How to scam someone on instagram

How Instagram Scammers Make $10k/Month Using the Dumbest Strategies | by Winifred J. Akpobi

MARKETING

They’re not Nigerian princes, yet they make so much money

Photo by Lindsey LaMont on Unsplash

There’s a long list of moneymaking scams in history, and they evolve technically every year.

These scams, you may have fallen for one or two of them from internet scammers. Or maybe not. There’s a high probability that your teenagers have fallen for some through social media, though. These scam agencies have developed more than humanity expected, and they now take advantage of social media, most especially Facebook and Instagram.

That’s all they do—scam people out of their money, block them, and then move to the next victim. Social media is a happy prompt for them.

So, who would fall for these cheap scams? Greedy young people who are mostly dumb? Not all the time.

Why are young people their target this time around? Because young people are flocking to the internet way more than their elders.

Who are these cheapskate scammers? Very normal people like you and me, who you’d never notice.

And I can swear that they’re not Nigerian princes like everyone thinks.

It goes like this. You see an awesome Instagram page with a wealthy man. He has everything an average person would wish for — 500 Lamborghini Veneno cars and 350 private jets — and he lives in a hotel in the middle of the ocean, all by himself. He also looks Hispanic.

This sexy man’s Instagram content just never stops coming, and you think he’s the god of gods. Finally, his bio says it all. He claims to work for a money-flipping organization.

There’s a link to the organization’s page, and it’s funny how curiosity kills the cat at the worst times.

It’s a new page and it goes like this: Invest your money, and in just 45 minutes, turn your $100 into $1,000, $500 into $5,000, and so on.

The feed of this scam page is filled with authentic proof in the form of images, positive reviews, even videos (by their fake influencers) that help them promote the page.

Now, you think it’s impossible to fall for it.

No, it’s not. They’re smart, and they have a strategy they use to lure people who are desperate for money. It starts with a person who falls for it.

That one person falls for it so badly. They convince the victim to flip $500 into $5,000 and that it will be ready in 45 minutes. Time passes, and there’s no credit alert. The victim asks why.

The response may be that they need an extra $350 to process the payment. And it just keeps increasing, depending on how badly the individual falls for it. They then request the victim’s Instagram password, card details, and whatnot (to process the payment).

If the victim successfully gives in, they log the victim out of their Instagram account or hack it, and use it as an opportunity to make advertising posts, saying how legit it is. And there goes the process.

A follower/online friend of the first victim sees the ad post and contacts the scam page. Another victim falls for it. Just like that.

These money-doubling CEOs are successful most of the time because they target the right people, use the right dumb words to manipulate, and boom! They’re swimming in stolen cash in just 45 minutes.

This scam is a comedy skit because when I heard the story from my friend, I laughed to my heart’s content. How do we tell Instagram that scammers are being crowned queens?

It started with my friend (female) living her life peacefully, uploading photos and reels like a normal person on Instagram. But something changed. She got a direct message — but from a fellow girl.

It started with Heys and His, and with answering battling questions she was asked about college and her personal life.

She proceeded to check the lady’s page and there was nothing new — just a sexy rich woman with a kid. And my friend felt like, Okay, she’s probably just really friendly.

Not at all.

The rich lady went ahead to give an unending gist about her personal life, the salary of $870k a month, and why she quit her modeling job because she got so rich after participating in some premium content no one has ever heard about.

It gets better.

She finally unleashes her true self and says she’s very much into ladies despite being married to a man. She said she loves to get freaky. Note that she sounded like a man — the sad wooing lines that men usually use.

Come on! All ladies know asking for a picture makes a man weaker than suspected. She did it anyway.

She goes to turn my friend’s direct message into the adult content she didn’t pay $1 a day for. And I’m surprised how well my friend played it out. She went along with the adult chat.

I thought the lady was going to stop at that, but then it hit me when HE screenshotted all the chats and asked for $300 (a lot lower than I expected) if my friend wanted the chats to be deleted.

He then went on to say that the chats will be posted worldwide if she didn’t send the money within a few hours.

