I have been approached twice by people running scams in the past week. I sensed something wasn’t right and stopped communicating with them immediately for the first one. I also reported it to the authorities because it involved me cashing a cheque, not from a company, but from a personal account of someone I didn’t know. I’m still going through the second one is having my Instagram account hacked.
I was targeted for the first one because I’ve put myself out there as a freelance writer, so I received a message for a writing job from a company that exists but isn’t currently hiring. They even sent me a contract with the actual company’s logo to make it look legitimate. If you go to their website, they have a link that notifies you that they aren’t currently hiring, and they would never ask you to acquire equipment to do work. I wondered how many people went there before they got scammed?
The second scam started innocently, with a DM message from a friend asking for my help to get access back to their site. My spidey senses kicked in too late with this one, and by the time I realized something wasn’t right, they had already gained access to my site, changed the email that all Instagram messages would go to, and disabled my phone, so I can’t reclaim my account. I have contacted Instagram and posted in other ways to notify my followers that the posts and messages they’re currently receiving aren’t from me.
Getting hacked is frustrating. I’m grateful that I hadn’t been using that account for a year, so I’m not affected that much; however, I don’t appreciate that these hackers are taking advantage of my followers in my name.
I know this is not the type of thing I usually write about, but I thought it was necessary to share my experiences to increase awareness about some of the scams that are currently out there. Trust your instincts if something doesn’t seem right, and proceed with caution. ♥