legal advice.

Last checked: 5 October 2026.

#How Do You Get a Fake Instagram Account Copying Your Business Removed?

Open the fake profile in the Instagram app, tap the options menu, choose "Report", then "Report account", then "It's pretending to be someone else", and pick the business option. Do it from an account linked to the business if you can, and only after you have saved screenshots and the profile link. If the account misuses a trademark you have registered, Instagram's Trademark Report Form is a second, rights-based route, but your name and email are passed to the account holder. Instagram decides whether the account comes down, and nobody outside Meta, including AwareXone, can remove it for you.

#Is It a Copycat, a Reseller or a Fan Page?

Instagram's page on reporting an account for impersonation says you can report an impostor that is pretending to be you, someone you follow, a celebrity or public figure, or a business or organisation. It adds one limit worth reading twice: you can report an account for impersonating someone or something, not simply for misrepresenting itself. So the first question is what the account is actually doing.

If a person rather than a brand is being copied, such as the owner's personal profile, our guide to a fake Instagram account using your own name and photos covers the personal route and the ID Instagram asks for. If an account is attacking the owner rather than copying the shop, see our guides to reporting a hate page about you on Instagram and removing an Instagram post that uses your photo.

#Save the Evidence Before You Report

Copycat accounts change names, delete posts and go private once they sense trouble. Capture everything before you press "Report", and keep it in one dated folder. This list serves both the Instagram reports and any police report later:

• The fake account's exact username and display name, copied as text, and its full profile link.
• Full-screen screenshots of the profile, bio, highlights and posts, with the date and time visible on screen.
• Screenshots of DMs customers received, especially any request for payment, a bank account number, an e-wallet ID or a payment link.
• Your own real username and a screenshot of your profile, so a reviewer can see which account is genuine.
• For a trademark report: the registration number, the jurisdiction and the certificate.
• Every report reference or confirmation email you receive, with the date you filed.

#Route One: Report It as Pretending to Be a Business

This is the main route, and the one that does not need a trademark. Instagram's impersonation reporting steps are:

1. Go to the fake profile by tapping its username or searching for it.
2. Tap the options menu next to the username.
3. Tap "Report", then "Report account".
4. Tap "It's pretending to be someone else".
5. Select the type of impersonation, choose the business or organisation option, and follow the on-screen instructions.

Labels vary by app version, language and region, so look for the option closest to "pretending to be someone". Instagram's page on reporting an account that is impersonating you says the report is anonymous except for intellectual property reports, so the fake account will not see who reported it. File from the business's own account where possible, so the report comes from the brand being copied.

Instagram's page on how it proactively combats impersonation says it also uses detection systems and community reports, and offers an impersonation protection benefit to Meta Verified subscribers. Neither replaces your report.

#Route Two: A Trademark Report for a Registered Brand

A trademark is a brand name, logo or slogan that tells customers who a product comes from. If your mark is registered and the fake account uses it in its username, name, profile picture, bio or posts, Instagram's Trademark Report Form lets the rights owner or an authorised representative report it. At the time of writing, it asks for your relationship to the rights owner, your name and email, the mark with its registration number and jurisdiction (one registered mark per report), a link to the register or a certificate, links to the infringing account, and an electronic signature.

Two limits keep this route honest. Instagram's page on usernames that contain a trademark says usernames are generally first come, first served, and the same word used in a different context may not infringe. Its page on reporting trademark infringement also says it cannot settle disputes that need in-depth trademark analysis, and points those to the courts instead. For a full walk through the form, see our guide to filing a trademark report against a fake brand account.

What if your mark is not registered? Instagram's page on whether a trademark must be registered says unregistered rights can exist in some countries but are usually weaker, and that registering a company or getting a business permit usually does not create a trademark right on its own. In practice, the impersonation report is your route until the mark is registered. If you want to register it in Malaysia, that is done through MyIPO, and a lawyer or registered trademark agent can advise you.

#Impersonation Report or Trademark Report: Which Fits?

Filing both is fine when both are true. Never file a trademark report for a mark you do not own.