Note that my friend changed her Instagram username and archived all her photos before this — she probably knew what he was up to and was curious to see what was to happen. She got the entertainment she was looking for.

She simply told him to post it, reported him, and blocked him without worry.

This scam type is so dumb, but people still fall for it. I found out that this scam type is gaining momentum on social media, like Tinder and other dating apps.

Their target: men and women that look awesomely perverted.

All they need are fake photos and the ability to chat through the provided resources. Easy.

Instagram and Facebook, they’re both very well known to attract people who are into fashion, style, and beauty, so they’re the perfect places to advertise businesses with these particular topics.

These business owners are smart. Their marketing strategies are top-notch because there’s no denying that social media like Instagram attracts loyal customers.

Well, so does the contest host that earns $99 per person.

Let’s say the contest host owns an Instagram contest account called “Miss Ultimate Beauty,” which has 87k followers (fake and bought) and also follows 0 people.

This contest page has quality studio-shot photos of women or men with the contest guidelines as the caption to the photos. It’s also marked “closed.” And there’s a winner with a fake selected cash prize.

I have no idea how much these people invest to get an Instagram page to look so authentic, beautiful, and gracefully ready for showbiz.

They select a date to start accepting contestants and a closing date as well.

As I said, their marketing strategy is top-notch. They don’t stop at just posting the date, they add an enticing instruction like this:

Miss Ultimate Beauty is back again!!! #missultimatebeauty
Have you registered for the latest ongoing photo contest which is presented and supported by @xxxxxx7u9ho (some fake brand influencer with 200k fake followers)? Well, if you haven’t registered, we are glad to tell you that this current contest is completely FREE!!!
There will be lots of cash prizes for both the three winners and the participants.
Winner: 5,000 USD + the lastest iPhone 20 X Pro Max + ambassador deal
1st runner-up: 2,500 USD
2nd runner-up: 1,000 USD
Other contestants get 200 USD each. (They make sure it’s higher than $99.)
There is more good news — the winner will also be on a monthly payroll.
To apply for this contest, you are required to follow the instructions below:
1) Follow this contest page @missultimatebeautynotascampageant.
2) Share this post and tag 5 friends in your comment below to follow and like this post.
3) Send a photo to us with your full name requesting to be a contestant.
Hurry now while entry is still open! It’s FREE!!!
For inquiries, send a direct message.

They don’t stop there.

They advertise, send bulk direct messages, pay influencers to advertise. They say if you bring a person to join the contest, you get a 30% discount. They’re so good with marketing that you think their cash prize is real. Some of them say you have to get the highest amount of likes on your submitted photo to win.

In their instructions, they say it’s completely free. That’s the biggest lie of the century. When interested people send a message to them, they ask them to pay an entry fee of $99 in less than 72 hours before successful acceptance using the most polite formal message ever.

They manipulate the victim into thinking their fake photo contest is authentic. It’s not. But these young males and females fall for it, and all they can do is pray to win.

It’s all in vain. After a month of embezzling cash from 100 desperate contestants, they announce the fake winner they already planned from the beginning, probably a friend of theirs.

They happily block all the former contestants and sing praises to God for blessing them with utmost luck. That’s as low as these basic scams go.

Instagram and Facebook scams are the highest-paying scams at this point. It’s easy and fun to get money for free. And even if social media has done everything it can to detect fraud, if there’s a human involved, there’s a sense of intelligence.

Yes, they’re intelligent. They use bad English and incorrect spellings, but that’s intentional, to attract the dumb people they crave.

It’s a professional marketing strategy, in the way I see it.

Even if these scammers are going to hell for being awesomely wicked, they teach us something.

They’re successful most times in attracting the right customers that are loyal. They pick the right words and the right ad sources. They go as far as examining people to see if they’re fit to be scammed.

It’s not breaking news. They’ve been going on for ages, these scams. And every day, new scams are formulated. The old scam gets figured out after gaining saturation in the scam business world, and they formulate new ones again.

