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Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 11:38 am
header image provided by Pixabay
It seems random tagging giveaways are back again on Instagram.
These aren’t anything new but they can be a bit suspicious. If you haven’t entered a giveaway how can you win a random prize?
The Notification
I happened to open Instagram over the weekend and saw an odd notification. it was some random tag stating I’d won a $500 gift card to Shein.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Shein, they are a clothing brand. I’ve never purchased anything from them nor have I ever promoted them (aside from scam alerts). So I knew this had to be a fake or scam post.
The sender
The person who tagged me was Charlestaylor2045050. Do I know this person? No. Here’s what their Instagram feed looks like.
Seeing this profile it’s pretty clear that this person likes to promote Shein or possibly scam its users.
It clearly a fake profile because it has no bio or even a link to said giveaway or how to claim your prize.
The tag
The tag was pretty simple. And it suggested you refer to the tagger’s stories to claim your prize. I’ll get to that part in a second.
This profile tagged my nessa6297 profile as well as nine other profiles. I removed the IG handles in the text below.
You have won
Fake Shein giveaway win message
a Shein gift card!
☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️
Reference in my stories!
☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️
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66d9 (followed by 10 tagged Instagram user names)
Due to the way, it is formatted this sort of reminds me of the iPhone scam that was going around in 2022.
A note on claiming the prize win
The message asked you to reference the poster’s Stories to claim your prize. I did this and it offered a link to the valid Shein website.
Being that this had been posted hours before I took a look at it the way to claim the prize may have changed. Or the spam bot just wanted to send you to Shein hoping you’ll make a purchase.
Why do I think this is a spam bot?
When I took a close look at the profile it posted a block of these same notifications all at the same time or within a few-minute period. The one I was tagged in had been valid for 8 hours. Oddly enough so had all the other images on the profile. So yeah that’s suspicious.
If you are tagged don’t engage
If you are tagged in this type of giveaway don’t engage. If you didn’t enter a giveaway specifically from Shein or someone who is including a Shein gift card in their giveaway. You know it’s a scam. Or at least a spam bot.
If the post doesn’t feel right you can always report it and block the profile.
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