#If the Business Has No Instagram Account

Instagram's impersonation report form works in a browser, but it is written for people: someone pretending to be you, a friend or someone you represent, with a photo of you holding your ID. It does not list businesses. If the owner is also being impersonated personally, that is the owner's route.

For the business, Instagram's page on reporting without an account suggests asking a friend with an account to report it, with links and screenshots. Creating a genuine, clearly labelled business account and reporting from it also works, and gives customers a real account to check against.

#Warn Customers From Your Real Account

While Instagram reviews the report, your customers are the ones at risk. Post a story, pin a post and update your bio on your real account. Say which username is genuine and exactly how you take orders and payment. Adapt this for your audience:

• English: "Our only Instagram account is @real_shop. We never ask for payment by DM to a personal bank account. Please do not pay @fake_shop."
• Bahasa Malaysia: "Akaun Instagram rasmi kami hanya @kedai_sebenar. Kami tidak pernah minta bayaran melalui DM ke akaun bank peribadi. Jangan buat bayaran kepada @kedai_palsu."
• Chinese: "我们唯一的官方Instagram账号是 @真店名。我们不会通过私信要求转账到个人银行户口。请不要付款给 @假店名。"

Repeat it on your Facebook Page, marketplace shop and website. Do not publish guesses about who runs the fake account; finding the operator is a matter for the police. If the copy is also running paid ads, our guide to fake ads using your brand on Meta explains how to report the ads themselves.

#When Customers Have Already Paid the Fake Account

Once money has moved, this is fraud as well as a platform problem, and speed matters more than the Instagram report. The government's NSRC 997 page says to call the National Scam Response Centre on 997 within 24 hours of discovering the scam, so authorities can try to block bank accounts and transactions, then contact the bank and lodge a police report. The customer who paid should make that call, and you can send them your screenshots to help.

• Police: MCMC's complaint page lists cheating by personation under the Penal Code as a matter for PDRM. As the business being copied, you can make your own report too, attaching your evidence folder.
• Incident reporting: CyberSecurity Malaysia's Cyber999 service is the national point of contact for reporting computer security incidents and helps Malaysian internet users respond to them. It does not remove Instagram accounts.

#Blue Tick Sellers and Paid Takedown Offers

A copied business often gets a second wave of messages: someone selling a blue tick that will push the fake out, a contact "inside Instagram" who can delete it overnight, or a group offering to mass report it. None can do more than the official forms, and some exist to take your login.

• Instagram says official messages about account security are sent only to your email address, from its own domains such as @mail.instagram.com. A DM claiming to be Instagram is not one of them.
• Meta Verified is Meta's own subscription, and Instagram lists impersonation protection among its benefits. A stranger offering a badge or a removal is not selling that product.
• Paid mass reporting is not an official route, and false reports can backfire. Instagram's trademark form itself warns that abuse of the form may lead to account termination.
• Never share the business account's password, a login code or a backup code with anyone, including a staff member who no longer needs access.

#Mistakes That Weaken a Report

• Reporting before saving evidence, then finding the account renamed with nothing left to show.
• Choosing spam or scam as the reason when the account is pretending to be your business.
• Filing a trademark report for a mark that is not registered, or not in your name.
• Using a personal email on the trademark form, then receiving replies from the impostor.
• Asking staff and friends to report the same account dozens of times.
• Stopping after one report when the same operator runs several copies.

#When a Case Review Makes Sense

A single copycat account often needs no more than one accurate report, a pinned warning and a clear note to customers. Outside help is worth considering when copies keep returning under new names, when customers are losing money, when the fake is running ads, when your real account was also taken over, or when repeated reports go unanswered. SocialSafe by AwareXone looks at the case first and tells you honestly whether the official routes have more to give. We prepare reports through Instagram's own impersonation and trademark forms only, never file a claim that is not true, and the decision always stays with Instagram. You can read how we approach impersonation removal, and our Trust Center explains what we will never ask for, starting with your passwords and codes.

#Frequently Asked Questions