A neverending process — similar to the entrepreneurship process.

More from the author:

7 Weirdest Ideas That Made People Multi-Millionaires

№ 7: $50 million yielded from making people ugly

medium. com

Instagram Scams - How to Stay Safe

Instagram scams have become overwhelmingly popular with cybercriminals. Social media has made it easy for strangers to earn your trust by impersonating people or brands. Sometimes, these fraudsters spend weeks talking with you before pulling their scam. As this risk rises, you’ll need to know the signs of a scam to avoid being robbed of your money and/or identity.

As our digital lives continue to grow, online scams have evolved to become more deceptive. Instagram phishing is just one of many believable schemes that can easily claim you as a victim. So, learning how to identify an Instagram scam is essential for all users on the platform.

What are Instagram Scams?

Instagram scammers use various methods to coerce you into being a victim of theft or an attack. Usually, these cybercriminals are seeking something valuable, like money or confidential information. Some may even try to use you as a vehicle to spread malicious code to loved ones or co-workers.

In any case, you’ll find yourself making a decision that could affect yourself and those around you. The trouble is that the scammers don’t always make it easy to remain rational. Effective scams tend to tap into your emotions and pretend to be trustworthy. The best scammers pay close attention to detail and make it hard to dispute their authenticity.

Your best defense is to be aware of the more popular schemes on Instagram.

Instagram Phishing Risks

Instagram phishing is the most common way scammers hijack your identity and personal accounts. Phishing involves a message that urges or persuades you to take action, usually requesting money or account login details.

Fraudulent messages are disguised as a trusted person or brand you might know, and the illusion of authenticity can be just enough to trick you into giving the hacker what they want.

Instagram itself has identified the following scams:

Romance - fraudsters ask you for money after gaining your trust, usually through means of flirting or seduction.
Lottery - scammers claim you’ve won something and request a fee to give you the reward.
Job - fraud offers to help you earn money if you provide banking info for direct payment.
Loan - schemes claim to let you borrow money instantly for an advance fee.
False Investment - scams lead you to make a small investment with claims of growing your money. Cash flipping scams are especially relevant on the platform.
Paid Subscription fraud - deceives you into paying for discounted access to services like music or movie streaming.

Other specific scams might be a threat to you as well:

Fake Influencer sponsors - try to fool growing Instagrammers out of their banking details by pretending to be a real brand offering an advertising deal.
Instagram phishing email - scams might urge you to use a fake login link to appeal against a terms of service strike on your account. Other emails claim suspicious activity that they’ll ask you to log in and verify.
Giveaways - ask that you give personal info, make a payment, or log into a site in exchange for a prize.

As you can see, phishing relies on gaining your trust or playing on emotions to deceive you. If you’re not careful, you could easily be scared or coerced into becoming a victim.

It’s worth remembering that scammers don’t always rush their plots, and it might take anywhere from days to months before the scam launched.

Eventually, any Instagram fraud scheme has some sort of "ask." This is the biggest red flag to look out for. If a brand or person has asked you to do something that might put you at risk, you might become a scam victim.

Scammed on Instagram? What to Do Next

If you’ve fallen for an Instagram scam or believe you might be a victim — you should take steps to minimize the damage.

This is because the personal information you’ve handed over could be used to:

Steal your identity
Drain your bank accounts
Breach any of your online accounts
Ruin your credit
Spread malware to people you know

With this knowledge, you can act quickly to lock the hacker out of your life long-term. You should also be able to undo some or all of the immediate problems they’ve caused you.

Here are some tips to take action:

Check your bank accounts and credit cards. Browse all your bank activity and statements for anything you don’t remember doing. A scammer that’s got your financial info might make transfers or purchases from your accounts. Don’t just look for big purchases — cybercrimes might keep their spending limited to small splurges. Sometimes, purchases as low as a few dollars have been discovered. If you’ve spotted anything odd, report it to your bank or credit institution to halt any future use.

