“Verify your age within 48 hours or your account will be deleted”: the age-verification scam
Australia's minimum-age rules for social media have been in the news for a year, and most people know roughly that platforms now have to check ages. That vague awareness is the opening. The National Anti-Scam Centre warned in December 2025 about messages exploiting it, and they've kept coming: an email from “Instagram Support” or a text from “Facebook”, an official-looking page, a deadline, and a request for the one thing an identity thief wants most — a clear photo of a government ID.
The photo goes to a criminal, not a platform. A licence image with your name, date of birth, address and licence number is enough to open accounts, take out credit, or pass a telco's identity check for a port-out. Unlike a card, you can't cancel it and get a new one in the post.
What genuine age checks look like
When a platform does need to confirm an age, the prompt appears when you open the app, in the app, and the options are the platform's own — typically a selfie-based estimate, or a document upload through the platform's in-app flow, with no external website involved. There is no countdown clock, no threat to delete your photos by Friday, and no link in a text. If a prompt worries you, close the message, open the app from your phone's home screen and look in Settings under Account. If there's nothing there, there was nothing.
The tells
- It arrived by email or text with a link. Platforms tell you things in the app. A verification demand that lives in your inbox is already wrong.
- The address isn't the platform's. instagram-verify-au.net, meta-agecheck.com, facebook-verify.co. Real Instagram lives at instagram.com; real Facebook at facebook.com. The bit before the first single slash is the only bit that counts.
- A deadline and a deletion. “48 hours”, “permanently”, “all your photos”. Fear of losing a decade of family photos is the lever, and it's chosen well. Platforms give notice measured in weeks and don't wipe accounts over a missed email.
- It wants a passport or licence photo, uploaded to a page. This is the scam's whole purpose. Everything else is set dressing.
If you already uploaded ID
Don't wait to see what happens. Call IDCARE on 1800 595 160 — Australia's free identity support service — and tell them which document. They'll walk you through a credit ban or alert, replacing the licence if warranted, and watching for misuse. Change the password on the account the message named, from the real app, and turn on two-factor authentication. Report it at Scamwatch.
The person you worry about
Grandparents on Facebook are the ideal target: they've heard about the new rules, they don't know what a real age check looks like, and the photos on the account are the ones of the grandchildren. Is it a scam? answers this in about ten seconds — no platform verifies age by emailed link, don't upload anything, open the app yourself — and the family is told at the same time. Paste any message into the free checker.
Common questions
Do social media platforms in Australia really check ages now?
Yes, under the minimum-age rules, but they do it inside the app through their own settings and flows. They don't send emails or texts with a link and a 48-hour deadline, and they don't ask you to upload a licence photo to an outside website.
The email came from support@instagram-verify-au.net. Isn't that Instagram?
No. Instagram's address is instagram.com; Facebook's is facebook.com. A domain with an extra word or a hyphen after the brand, or a different ending like .net or .co, belongs to whoever registered it. That's the whole check.
Will my account really be deleted if I don't verify?
Not because of a message like this. Genuine platform notices about age appear in the app, give reasonable time, and don't threaten to erase your photos by a deadline. If you're worried, open the app from your home screen and look at your account settings.
I uploaded a photo of my licence. What should I do?
Call IDCARE on 1800 595 160 today. A licence image can be used to open credit or take over your phone number, so a credit ban or alert and possibly a new licence number are worth discussing. Change the account's password from the real app and turn on two-factor authentication.
Why do scammers want a licence more than a card number?
A card can be cancelled and replaced in a week. A licence carries your name, date of birth, address and licence number together, which is enough to pass identity checks at banks, lenders and telcos, and it's much harder to change.
New rules, old scam. The photo of the licence is the only thing they want.
Is it a scam? answers a forwarded age-verification demand in about ten seconds — no platform asks this by link — and tells the family before anything is uploaded. One Australian number, no app.
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