Hey guys, if you’ve been scrolling through social media lately (or back in August 2025), you probably caught wind of that absolutely bonkers wave of Instagram hacks. In one crazy day, hackers took over accounts of huge names like Future (the American rapper), the official Michael Jackson page (yeah, even the King of Pop’s estate wasn’t safe), Adele (who’s basically huge everywhere, including the US scene), Tyla, and even Zara Larsson chimed in about it.
They all posted the exact same weird thing: an AI-generated pic of Future holding this massive coin labeled “FREEBANDZ” – which is tied to his brand, but totally fake for this scam – plus some Solana memecoin contract address and promo junk. It looked like a surprise collab or something, but nope… pure crypto scam.
The posts popped up almost at the same time across these accounts, pumped the fake FREEBANDZ token up to like $900k market cap, then bam – hackers dumped everything, crashed it 98%, and walked away with around $49k in Solana. Future even deactivated his account for a bit afterward. Zara Larsson went on her Stories like “Wait??? I didn’t post this??? Hahaha why did so many artists get hit with this?? Is this a genius marketing hack?” – she was confused and kinda laughing about it, but you could tell it freaked her out.
Posts got deleted super fast, like within 20 minutes, but the damage was done. Fans lost money jumping on the hype, and it just shows how easy it is to exploit big accounts for quick cash. This wasn’t some random thing – it was coordinated, probably using old leaked passwords, phishing links, or weak recovery options. And if these stars with teams and verification can get hit… what about our little accounts?
Remember the old 2014 celebrity photo leaks from iCloud? Or Twitter hacks in 2020 with Obama and Elon Musk pushing Bitcoin scams? Stuff like this keeps happening, and now with AI making fake images and deepfakes, it’s getting scarier. Reports say celebrity impersonation scams cost people billions in 2025 alone. Crazy, right?
So what can we do?
I’m not trying to scare you, but come on – let’s be real.
- First off – turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) everywhere possible. Seriously, even if someone gets your password, they need that code from your phone or app. Huge difference.
- Second – passwords. Stop reusing the same one! “Password123” or your dog’s name + birthday? Hackers love that. Make ’em long and random. I use generators all the time – stuff like psw.lt is super straightforward for whipping up strong ones quick, or password managers like Bitwarden or LastPass that generate and save them for you.
The NIST folks (you know, the US standards people) say go for longer phrases even if they’re not super complex – like that famous “correct horse battery staple” example. And CISA (cybersecurity agency) keeps saying: no reusing, use managers, stay vigilant. NIST guidelines here and CISA tips here.
I actually spent a whole evening last month changing all my important passwords after hearing about these hacks. Felt paranoid at first, but now I sleep better. No joke.
Bottom line
Nobody’s invincible online, not even superstars. Take a minute today to beef up your security – enable 2FA, generate fresh strong passwords, don’t click sketchy links. Your photos, messages, bank links… it’s all worth protecting.
Have you ever had an account almost get hacked, or know someone who did? Drop it in the comments – always curious to hear real stories. Stay safe out there, folks!
(For the full scoop, check out Yahoo Finance or Rolling Stone from August 2025 – wild reads.) 😅