Change your passwords. You'll want to change your Instagram password to be safe. But you might have compromised several other accounts if you used a fake login form. If you’ve ever reused passwords and usernames, a scammer can break into more of your accounts. So, be sure to change passwords across all your essential accounts, like banking, social media, email, and anywhere you pay bills or shop online.

Use unique passwords for every online account. In addition to changing your passwords, be sure to make each one challenging and different. If it's easy for you to remember, it might be easy for a hacker to guess. Passphrases filled with a variety of character types will help you stay secure. Random character strings are the absolute best option. To remember all of these new passwords, we suggest you use a secure online vault like Kaspersky Password Manager.

Check your credit and freeze it. Scammers have been known to create new bank accounts and incur all sorts of debt in your name. In case your identity has been stolen, it’s wise to check your credit scores and reports across all three of the major institutions. In the US, Experion, Equifax, and TransUnion each gather info differently, so you’ll want to check all of them (if you’re not a citizen of the United States, you should check your own country’s institutions). Freezing your credit is another vital step towards limiting the issues caused by known identity theft.

Use an ID theft checker service. Services like these will monitor any suspicious activity across your credit, tax returns, investments, etc. To keep an eye out for any other data breaches, Kaspersky Security Cloud offers constant monitoring and tips to protect yourself.

How to Protect Yourself Against Instagram Scams

Instagram phishing seems to be sticking around, so you'll need to be prepared to deal with it. Here are some reliable ways to spot and avoid being a victim of Instagram fraud.

Best Ways to Avoid Fraud on Instagram

If a message asks you to “give” something, watch out. Fraud usually mentions bank accounts, selling something, or asking for other personal info. This might include logging into an account or being asked to make a payment for something. If you’ve received any direct messages or emails you find suspicious, proceed with caution.

Enabling two-factor authentication allows you a secondary checkpoint for account logins after your password has been used. This checkpoint requires the person logging in to verify by using another account or device that you own. Types of 2FA offered might include text message, email, in-app prompts, biometrics, or even a physical USB key.

Never use a login link through a message. Always use an official URL and login directly to your accounts. This is especially true for Instagram phishing email fraud. Scammers are hoping that you'll react to the urgency in their messages and click to login without thinking rationally. Always pause and seek out the real URL. If there is a real problem, an authentic login will make it clear. You can also follow up with an official support email, chat, or customer phone number to confirm.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Giveaways, jobs, and other scams get you excited to cloud your judgment. It’s safer to assume that these are rarely ever authentic. If you are unsure, you can contact brands through official channels directly. Search the web for their real website and contact them to ask about the details.

Always search for official accounts before responding to messages. You may be able to spot authentic brands and people by searching for verified accounts (ones with the blue check next to username). Big brands will have links to all official social media from their official website. No Instagram link on their website might mean the brand doesn’t have an official Instagram account.

If a stranger follows you, be suspicious. Many scams involve strangers gaining your trust by building a relationship with you. It is wise to block unknown followers or those who don’t share any mutual followers with you. It might even be better if you set your account to private and only allow people you know to follow you.

If someone you know sends a strange message, contact them directly. Reach the person offline with a phone call or talk to them in-person. Ask them if they sent the message. A scammer may be impersonating them and targeting you along with other people they know. They may need to report the account and warn the people around them.

Use an anti-virus program across all your devices. You’ll want to protect yourself from any malware that might have embedded itself into your device (if you’ve clicked a suspicious link). Software like Kaspersky Internet Security offers protection against such malware, as well as, viruses, ransomware, and even helps to block phishing.

Related articles:

Phishing Prevention Tips
How to Generate Strong Passwords for Your Social Media Accounts
Internet Safety on Twitter
Facebook Security

How to trick him into uploading any photo or video

Instagram Stories has quickly become a highly requested feature not only for ordinary users but also for business accounts. More and more brands are turning to Instagram Stories. As with Snapchat, Instagram Stories also has certain restrictions that make content planning more difficult for marketers, and the most important of these is the posting of photos and videos taken only in the last 24 hours.

