Criminals target young women and men in particular with their fraudulent requests. They promise large amounts of money for lewd photos or pretend to be interested in financing the lifestyle of the people concerned.

As our content partner Watchlist-Internet reports, if you receive such offers, you should definitely avoid them. Because it is an advance payment fraud that requires payments in advance.

Attention young Instagrammers: Fraudsters are currently increasingly contacting young women and men via chat. There they pretend to be a fan, like the photos or give numerous compliments. Then, for example, they claim that they want to buy more photos of the feet. At first glance, the offer may sound tempting or like easy money. In fact, it is pure fraud. Because the promised amounts of money do not exist and instead money is taken out of the victims' pockets.

How does the scam work?

Criminals particularly focus on young women who post suggestive photos on social media platforms such as Instagram.
The criminals create fake profiles and pose as older, usually wealthy men. From these fake profiles they send messages to young Instagrammers. In the news, the criminals pose as big fans, give compliments and express love. Then comes the fraudulent offer: for money, the criminals want to buy suggestive photos or support the young people's Instagram lifestyle. In chat logs available to Watchlist Internet, the term “sugar daddy” is mentioned again and again. The criminal fake profiles claim to enjoy using their own money to finance their victims' expensive lifestyles. Anyone who accepts the offer will be involved in long conversations in order to build a relationship of trust.
In order for the promised cash payments to work, the young people affected should buy vouchers and prove by submitting the codes that they are the real people behind the Instagram profiles. In the best case scenario, the voucher codes end up in the hands of criminals and the promised payments are never made. The damage is therefore only of a financial nature. In the worst case, however, the criminals are actually sent lewd images that could later circulate on the Internet or be used for blackmail.

Special form of love scam

In the classic love scam, love seekers are ensnared by criminals and, later in the fraud, are pressured into making payments in order to help the supposed partners out of emergency situations. This special form of love scam on Instagram is not necessarily about love, but rather about the attention that the subsequent victims seek via social media platforms. The criminals give their victims this kind of attention and also promise money to finance the Instagram lifestyle. Due to other platforms such as OnlyFans, such offers do not sound completely unrealistic.

Cancel contact and report profiles!

Anyone who receives such messages on Instagram should not respond to them.
Instead, it is advisable to break off all contact and report and block the relevant profiles using the reporting functions. Anyone who has already sent money in the form of vouchers must definitely accept that no payment will ever be received through further voucher codes. In addition to breaking off contact and reporting the profile, the only thing possible is to report it to the police.

Attention: This can also happen on other platforms!

The scam is currently occurring frequently on Instagram. But that doesn't mean that this can't happen on other platforms. For example, such an approach on Snapchat has already been reported to the Watchlist Internet.

This way you can avoid messages from strangers

If you want to completely avoid messages from strangers on Instagram, you will find the right help the privacy guide for Instagram privacy guidelines for the other common social media platforms .


If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:

📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.

Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!

* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!


Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )