There’s a rise of fake accounts via Social media

Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 12:55 pm

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I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve been noticing a rise in fake accounts on social media. It doesn’t matter if its Instagram, or Facebook. Twitter may have some as well. But I’ve seen a big rise especially for Instagram.

It doesn’t matter if they are sugar daddy profiles or fake profiles for brands or even ones claiming to be giveaways. You need to know this is becoming more an more common.

I’ll try to break this down into sections. Most of the profiles that have contacted me via Instagram have been a mix of the profiles i listed above.

sugar daddies

This seems to be the big one right now. I’ve noticed at least two or three profile follows a week. Most of these profiles are very easy to spot. Half the time the accounts are a few days old. They also just have a grid full of selfies. Other times they may use photos that are commonly used such as sunrises or sunsets. I had one person use a photo that had them wearing government agency shirt. I guess they were hoping to impress someone with their high paying job.

I also think they are trying to prey on those who are in need of money. Let’s face it with the pandemic many of us are having a hard time making ends meet. So I can see how an offer of $800 no strings attached can be enticing to someone.

Brand accounts

Okay I’ve seen a few brand accounts be cloned as well. This doesn’t matter if it’s a big company or even they are a band or other entity. If you follow a brand regularly you know many have the verified blue checkmark (if the social account has that option.)

This is all well and good but people still create fake accounts trying to convince users they are the real deal. I’ve seen many people have this happen. I’ve even reported a few pages myself. I had someone Direct Message me claiming to be a popular music artist once. This person spent a few minutes trying to convince me they were the real deal.

I also have been DM’ed by fake accounts claiming I’ve won a prize for a contest. I knew the contest hadn’t ended yet. Worst of all the spammer wanted you to join some sort of site to claim the prize.

Many times the fake account will use the brand name and/or even images form the brands profile. They may also direct message followers at random trying to convince them that they are the official brand.

But again if you follow a brand and know their posting patterns you can usually spot the fake account.

Fake giveaways or cloned giveaways

Okay let’s be honest there are a lot of fake giveaways out there. From people posting they will give you thousands or millions of dollars for sharing a post to a Facebook page or so something as simple as spell the word winner with out being interrupted to a Facebook group. Stuff like that.

I’ve seen so many posts lately for fake giveaways it’s not funny. Again many of these are preying on people possibly in need or just want a new item. But some are just too good to be true.

I was direct messaged via Instagram last week by some random account asking me to join a giveaway for a free iPhone. I just deleted the message. Sure enough a few days later I had a tag for the same giveaway.

As with fake brand profiles many cloned giveaway profiles will copy the images along with brand names to try to fool others.

As we know large cash prizes aren’t usually the norm unless it’s a stat lottery. I would also advise to report these spam accounts as well.

what you can do

All I can suggest is report these fake profiles to the platform you spot them on. I would also say alert your friends. I’ve alerted a few brands about cloned accounts. There is so much fraud happening right now we can’t be too careful.