Everyone strives to create a good Instagram Stories, but how do you combine this with content that was filmed much earlier? As it turned out, not everything is so sad, and we bring to your attention as many as 3 ways to get around this limitation, with which you can post photos and videos to your Instagram Stories that were taken much earlier than 24 hours.

Instagram marketing forces you to make decisions such as whether to post often or rarely, and the adequacy of the chosen choice in a given situation affects the level of sales, traffic and the number of followers. In Instagram Stories, you can show your creative potential to the maximum and in any quantity, without the risk of losing your audience.

True, as we said, Instagram Stories can only publish content created in the last 24 hours, which means that photos and videos taken before 24 hours simply will not be displayed in the image viewer, which makes it very difficult to pre-prepare Stories.

How nice it would be if we could prepare a bunch of photos and videos on Monday to publish in a week! Fortunately, this is possible, and in several ways. How to do it, read on:

The easiest and most affordable way for most people is to simply take a screenshot of an old photo by pressing the Home and Sleep buttons at the same time. It turns out that the screenshot is completely “new”, which means you can upload it to your Instagram Story.

The second option is to use a third party application to edit the metadata of your photos and videos, or to keep an updated version of your videos.

Metadata editing with Pixelgarde.

Metadata in your photos and videos is information that describes the lens aperture, focal length, camera shutter speed, ISO speed, flash or not, and of course the date the photo or video was taken. By changing the metadata on a photo or video, you can trick Instagram into believing it was taken within the last 24 hours.

The easiest way to do this is to download the free Pixelgarde app, which lets you add, remove, or change the geotag, dates, time of day, and other metadata in your photos and videos. Pixelgarde has a free watermarked version of their app, but if you want to get rid of it, you can update the app for just 1.9$9

You can then open the Instagram app and select a photo or video to post to your story! It should be noted that this application may behave incorrectly from time to time.

Download the free iMovie app on your iPhone (or Video Show on Android). Click "Create Project" and then "Video" to view photos and videos saved on your smartphone. Select the video you plan to post to your Instagram story and click "Create Movie".

You can edit the video in this window (add a filter or theme, music and transitions) or just save the video to your library by selecting Done and then clicking the export button and choosing Save Video.

Finally, open the Instagram app on your smartphone, navigate to the Instagram Story camera, and then swipe down to open the image viewer. Your saved video should appear as the first option to post!

Another way to bypass Instagram's 24-hour limit is to post a photo or video while in Airplane Mode. This method allows you to delay loading Stories for a while!

Start by turning on airplane mode on your smartphone. Once you've disconnected from Wi-Fi and mobile data, open the Instagram app and tap "+" to create a new Stories.

Your photo or video will not actually be published because you are in airplane mode.

After that, turn off Airplane Mode and go to your Instagram Stories where you can re-upload at any time.

4 examples of how we can be deceived on Instagram / Bright Side

Social networks have long become something more than just a convenient platform for communication. And if we used to go to Instagram only to share photos and check what our friends are up to, now we are looking for useful information there: we read nutrition and self-care tips, travel blogs, browse the pages of clothing stores and a trillion others. accounts that seek to teach or sell something. But are Instagram experts and sellers really that good?

Bright Side will tell you how bloggers try to mislead their subscribers and what can be done to avoid falling for their bait.

1. Showrooms that sell Chinese things at inflated prices

Surely you have at least once lingered on Instagram on the pages of shops where you can buy stylish clothes, shoes and accessories, and maybe at times buy something for your wardrobe there. These accounts show off girls in outfits that you just want to buy, but not all sellers are in a hurry to tell you more about where all these fashionable things come from.

Many items from these Instagram showrooms can be found at 2, 3 or even 10 times cheaper on Aliexpress and other Chinese and Korean sites. You don't need to be a scout for this: a simple image search instantly reveals those who position their products as exclusive, premium and new of the season.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with reselling things and a small increase in prices: after all, stores independently select a range of products and prepare content for social networks, and work with customers. But why lie and why not honestly write in the profile about where their goods come from?

