How can your business avoid Instagram fraud?
Don’t be fooled by fake accounts and scams on Instagram! Follow these steps if you suspect an account might be fake or fraudulent.
It is important to take precautions when using Instagram, to avoid becoming a victim of fraud (like the one that the Jimmyweb account recently experienced!). If you think an account might be fake, there are ways to find out. If someone seems suspicious, you can take action. Here’s how to avoid being a victim of fraud on Instagram.
What is Instagram Fraud?
Instagram is a popular social media platform where users upload photos and videos, as well as post comments and follow each other’s updates. Unfortunately, there are some criminals who use the social media platform to carry out fraudulent activities such as:
- Selling items that don’t exist or aren’t for sale
- Offering services but not delivering on them
- And pretending to be someone else (i.e., using another person’s photos and/or name to create a false profile, or lying about their identity).
Fake brand accounts are unfortunately rampant on Instagram and we recently noticed that we were the victim of the last one. Someone set up a fake Jimmyweb account on Instagram, and then offered our services, with the intent of most likely taking the money and running.
How to Avoid Being a Victim of Instagram Fraud?
There are some basic steps you can follow to try and avoid this problem.
Potential customers on Instagram…
If you’re a potential customer on Instagram, and are approached by someone wanting to buy or sell anything on social media, take extra precautions. Before you make a purchase online, search for the business on Google, and visit the business’ website instead of just engaging a service through social media.
Many websites will link back to their official social channels, so you can follow this backwards to compare you’re engaging with the real Intagram account.
If you’re not sure if an account is authentic, go to their profile and click ‘About this Account.’ Instagram will tell you when the person joined the platform, where they are, whether they are running advertisements, if they have changed their username, and if they have profiles with shared followers.
If something does not appear to be entirely right, you can ban and report the person.
Businesses on Instagram…
If you’re a business on Instagram, it’s important to be vigilant and do a vanity search every now and then, to see if anyone is attempting to pretend to be you. Search for your name, your brand, your web address.
Make sure you have links to your social accounts on your website, so that customers know they can follow those to a genuine account.
Its hard to stop someone from creating a fake account, but when you notice one, you can take action…
What You Can Do if You’ve Been a Victim of Instagram Fraud?
If a fake account pops up, contact Instagram and report the account from within your own account – mention that the fake account is attempting to pretend to be you.
Report the fake profile to Instagram by following these steps:
- Go to the fake profile’s page
- Click on ‘More’ at the top right of the screen
- Select ‘Report this Profile’ from the drop down menu that appears
- Type a brief reason for reporting in the space provided, and then click on ‘Submit’ to alert Instagram.
You can also contact Instagram at http://instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/.
With the amount of information out there, it’s easy to become a victim of social media fraud like this one. You can take precautions to ensure that you don’t fall prey to criminals on these sites, but ultimately it comes down to common sense and being vigilant.
Be sure to follow the REAL Jimmyweb at – https://www.instagram.com/jimmyweb_digital/
