Beware of These 11 Instagram Scams in 2024

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), $2.7 billion in wealth was lost to social media scams in America between 2021 and mid-2023.With online scams reaching epidemic proportions, Instagram is a popular channel with over two billion active users for fraudsters to make a quick buck.

In a world where anonymity, bullying, and catfishing are common, scams prey on internet users’ sympathy, fear or greed.

Keep reading to learn about some of the most common hustles and how to protect yourself on social media.

The FTC release stated that online shopping scams make up 44% of all fraud reports during the first half of 2023. The victim will click on an ad on social media and then purchase the product, only to eventually find out that they have been scammed.

Imposter brand accounts are rampant in the fashion industry, hawking goods and products. Bags, shoes, and clothes are the most commonly faked products, with luxury and high-end retailers like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Nike each having dozens of knock-off accounts. Other popular consumer brands like Apple have also been targeted.

They promise exclusive discounts and freebies, but these fake accounts buy likes and followers and post consistently until their profiles seem like the real deal.

Once they have a captive audience, the end game is selling illegal counterfeit goods or fraud you out of your funds.

If you decide to shop on social media, check the account carefully. Most real brands are verified. See what the URL links to and look for strange misspellings. You may even want to open a link to the official website in a separate browser.

Be wary about what accounts are posting and how often. Is it all giveaways? Does it look professional? Use common sense and think twice when sellers offer expensive products for low prices or have strange payment terms or methods.

Influencers are paid by brands and companies to promote products on their social media profiles. It’s a highly lucrative business — the bigger and more engaged your audience, the higher the fees you can command.

Thus, “generous” companies offer to send you free or insanely cheap followers or likes in the hopes that you’ll purchase more. These accounts are promoted as being real, but most are fake automated accounts.

As an influencer, it might be tempting to pad your numbers. But savvy brands see right through it, and it won’t help you in the long run.

If there are giant spikes in follower counts or your engagement rate looks odd for the number of followers you have, it’s a red flag to potential partners. Before working with an influencer, brands should spot-check the account’s followers and likes to ensure the audience is authentic and aligns with their target demo.

Instagram also started cracking down on fake followers and accounts that bought followers in 2018. You don’t want your account to get compromised because you tried to jump ahead. 

For brands, it’s important to have a large following, but fake users won’t buy anything from you. Instead of buying more followers, put your money into targeting the right audience.

Also, whether you’re a brand or a person, buying followers or likes is against Instagram’s rules and might result in your account being revoked or restricted.

If you receive an urgent email or direct message claiming to be from Instagram, don’t click the link. The message might claim your account has been compromised or that you’ve been approved for a coveted verification badge. Instead, it’s a phishing scam to get your login credentials.

You’ll be taken to a page to enter your email address and password, and then the hacker has everything needed to lock you out of your account. In extreme instances, some scammers threaten to blackmail you in exchange for returning your account.

Be wary of any communication claiming to come from Instagram and use common sense — verification services are never for sale. Check the sender’s email address carefully.

Enable two-factor authentication, meaning that even if your password is compromised, you’ll need a secondary code to log on to your account for an extra layer of protection.

You can also see official correspondence from Instagram in your settings.

Fake investment schemes are another popular online scam. Someone directly messages you, promising a big payout with minimal investment, maybe using buzzwords like Bitcoin or cryptocurrency.

Using social media proof, they’ll show the returns of other individuals (sometimes even friends and family) who have made a lot of money in as fast as 24 hours.

As soon as you send payment, the account ghosts you — keeping your investment and vanishing into thin air. In 2023 alone, the FTC was informed of Americans losing $4.6 billion to investment scams.

The worst part is that once you send cryptocurrency into a digital wallet, you’ll likely never see it again.

Quite simply, you can avoid it by not responding to requests for money from people you don’t know. Before sending anything, always check the credentials of the supposed financial company with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Do a simple Google search for the company that contacted you. Even if the profile has disappeared, prior victims may have posted about the scam on other channels.

You’ll also want to verify the investment strategy on your own to determine if such an option is even feasible. 

While some giveaways are a legitimate marketing tactic, others are fraudulent with prizes that don’t exist. Their sole purpose is to collect personal information or get you to follow their account in the hopes of winning.

The accounts may be strictly a giveaway promotional account or set up to mimic popular brands. Contests generally require minimal barriers to entry like sharing, liking and commenting with your email address to claim free flights, win a trip or the like.

Look over the account promoting the giveaway carefully — does it have a large number of authentic-looking followers? Does it post regularly? Is the profile complete? Have there been past winners?

Always check for legitimate terms and conditions for the giveaway and never pay to claim a prize or for shipping. The FTC has warned users against sharing their credit card information to obtain a “free” prize.