How not to get caught. Brands that have their own production are immediately visible: they gladly offer to get into the backstage of their business and talk about the process of manufacturing goods. If you want to buy clothes through Instagram, do not be too lazy to take a screenshot of the item you like and check it in Google or through an image search on Aliexpress. Don't let yourself be fooled!

2. Health and nutrition bloggers

Healthy lifestyle blogs get a wide audience response. And if advice in the spirit of “eat more fruit and walk” is unlikely to harm anyone, then specific instructions on what drugs and in what dosages to take for certain diseases can lead to very serious health problems.

In the spring of 2019, members of the RAS Commission for Combating the Falsification of Scientific Research exposed Elena Kornilova, at that time a blogger with a 250,000 audience who posed as a certified biochemist, naturopath, transhumanist and biohacker. Requests were sent to universities where the girl allegedly studied. Both schools deny that Kornilova was ever their student. Details of the investigation can be found here.

In her posts, Elena prescribes various dietary supplements and vitamins to readers. So, during pregnancy, the girl advises taking 26 (!) Different drugs. The main thing is that when buying vitamins in an online store, do not forget to use a discount promo code, as a result of which the blogger gets a percentage of sales. According to experts, some of these drugs have not proven their effectiveness, while others are substances whose effect on pregnancy has not been studied enough.

Kornilova remotely gives recommendations on other issues: how to be treated for allergies, anemia, hypothyroidism; how to avoid problems with skin and hair, etc. Readers often complained about the side effects of using the remedies recommended by her, but the girl replied that this was normal. And there are many such blogs all over the Internet. It is a pity that even revelations do not enlighten people: the number of subscribers on Elena's page is only increasing.

How not to get caught. All vitamins and dietary supplements are prescribed only after consultation with a doctor. You should not drink them for the sake of prevention and self-medicate. Do not trust advice from the Internet that relates to how and with what exactly it is necessary to be treated.

3. Advertising under the guise of a personal recommendation

It's no secret that bloggers often place ads on their pages. But here's how to determine where the advice is really based on your experience, and where is the paid post? This is especially difficult to do in blogs that are built entirely on recommendations: for example, those that talk about cosmetics and skin care products.

Of course, brands do not want the publication of their content to look like an advertisement: they ask for the most natural and lively post, under which the brand's account or hashtags are usually indicated, but the mark about advertising in such materials can be seen extremely rarely. The blogger will definitely write colorfully how he liked the product or service, even if this is not the case at all, because he has already received his reward. It's funny how often influencers give themselves away by showing what kind of phone and cosmetics they use and what restaurants they really go to, because they publish details of their lives in stories.

It has come to the point that hidden advertising is seen even where it is not. Recently, top model Kaia Gerber posted a simple bathroom selfie on her blog. A bottle of shampoo from the mass market got into the frame, and the entire Internet wondered: “Does Kaya really use such an inexpensive product or is it still a well-hidden advertisement?” It seems that the girl just wanted to show off her new haircut and the bottle appeared in the frame by accident. It remains to envy the brand, which was well advertised by the daughter of Cindy Crawford.

How not to get caught. Do not take blogger reviews at face value and rely on your own opinion and experience. A good indicator is if a blogger flags all promotional materials: most likely, he publishes the rest of the recommendations based on his own findings.

4. Travel bloggers can also lie beautifully

When we see beautiful travel photos on Instagram, we may not realize how many tricks are behind these pictures. So, in order to take a picture against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower without people or capture the breathtaking landscapes of Cappadocia with hot air balloons, you will have to get up at dawn; for the sake of a picture in a bathroom with flower petals, you need to carry basins of water, and then, in order to save energy, pose in this water in turn; and for the picture "Good morning, New York!" you will have to move the heavy bed right to the window. For the sake of likes and popularity, bloggers are ready to suffer a little.

But the most successful misleaders are those bloggers who are not too lazy to make collages from photographs: they can take mountains from one frame, and a lake from another and pass off the resulting landscape as a specific attraction.