A spam account on Instagram is a secondary private account created specifically for the purpose of sharing personal, raw, or unpolished images or videos with an exclusive niche or group of people or friends. It is also known as a "finsta account". The rise of spam accounts began in 2017 when Instagram allowed users to create and switch between multiple accounts. A spam account is different from a main account, which is open to the public, as it is private and requires the poster to accept any followers in order to permit access to one’s social media content. Spam accounts are popular among young people, who use them to post content without thinking about what they are doing. They are also used to communicate in a group without prying public eyes, and of course, their parents. Spam accounts usually contain a selection of posts or Instagram stories depicting a young person’s day out, likely showing any images captured in the moment, such as food they ate, any sights they saw, or people they interacted with.

It is important to note that spam accounts are separate from spam messages, which are a serious problem for many Instagram users. Spam messages typically sell something or include external links to other websites. To stop Instagram spam, users can set their account to private, block spammers, and set the app to reject message requests.