Someone reaches out, offering to hire you for a high-profile photoshoot or campaign for a brand, but the offer isn’t real.

These scammers will contact active users to see if they want to be brand ambassadors. They ask the person to post content with their product in exchange for compensation, which could be a commission, a discount, free items, or exposure on their platform.

However, as you can imagine, the compensation never arrives and you spend money on random items you likely didn’t want in the first place.

Most victims say they ignored the red flags because it sounded like a good opportunity. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Read all legal documents carefully for omissions and misspellings, ask for references and think twice about any project requiring prepaying expenses upfront.

You also want to remember that it’s not a business opportunity if you spend money upfront without any legal compensation guarantees. 

Lured by the promise of becoming successful, aspiring bloggers and influencers have wasted money on fake or useless master classes and workshops taught by other more successful influencers.

A so-called expert offers a fee-based course or class either online or in real life. After the fee is collected, promises like direct access to the teacher are met with a host of excuses or are nonexistent.

And in other cases, the content is deemed unsatisfactory, leaving participants feeling disappointed and ripped off.

There are plenty of legitimate social media marketing courses out there — some run by successful influencers — but you have to vet them carefully. Ask for testimonials from past participants and a summary of the learning modules.

There is no silver bullet for becoming successful on Instagram, so if you want to build an online business, expect to roll up your sleeves and do the work. Be wary of anything that claims to get you followers fast or make you an influencer overnight.

Instagram phishing via direct message scams is common.

You’ll get a direct message that claims to have seen your profile on a “hot” or “nasty” list. It implies that your photos are being used on some type of porn site. When you click the link to check, you’re taken to what looks like a login page for Instagram.

As soon as you input your password, the hackers have your account information, which they can use for whatever they like, including messaging others through your account.

Don’t click links from people you don’t know and always have two-factor authentication enabled. What might look like a legitimate hyperlink can easily be masked to send you to a criminal website.

Scammers will often use sites designed to look like legitimate login pages to trick you into entering your private information.

To comply with Federal Trade Commission advertising guidelines, influencers must disclose relationships with brands by designating sponsored posts as #ad or #sponsored.

But some aspiring influencers have caught on, labeling their content as #sponsored when it isn’t. They style their posts to give the appearance that they’re working with big brands in hopes of attracting real sponsorships.

Unfortunately, with “sponcon” (sponsored content) becoming so common, it’s almost impossible to tell what’s real and what’s not. It might seem like a victimless crime, but it’s deceitful to the public.

This practice also puts companies at risk by offering false endorsements. Anyone claiming to be a brand ambassador without adhering to the brand’s messaging can put that company’s reputation at risk. At one point, fake followers cost brands $1.3 billion in advertising money.

Brands should vet potential partners before working with them.

They should verify the brands the influencer has claimed to work with and ask for references. They may also want to use a tool like HypeAuditor to verify that the account is what it claims to be.

According to the FTC, romance scam reports reached 64,003 in 2023 with reported losses of $1.14 billion.

The scammer will create a profile on a popular dating platform and then urge the target to follow them on Instagram to attempt to verify that they’re legitimate. The Instagram profile will typically use stolen photos of an attractive person. The scammer will then build a relationship with the victim and eventually ask for money through a cash transfer or some sort of cryptocurrency arrangement.

The FTC states that you should never send money to a romantic partner you’ve never met.

If someone constantly gives excuses for why they can’t meet in person or if they ask you for money within a short period, you have to be extremely careful.

The Identity Theft Resource Center found that job scams shot up by 118% in 2023 with the rise of AI and remote work. A Goodfirms survey found that 30% of respondents fell victim to a job scam through social media.

While this scam is prominent on many platforms, scammers are always looking for targets, and they often use Instagram to find details about your life. The scammer may offer a fake job or assist in finding work. They’ll then ask the victim for money as a security deposit or an application fee.

The scammer may also use the guise of the job application process to obtain sensitive financial information about the victim.

With the average victim losing around $2,000, you should start by independently verifying whether the company exists and is currently hiring.

You should also limit how much sensitive information you disclose until you have an official job letter. You’ll also want to review the initial contact to ensure it’s legit.

Scammers are becoming more innovative in how they contact potential victims, so you have to be diligent about what links you click and who you choose to interact with.

Look carefully at messages for inconsistencies in email addresses or hyperlinks, spelling or grammar errors, bizarre requests and feigned urgency. Think twice about any link you click, vague and generic messages or requests for sensitive information. 

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, then it always is because it’s highly likely that a complete stranger could show you how to double your money overnight or get you the newest Apple Watch for a fraction of the price. 

Martin Dasko contributed to the reporting for this article.