“There was no shop. It was just blank. That was a shock.”
Despite following all available recovery steps, Kelly said there was “absolutely no way” to get it back by himself.
“I thought, ‘that’s that’,” he said. “I kind of resigned to that fact. There was nothing I could do.”
Hēmi Kelly says the experience of losing control of his Instagram account has been a wake-up call. Photo / Jason Dorday
He said the loss had an immediate emotional and financial impact.
“My reach was gone,” he said. “Advertising. Visibility. I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to rebuild. I’ve got to start all over again’.”
Asked how it affected him, Kelly said simply, “Yeah. Tears.”
Kelly said he tried to get in touch with Meta, but only ended up dealing with what he described as countless AI-powered bots and got nowhere.
After exhausting his options he turned to the Herald, which managed to contact a senior communications director at Meta.
Within hours the account was back in Kelly’s control.
Although the communications director agreed to help, they also suggested it would be better if the Herald did not publish an article, saying it could lead to more people with account issues contacting the newsroom.
Kelly was thankful to get his account back but unimpressed with Meta.
“At no point did they just take control of the situation and go, ‘okay, it’s all fixed’,” he said.
Hēmi Kelly lost his Instagram account Everyday Maori, which has 77,000 followers, after a phishing scam. Photo / Jason Dorday
He said the experience had been a wake-up call.
“It showed me how heavily I rely on this one platform,” he said. “It was all in one place and then all of a sudden that was gone.”
Kelly is not alone in being scammed. Netsafe and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimated New Zealanders lost a record $3 billion to scams in 2025 in their “State of Scams in New Zealand” report.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer said Meta needs to do better.
“I expect large tech companies operating in New Zealand to be contactable and responsive to consumers and small businesses.”
He said the Consumer Guarantees Act guarantees a platform’s services are performed with reasonable care and skill, and this could extend to a platform’s process for suspending accounts.
“Meta is a valued member of the New Zealand Anti-Scam Alliance, and I encourage them to engage to support our small businesses.
“I welcome any further cases like this to be brought to my attention.”
The Herald went back to Meta and asked for a response to the minister’s comments, and asked why Kelly was unable to recover the account through ordinary support channels.
A Meta spokesperson did not answer these questions but did point to work the company was doing to improve account security and support.
“We were pleased to help Mr Kelly regain access to his account. Account theft through phishing is a challenge across the internet, and we take it very seriously.”
New account hacks have decreased by more than 30% globally on Facebook and Instagram, according to the spokesperson, who said Meta had launched AI support, video selfie verification and security tools such as passkeys.
“We encourage people to enable two-factor authentication and be vigilant about phishing attempts,” the spokesperson said.
“We value our participation in the New Zealand Anti-Scam Alliance and our ongoing engagement with the New Zealand Government to keep people safe online.”