Social media can be a great place to maintain relationships, share you skills and talents, and much more. However, it can also be a pretty unsafe and even terrible and scary place as well. Many have taken advantage of social media to do a lot of bad things, including scamming other people.
Meta will rollback several shopping features across its platforms.
Instagram is one of the social media platforms that has seen users try to scam others. If you are wary of falling victim to one, there is an Instagram account that has been set up and it is all about exposing the scams happening on the platform.
Exposing Instagram Scams
The account is simply known as Exposing Instagram Scams. According to its bio, this Instagram account has already been featured on the likes of the BBC, The Atlantic, and HuffPost.
You can probably guess what this account does given what we have said so far and what its name is. Basically, it posts about scams happening on Instagram. Examples that have been posted on this account include a fake Instagram support account, fake Yeezy raffle, and multiple donation scams.
As of press time, Exposing Instagram Scams has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram.
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How to Avoid Scams on Instagram
Instagram's Help Center offers practical tips on how to avoid falling victim to an Instagram scam. Among the things you need to watch out for are the following:
- Accounts claiming that you have won a raffle or contest you know you did not join and asking that you claim your prize
- Anyone claiming to offer you account verification services
- Anyone claiming to be from Instagram and asking for your account information
- Anyone sending you suspicious links to click
- People asking for money in exchange for prizes, loans, and the like
- Unverified accounts representing public figures, large corporations, and the like
WIRED UK also recommends looking at the account's origins if it seems fishy to you. Simply look for "About this Account" under the profile of the Instagram account you are suspicious of.
It is also important to familiarize yourself with the types of scams that exist so that you aware of them. It will also help you gauge whether or not you are already about to fall victim to an Instagram scam. Examples of scams include romance scams, lottery scams, phishing scams, and credit card fraud.
Given that there are countless of Instagram shops enticing people to buy their products, inautentic sellers also exist. Instagram's Help Center describe them as those who "may try to use underpriced items to lure buyers into a scam."
"They may try to create a sense of urgency to get buyers to act quickly, request payment through a non-secure method, or misrepresent their location in their posts," Instagram adds.
Related Article: How to Spot and Avoid Instagram Scams
