Social media influencers targeted by scams
Posted March 9, 2022 4:20 pm.
Last Updated March 9, 2022 6:38 pm.
Becoming a Social Media Influencer is a goal for a lot of people. But as your followers increase, so does the risk of something else: scams.
Justin Payne is one of the latest victims.
“I’m an online vigilante pedohile hunter,” he said.
Payne poses as an underage kid, chats with adults online and then confronts them on video. Those confrontations, while not endorsed by police, have lead to arrests and have also attracted a huge following.
“Across all the platforms I am on I have around 300,000 followers,” he said.
Most subscribe to his popular YouTube channel where he posts videos of his confrontations. But the predator hunter recently became prey.
“It felt like someone came into my home,” Payne explained.
It all started after a company reached out to him offering money if he ran their ads. It’s happened before and worked out well in the past, according to Payne.
“I’ve had several companies reach out to me to advertise on my channel, so I didn’t think anything of it.”
Payne said he did research and looked at the company’s website which seemed legit. They then sent him a zip file with the ad details for him to download.
“I downloaded it and tried to extract from the zip files and it said there was an error and it just wasn’t working. That’s when everything fell apart.”
After the download, this so-called company was able to gain control of everything on his computer.
“Google was sending me all of these messages saying your two-step verification has been turned off; your password has been changed; your email has been changed.”
The hackers also gained control of his YouTube channel and started posting new videos.
“They posted something about bitcoin and online currency,” Payne said. “The didn’t just have access to my videos, they had everything that was on my computer, personal emails, potentially banking information too.”
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It’s part of a rapidly growing scam says Janita Pannu, founder of OPIIA, a digital marketing agency.
“A lot of these scam artists are looking to get in contact with as many influencers as possible so that they can reach their followers,” she tells CityNews.
A big target: budding influencers, looking for their first big pay day.
“They may send a direct message asking you to click on a certain link. These scam artists are trying to create a sense of urgency so that they can get as much information as possible from you and then tap into your accounts.”
Pannu says people need to research all incoming requests on social media. That goes for influencers or occasional social media users.
“Do your homework. How old is their profile page? How long has it been around? And most importantly, are other relevant and affluent influencers already working with them?”
As for Payne, he worked with a cyber security expert who discovered the hack originated in Europe. He was able to quickly contact Google.
“There is no phone number, so I had to tweet Google and they were quick to respond.”
After verifying several personal details, Google was able to give him back control of his social media pages.
A hard lesson and one he’s sharing to warn others.
“Number one, don’t download things,” Payne said. “If you do, watch what you’re downloading – even if it’s from someone you think you trust like a friend, scammers are also hijacking other pages and connecting with their followers to scam them too.”
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