Instagram had always been an essential platform for Sensation Station Centre ever since we started in 2014. Beyond its typical purpose of ‘building brand awareness or driving sales’, our Instagram account (previously @sensationstationcentre) served as an effective avenue for us to carry out our mission to help and empower children who have various learning challenges and complex needs through our therapy and intervention services. We had built an amazing network of parents, guardians, professionals and even influencers who whole-heartedly supported this mission.
However, a huge roadblock came in the way when our account @sensationstationcentre got taken over by heartless online hackers on 12 April, 2023. To provide some context, on the said date we received a notification within the Instagram app which appeared exactly and legitimately as if it was from Instagram/Meta (unfortunately we weren’t able to take a screenshot as everything happened in a matter of minutes). The message indicated that our account violated Instagram’s copyright infringement policy but also provided an option to ‘disprove’ the accusation by filing an appeal to Instagram. While we were confident that none of our content was plagiarised (as they come from our own therapists and professionals), we decided to follow through with the ‘appeal’ to prevent any unwanted problems with our account. We were directed to another legitimate-looking ‘Instagram Copyright Appeal Form’ where we were asked to enter our login details and answer some questions related to the ‘copyright accusation’. After we submitted the form, the hackers immediately gained access to our account, changed our login credentials, turned on two-factor authentication, messaged us and asked for ransom money (which we did not fall into) — and the rest was history.
While the entire situation felt like the past 9 years of nurturing our Instagram account were suddenly gone, we still chose not to give up that easily. The past 2 months, we dedicated our hearts into trying every option to get our account back — we did thorough research and tried multiple account recovery methods, asked for help and advice from a few friends and connections who worked for relevant industries, and even personally visited the Meta Headquarters in Dubai to seek assistance. Despite our best efforts to retrieve our account, none of them had seen success.
And so, with heavy hearts on 5th June 2023, we have finally decided to move onto our final option, which is to open a new Instagram account and start over.
Our new account handle is @sensationstation.ae. The direct URL to the account page is – https://www.instagram.com/sensationstation.ae/
So please shout from the rooftops, tell your friends, family, teachers and neighbors to come and support us and follow our new account @sensationstation.ae
We genuinely understand that gaining back all our following and rebuilding our progress and momentum on Instagram will not happen overnight, but we would be extremely grateful to anyone who’s willing to extend help and support by following our new account. We are eager to transform this untoward occurrence into countless new opportunities for us to help and reach more children and families every day.
Lastly, we encourage everyone to stay vigilant and consider our story as a reminder that there can be ill-natured people everywhere — whether online or in real life. If you receive any sudden message or notification from Instagram, Meta or Facebook, please ensure that you thoroughly scrutinise and validate it first before clicking any link or button. Also, if you receive any message from our previous account @sensationstationcentre, we ask you to please ignore, block or report the account as we assure you that it is NOT from us.
As always, thank you very much for your sensational support and understanding.
Onwards and upwards,
Sensation Station Team