Top Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) executives appear to have unwittingly fallen prey to a cleverly disguised fake Tim Cook account on Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ: META) Instagram account.
What Happened: In a bizarre twist, it seems that several high-ranking Apple executives, including Lisa Jackson and Alan Dye, were following a suspicious Instagram account under the username @tim.d.cook.
The account, which surfaced in July 2023, garnered attention after it posted content seemingly related to Apple's CEO, reported 9To5Mac.
The first post, published on Aug. 20, featured two high-quality photographs, apparently taken with an iPhone, in honor of World Photography Day. Three days later, on Aug. 23, the account shared a 30-second promotional video for a campaign in collaboration with 3DPets.
However, the report confirmed that Cook had no association with the account, citing sources familiar with the matter.
At the time of writing, the supposed Instagram account of the Apple CEO was not accessible on the platform.
Cook is known for his reserved and professional demeanor on Twitter and does not typically engage in personal content sharing.
This made the Instagram account appear credible at first glance, especially given the recent controversies surrounding Twitter's transformation into X under the ownership of Elon Musk.
Why It's Important: Previously, in January this year, an Instagram imposter account was posing as Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin allegedly engaged over 570,000 users through sponsored ads and a staking scam.
The account had 24 posts and a display image of Buterin, which resembled his Twitter profile picture. It also had a link to his blog for added authenticity.
Not only Instagram, Musk's Twitter, now rebranded as X, has also faced its fair share of impersonators havoc. Last year, the tech billionaire's plan for a "rock solid" Twitter Blue relaunch was postponed until the team became confident about preventing impersonations.