Scammers are targeting young Instagram models and using their pictures to create fake OnlyFans and JustForFans accounts.
Those fake accounts aren’t the real deal and are actually made on the website building platform Wix. The fake OnlyFans and JustForFans accounts that are hosted on Wix ask people to input their banking information in order to get a free trial.
The scammers use their victims’ profile pictures, their names, and usernames similar to the originals in order to create a fake Instagram profile. After that, they block the original account so that the influencer doesn’t know that the fake profile exists and begins to follow hundreds of people the Instagram model follows. The scammers would then create fake OnlyFans or JustForFans pages using Wix. Lastly, they’d promote the fake NSFW accounts on their false Instagrams.
OnlyFans and JustForFans allow content creators to sell their explicit images in exchange for a monthly subscription. There is sexual content on the site, but there are some users that post content that is not sexual. Although, you do have to be 18 years or older to have an account. Some underage kids were targets of the scam.
“Some disgusting low life made a fake Instagram account pretending to be my underage [17-year-old] sister and is promoting a fuckin only fans,” Twitter user @roxxiej said. “Messaging friends AND FAMILY to subscribe. AND [THEY’RE] ACTUALLY MAKING MONEY FROM THIS.”
It’s unclear how many people have been affected by this scam, but VICE says that hundreds of people shared their experience on Twitter.
Young people from all around the world including Canada, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Thailand have all fallen victim to this scam.
VICE reached out to Wix and Instagram, but only the latter replied to their request for comment.
“We recommend that people report these impersonators and scams,” an Instagram spokesperson said. “We absolutely do not want anyone to be impersonated or scammed in this way, or any way, so [we will] continue to improve our systems and teams to ensure we’re acting as quickly as possible to keep our community safe.”
Instagram added that it does “not allow people to impersonate others” and “will not tolerate extortion or harassment of this nature.”
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H/T VICE
