Sydney rapper loses more than $50,000 after hacker hijacks his Instagram

It was a seemingly innocent text message, but it cost this young couple more than $50,000 and left with substantially less money to pay for their daughter and their mortgage.

A young couple have been left devastated after a hacker hijacked their business and demanded a ransom, making it harder to pay for their daughter and their mortgage.

Trent Pedrana and his long-time partner Chloe Jackman, both 25, bought a house in Sydney in April last year. Three months later, they had a baby girl.

Mr Pedrana is better known by his rapper moniker ‘That Kid Kearve’, after the Western Sydney man’s music career took off in 2018 when he hit number one on the rap and hip hop charts for iTunes.

The couple thought they would be fine with Mr Pedrana as the sole breadwinner while Chloe took time off work to care for their new baby.

Then they were blindsided when their ‘That Kid Kearve’ Instagram page was hacked in September, with the cyber criminal behind the attack demanding money if they wanted it returned.

Six months later, they still haven’t been able to regain control of the account and it’s impacting their income.

“Terrible timing, right when I stopped working, we were expecting more money to be coming than what it was,” Ms Jackman told news.com.au.

Mr Pedrana agreed, adding: “Just before this has happened, I’ve invested close to $100,000 in a house, it was a bad time for it to happen.”

Trent Pedrana and his long-time partner Chloe Jackman are struggling to afford their new home and baby because of his hacked Instagram account.

Mr Pedrana’s music business had already been struggling over the last two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic, as he was unable to go on tour or do any live shows.

During that time, he had turned his attention to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, with Instagram being the biggest success, using the platforms to sell merchandise, promote new songs and make money from streams.

The rapper isn’t signed with any labels or management, meaning he relies more heavily on social media than most musicians.

To date, he has had his music streamed 60 million times.

Just five months before the hack, the couple bought their first home.

With 80,000 followers and a verified blue tick next to his name, the absence of Instagram has been a massive blow for the young dad.

He puts the loss as high as $50,000 over the last six months.

“I haven’t done shows in two years, I’ve been living off my streams and my merch. I can’t even set up a tour or anything [because of the Instagram hack], that’s $50,000 to $100,000 gone,” he explained.

“I’m still making money [but] can’t do anything else to progress.”

Mr Pedrana is stuck in limbo as he can’t sell his merchandise and is unwilling to drop any new albums while one-third of his social media reach is out of action.

Text that started it all

The hack started with an innocent-looking text message, he recalls.

Sydney rapper Trent ‘That Kid Kearve’ Pedrana makes a full-time living from his music.

Trent Pedrana autographing his albums.

Mr Pedrana knows the exact moment his nightmare began.

“I was waiting for stuff from the post, I get sent the tracking numbers,” he said.

But the text he received wasn’t actually a tracking number — it was a malicious link.

Just a day later, he realised he was logged out of his Instagram page. The password had changed and the phone number was updated to one from Turkey.

Within hours, the hacker got in touch with Mr Pedrana’s family members, wanting $1500 as a ransom payment.

“The police have been contacted and so have Instagram we will have the account back tomorrow,” his sister told the hacker.

The hacker’s ransom conversation with Mr Pedrana’s sister on WhatsApp.

Strangely enough, the hacker assured them they were “a good person”.

Unperturbed, the hacker chillingly replied: “I can take it back for sure when you get it … I am not doing this for the first time.”

Later on in the conversation, the cyber criminal bizarrely added: “I’m a good person actually you can get along with me.

“But you always curse.

“You make me sad, my only goal is to make some money.”

Mr Pedrana’s sister replied: “Get a f*****g job,” to which the Turkish criminal responded “But it is very difficult to make money any other way. And if you live in turkey [sic] it’s really bad in here.”

Mr Pedrana never entertained the idea of paying the hacker, thinking it would be a fairly quick and painless process to regain control of the account — especially as he was verified on Instagram and had a working relationship with Meta, which oversees Instagram.

What he discovered was the complete opposite.

The issue has been going on since September last year.

Mr Pedrana says Instagram is his main medium to reach his fans.

The hacker began posting random photos and private messaging followers on the ‘That Kid Kearve’ account asking to borrow money once they realised the ransom wouldn’t be paid.

Mr Pedrana’s followers rallied and lodged so many reports to Instagram that within a day, the account had been deactivated over concerns it had been compromised.

The account was soon brought back online and the rapper was sent a password reset link.

However, in a frustrating twist, Mr Pedrana received an error message.

“Sorry, we can’t send you a link to reset your password. Please contact Instagram for help,” the email read.

Mr Pedrana has been stuck on that message ever since.

Despite having a good relationship with the Facebook ads spend team, they told him they are unable to help because it falls under a different department’s jurisdiction, for the Instagram department, not Facebook.

Numerous attempts to get in touch with Instagram have gone unanswered.

Six months later, Me Pedrana is still waiting for a resolution.

His partner Ms Jackman said: “We still to this day are trying to contact Instagram as the account is sitting there ready to go. We just need them to send us a reset password link.”

The young dad desperately wants his account back.

News.com.au contacted Meta four days ago but did not even get a response that the email had been received.

Meta has previously said it was crucial to stay vigilant against hackers.

“It’s important people understand how to protect their accounts from suspicious activity which is why we’ve built features that give people the power to manage their experience with our platforms and take action when they see something suspicious,” it said in a statement.

Steps involve turning on two-factor authentication, reporting suspicious accounts, and avoiding phishing such as not clicking on dodgy links or responding to strange messages and emails.

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Originally published as Sydney rapper loses more than $50,000 after hacker hijacks his Instagram