On 2026-11-01 a poster on r/onlyfansadvice described a signup that went wrong at every step: "So I got a burner iPhone SE, residential proxy, a cheap data line. I created an IG and it instantly asked to make sure I'm not a bot, had me fill out a captcha and use the phone number to verify, then even asked me for a video selfie, and now it's on hold for 48 hours while they decide if my account meets community standards. I have not posted a single thing, all this occurred during account set up."
Then the question everyone in that spot asks: "I'm worried this plan is dead on arrival."
Not necessarily. But the ladder they climbed (captcha, phone, selfie, hold) is four different checks, and only some of them involve the IP address. We sell IP addresses. So this goes rung by rung: what a different proxy type could change, what it could not, and where we do not know.
The "flagged as an open proxy" message and the phone-number wall are covered in which IP gets a new Instagram account through. Meta's selfie on Facebook signups is in what the proxy decided and what it did not.
The four rungs, and what each one says about the IP
Each rung is a separate check, and the higher the account climbs, the less the IP address has to do with it.
Instagram does not publish how it scores a signup. Nobody outside Meta knows the weights. What follows is a reading of what each check is for, set against what people in these threads changed.
| Rung | What it is checking | What the IP plausibly contributes | Does a different proxy type change it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Captcha | Is a script filling in the form? | Some. A range with a bad signup history attracts more of them | Sometimes, if the old address was the problem |
| Phone check | Is there a real, reachable number behind this? | Little. Country agreement with the number | Only the country match, never the number itself |
| Video selfie | Is a real person behind this, and which one? | Possibly the odds of being asked. Nothing once asked | No |
| 48-hour hold | Does a human or a slower system clear the account? | Nothing you can change during the hold | No, and switching mid-review adds a mismatch |
The bottom rung leans on the address. The top two do not.
The captcha
A captcha is the cheapest friction Instagram has, handed out so widely that one captcha says little about your address.
Repetition says more. A captcha on every attempt, from every fresh profile, on the same range, points at the range. A BHW thread on proxies for IG registration put it in one line: "Even good providers can have burned IPs. For IG registration, people usually have better results with fresh mobile or residential proxies and low usage per IP." Low usage per IP is the part that counts. An address that produced other signups this month brings that history to yours.
The phone check
The phone check is mostly about the number, and the address only matters in whether it agrees with the number's country.
The open proxy post covers that wall in full. One addition here. A BHW thread titled "IG asks for phone number right after signup (fresh ISP proxy, AdsPower, new Proton email)" asked three things at once: "does a mobile proxy fix this, does the email domain matter, and what phone-verification options do people use??" We only saw search snippets of that thread, not the replies in full. The snippet of one reply on page 2 starts: "You need to clarify the IP credibility score of the proxy before switching to a different type."
That is the right order. Check the address you have before buying a different kind. Our free fraud-score check shows the score, the connection type and the network behind the address. Clean score, phone check anyway? Then the address probably did not trigger it. Fresh desktop signups get asked for a number on every proxy type in these threads.
The email domain? Instagram does not say. Privacy mail services are popular with people making many accounts, so it could be a weak signal. We would not bet either way.
The video selfie
The video selfie checks whether a person is behind the account, and the IP address has nothing to say about that once the prompt is on screen.
A proxy is not a way past it, and anyone selling an address as a selfie fix is selling something that does not exist. A clean address might lower the odds of being asked in the first place, by not adding a bad-range signal to the pile. Might. Instagram publishes no numbers.
The selfie also checks more than "is this a human". A BHW thread titled "Instagram perma-disabled my AI influencer account (AI clearly labeled) after selfie verification" has this: "I submitted a video selfie using my own face, and shortly after it was permanently disabled." We do not know why that account went. A face that did not match the face on the profile is one obvious reading. No address changes a face.
The 48-hour hold
The hold is a review, and the only thing a proxy can do during a review is make it worse.
The account had posted nothing, so the review was about the signup itself: the device, the number, the selfie and where it all came from. Switching proxies mid-hold puts a second address on an account under review. Waiting is dull. It is also the only move.
The burner iPhone setup probably mixed two connections
On an ordinary iPhone, a manual proxy belongs to one Wi-Fi network, and there is no proxy field at all for mobile data.
On iOS the proxy lives under Settings, Wi-Fi, the info button next to a network, then Configure Proxy. It applies to that network only. The cellular settings have no equivalent on a normal, unmanaged phone. So a burner with "a cheap data line" uses the proxy only while it sits on the Wi-Fi where the proxy was set.
