Young Instagram Users Targetted By "Lifestyle" Scammers

INSTAGRAM has become a hunting ground for “lifestyle” scammers, fraudsters posing as successful entrepreneurs to lure victims into fake money schemes.

Action Fraud, Britain’s primary scam watchdog, has warned young Instagram users to beware of “lifestyle” scammers – conmen using glamourous accounts to lure victims into fake money schemes to scam their cash.
The unscrupulous cybercriminals set up fake profiles presenting fictional personas of wealthy, self-made entrepreneurs. Alongside photos of the latest cars and Caribbean holidays, they post links to the “miracle” money scheme from which they made their wealth. These are often bogus investment platforms and pyramid schemes.
When young users, lured by the flashy lifestyle seemingly on offer, contact the scammers they are urged to make a down deposit in a fake money platform. They then watch their “investment” grow, spurred on by the encouraging words of the conmen and the promise of quick and easy cash.
When they attempt to withdraw the money, the crashing realisation arrives that neither the scheme nor the “successful young entrepreneur” never existed – their money has simply been stolen – possibly to fund the luxury lifestyles of fraudsters who promised them riches.
Action Fraud claims that monthly reported scams on Instagram have rocketed by 50% during the pandemic. The money stolen by conmen has also risen from a pre-Covid rate of £60,000 to an average of £200,000. Cybercrime is the world’s fastest-growing illegal enterprise, with more and more tech-savvy fraudsters joining the lucrative business every day in search of victims.
Instagram users are advised to never invest their money into any schemes without thorough research – and are warned that those claiming to have a flash lifestyle are more than likely a fraudster with access to a laptop and a stock photo website.

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