A lot of people use pseudonyms to hide their identity on social networks, and some even use fake profiles to trick other people. If you suspect that something is off about an Instagram account and you are trying to identify who is behind it, there are a couple of things you can do.

This article explains how to find out the owner of an Instagram account.

1. Ask the Person

Before you begin your investigation, you might want to try this easiest approach – asking the person directly. Just send a message to the Instagram account, introduce yourself, and explain the reason why you want to know more information about them.

If you already did this and didn’t get any replies, it’s time to do more digging.

2. Google

Doing a basic web search for the Instagram account name and cross-referencing it to who the Instagram owner says they are can be a quick way to detect a scammer. Just enter the Instagram username, the person’s full name (if they have it displayed on their bio), location, or other identifying details. This will retrieve webpages where the same username or name appeared, which might help provide additional information about the person.

While Google searches can bring up many results, it can be incredibly time-consuming to sift through the results, and still, it isn’t guaranteed to get the result you require.

3. Use Reverse Image Search

If the Instagram account has a profile picture or ever posted any photos, you can run a reverse image search to see if the same photo has been used on other websites or social media accounts. This might help you find the person’s accounts on other platforms, or in some cases, determine whether it’s a fake Instagram account stealing someone else’s images.

All you need to do is take a screenshot of the person’s picture and upload it into a free reverse image lookup tool like Google Images, Tineye, or Bing Images.

Alternatively, if you’re using the Chrome browser on a desktop, simply right-click the image and select Search images with Google Lens.

If the free tools didn’t bring up the results you needed, consider using a paid people finder tool like Social Catfish to get information from sources that general search engines don’t have.

4. Check Out the Comments and Mentions

Another way to trace an Instagram account owner is by gathering information from that account.

Checking their bio is the first step to take. Then, you can look at the person’s follows and followers to see if you can recognize some of the names from there – maybe an old classmate or co-worker. This might help you determine who the Instagram account might belong to. Note that if the account follows lots of accounts and only has a few followers, this could be a red flag for a fake account.

Looking through comments and mentions left for that account to see if this gives you a lead to who they are. Sometimes, people post photos of themselves, their friends, or details about their job. These can be used to build a profile of the person behind the account. If you’re lucky, maybe you can find a comment mentioning the name or approximate location of the account owner, which will help you locate him or her.

Don’t feel like doing all the legwork going through posts and comments? Try a people search engine and get all the information associated with someone in one report with one search.

5. Cross-check Other Websites

Most Instagram account holders have accounts on other social media websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, which might give you more information about the person and help you determine who is behind the Instagram profile. Therefore, you might want to search for their accounts on multiple sites.

For instance, you can search for their Instagram username on Facebook and see if you can find any account. As people tend to use the same username on different sites, you have a good chance to find the person’s Facebook profile.

Also, if you know the person’s full name or email, you can also use that information to track down their account.

6. Use a People Search Engine

There are a variety of websites for finding people-related information, called people search engines. Most of them provide different ways to track down someone – you can search by name, phone number, email address, and social media username, and some even let you search by pictures.

Our top pick is Social Catfish – a powerful people search engine, with a comprehensive database that gathers information from multiple sources.

You can search the Instagram username with Social Catfish and get a background report on the person you are looking for, which includes their contact information, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, social profiles, criminal records, and more.

Wrapping up

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to uncover an Instagram owner as the technology makes it too easy for people to create accounts without leaving a trail. And it can be almost impossible to discover who’s behind an Instagram account if the person means to hide their personal information. If your searches end up empty-handed, it’s probably time to give up.