Here are three red signals to look out for before trusting a stranger online
Instagram is riddled with phony accounts, bots, and impersonators. Take a look at any trending post's comments section, and you'll see swarms of thirst traps and crypto "moguls." However, there are far more elaborate fake accounts out there that have mastered the art of appearing genuine on the social network, and it can be difficult to tell whether they are real—or not, and out to scam you.
The majority of these offenders offer some kind of "service" that requires you to place an order or give away sensitive information, ranging from the more innocuous (your email address or phone number so they can add you to a spam list) to the potentially damaging (you email address or phone number so they can add you to a spam list) (a two-factor verification code or banking information). Some of these identities are so well-crafted that traditional rules of thumb—looking at their profile pictures, frequency of posts, follower to following ratio, and overall level of activity on the app—won't always help you differentiate real from phony. Fortunately, there is a better technique to eliminate these accounts.
Characteristics of a bogus Instagram account
You may open a menu of options by tapping on the three dots on your Instagram profile. Select "about this account" to seek for three essential data points provided by Instagram. The first is the "date joined," which indicates that most fraudulent accounts are relatively recent, since scammers try to create new accounts whenever they are detected. What counts as "new" will vary depending on the context of the account and what it is promoting. However, if an account is less than a year old, this might be a red signal.
The "account based in" information is the next critical step. The video above, by Instagrammer Openigloo, demonstrates what to look out for. If you're looking at a rental account in New York City but it's based in Nigeria, well. (Remember that some fraudsters will choose not to divulge account location in their settings, so check for that as well, and be cautious if anything else appears strange.)
The "former usernames" section is the final thing to look at. While it is understandable that an account may have been created recently and be legitimate, when you combine the "date joined" with the "former usernames," you can get a clearer picture of the account holder's history—because when a scammer has been caught out as a faker, a change of username can be an easy and quick solution to start fresh without having to start over completely. Another reason to be cautious is if an account has undergone several updates.
While these three data points may not be definitive in determining whether an account is phony or real, they are all variables to consider before entrusting it with your data.
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