We do not know how the poster connected. But if any part of the signup ran over the data line (because Wi-Fi dropped, because the phone was set up on the data line before the proxy was configured, or because Wi-Fi Assist can hand traffic to cellular when the Wi-Fi signal is weak), then Instagram saw two addresses during one signup: the proxy's and the carrier's. If the proxy country and the SIM's carrier country differ, it also saw two countries.
Even routed right, a Wi-Fi proxy does not change the SIM, its number, or the phone's region settings. If the SIM is from one country and the proxy from another, the address is the odd one out. On a phone with a SIM from the account's country, the carrier's own connection may be the most natural address it could have.
Desktop in an antidetect browser vs. a phone app
A desktop signup in an antidetect browser on a static ISP address and an app signup on a real phone are different risk profiles, and neither is clean by default.
The desktop route gives Instagram a browser fingerprint, an address and an email. The BHW poster's stack (fresh ISP proxy, AdsPower, new Proton email) is a common version. No surprise Instagram asked for a phone number. A desktop browser has little else to vouch for it.
The phone route gives Instagram a real device, an app install and often a real SIM. More to trust. Also more to tie together, since every account opened on that phone shares it. Our post on bans that spread from a main account goes through those ties.
A reply in a BHW thread titled "is impossible to create instagram account on pc?" mentions the desktop housekeeping: "It need clearing of browser cookies with cache and then add no spam score proxy." The cookie part is real: leftover cookies tie a new signup to the earlier account before the address is even looked at. The "no spam score proxy" part is the fraud check above.
What the IP does not decide
The address does not decide the selfie, the phone number type, the email, the face in the photos, or how fast a setup produces accounts.
A reply in a BHW thread on fresh accounts banned at registration says it plainly: "It sounds like IG is looking at more than just your proxy, phone number and spoofed IDs. The selfie checks and bans suggest the accounts are being flagged as ..." The snippet ends there. The first half is enough.
Velocity is the one people underrate. A BHW thread running an experiment of 400 posts a day described VAs who had "each created 20+ accounts and are currently posting 2x a day," adding that "the accounts were getting banned at a ..." Page 2 notes the accounts "are created/warmed up on US proxies on US devices." Right country, right devices. Twenty-plus accounts from one person's setup still look like one person's twenty-plus accounts. No IP type changes the count.
A VOIP number belongs here too, and so does a face already on a banned account.
The boring setup that gives one account a chance
One address per account, held steady, in the same country as the phone number, used on the device the account will live on, with no burst of signups behind it.
A BHW reply in "How Do You Create a proper US Instagram Account?" lays out most of it: "register using a clean mobile/residential proxy, verify with a real non-VOIP US number." Another, in "Running 10+ Instagram Accounts for an OF model", adds the rule that matters most: "4G mobile proxies + anti detect browser (AdsPower/Multilogin) works fine if you strictly stick to 1 proxy per account."
In order:
- Check the address before the first signup. Bad score, swap it.
- Keep the address still. A static ISP address or a residential sticky session, never a rotating exit that changes in the middle of the form.
- Match the country of the address, the phone number, the device region and the language.
- Create the account on the device or browser profile it will live on.
- Space the signups out. One account, then days, not ten in an evening.
- If a selfie or a hold appears, answer it honestly and wait. Do not create the next account from the same phone while the first is under review.
BirdProxies sells the address part of that list: static ISP addresses, residential with sticky or rotating sessions, and mobile 4G/5G in DE, GB, US and JP. The Instagram proxies page has which type fits which job. None of it passes a selfie. Nothing does.
FAQ
Why does Instagram ask for a video selfie when I create a new account?
A brand-new account has no history, and Instagram wants proof a real person is behind it. A bad address can raise the odds of being asked. So can the device, the number and how fast accounts are made.
Will a mobile proxy stop Instagram asking for my phone number?
Probably not on its own. A phone request on a fresh signup is common on every IP type. A mobile address can remove a bad-range signal, but the number check is about the number.
Can a proxy get me past Instagram's video selfie?
No. Once the prompt is on screen, the check is about the person, not the connection.
My Instagram account is on hold for 48 hours after signup. What should I do?
Wait. Do not switch the proxy or the device during the hold. A second address on an account under review is one more thing that does not add up.
Does a residential proxy work on an iPhone's mobile data?
Not through the normal settings. iOS sets a manual proxy per Wi-Fi network, and mobile data has no proxy field. If the phone drops to cellular during signup, Instagram sees the carrier's address.
Should I switch from ISP to mobile proxies for Instagram signups?
Check the ISP address's fraud score first. If it is clean and you still hit every rung, the address was probably not the cause, and a pricier proxy type will not fix it.