The saga of a Long Beach woman whose Instagram account was hacked took a turn for the worse.

Colette Lee Morales spent Wednesday pleading with the alleged hacker to give her account back over video chat.

The person asked her for $500 in bitcoin, but since then, he alleged hacker started reaching out to her followers for money.

At least three of her followers sent more than $3,000 via Zelle, thinking it was her.

"He was convincing them that this was an incredible deal they were gonna get with a few clicks," Morales says. "There were people who were ready to invest thousands. It was the most terrible feeling in the world, people lost money."

Morales says one of the more frustrating parts of the incident is that she was able to get in touch with her scammer in Nigeria, but could not get in touch with anyone from Instagram on the phone.

"The fact that it's easier to get in touch with him than Instagram shows things need to change," Morales says. "Social media is so important. It has to be zipped, it's not safe."

Morales has gotten her Instagram account back and then reached out to police.

The police recommended that the people who gave money file police reports.