When an account is taken, the platform has one question: can you show that you are the owner? The answer is never a password. It is history.
What counts
- The original email address or phone number the account was created with, even if it has since been changed.
- Old devices you signed in from. The platform remembers them.
- Receipts for anything bought through the account: advertising, subscriptions, badges, in-app purchases.
- Photos or videos you posted that exist nowhere else, ideally the originals with their dates.
- Identity verification you completed in the past, or a government ID matching the name on the account.
- Messages from the platform to you: security alerts, login codes, verification confirmations.
What does not count
- Knowing the password. It proves you had access, not that you are the owner, and the hacker has it too.
- Screenshots of the profile. Anyone can take those.
- Followers vouching for you. Kind, but not evidence.
Gather it before you write
Search your inbox for the platform's name and pull out the oldest messages. Look through old phones and backups for original photos. Find receipts in your bank statements or your app store history. The more of that arrives in the first message, the faster I can tell you whether the case will hold, and the faster the platform moves.
Where each platform starts
- Instagram and Facebook: instagram.com/hacked and facebook.com/hacked, from a device you normally use. The full route is in the Meta recovery note.
- Snapchat: change the password at accounts.snapchat.com, then a support request choosing that the account was compromised. TikTok: Settings and privacy, then Report a problem. Both are in the Snapchat and TikTok note.
- X: the account access form on help.x.com, with the original email and phone number.
A word on disabled accounts
If the account was disabled rather than hacked, the question changes: it is an appeal, not a recovery. It still needs the right grounds and the right evidence, but it is often quicker.
I do not recover accounts that are not yours. Without ownership there is no case, and that rule is what makes the rest of this legitimate.
