New type of fraud in Instagram

The Symantec corporation reports about detection of the roguish campaign which is carried out by means of the popular Instagram service. Users are invited to subscribe to a paid newsletter video, which, in fact, is in the public domain.

For a long time the object of spammers are social networks. Generally, the activity of spammers on a particular resource increases with its popularity. It appears that the photo-sharing service Instagram has also recently became the target of such scams.

Symantec experts first encountered this when unknown users are allowed to comment on photos users have no connection with the images.

"Hi there, Get a FREE Game in my Profile, OPEN it up, Get 85.90 $ :-) xx"

The profile was not commenting on published any own pictures.

The content of the section "About Me" in this profile was almost identical to the comment, but, in addition, include a shortened link that leads to the site of mobile service. As part of the service "for just € 4.50 per month" proposed sending heartwarming video with animals. To use this service, you had to provide your phone number, then the user would not have to watch the same video on Youtube for free.


It turns out that this type of fraud can be quite profitable. For example, the link in your profile a little more than a month, almost clicked 1000 times. If even a small proportion of these people signed up for the service, it can be said that the swindle was successful.