As a college student and athlete, my inbox and Instagram DMs get a lot of traffic. Recently, I experienced a very common social media scam: the fake “Brand Ambassador” pitch. A seemingly legitimate athletic apparel company messaged me offering free gear and a paid sponsorship if I would just promote their clothes. The purpose of this scam was financial theft; they weren’t actually trying to sponsor me, they were trying to steal my credit card information. The scam worked by telling me I was “selected” for their elite team and just needed to pay a small $20 “shipping fee” to receive hundreds of dollars worth of free merchandise. Once a victim pays the shipping, the gear never arrives, and the scammers have your credit card details. Looking back, there were clear ways to determine this was fake: the account had thousands of followers but zero comments on their posts (a sign of bought followers), the message was a generic copy-paste text, and a legitimate company will never ask you to pay them to be their sponsor. If you ever get an offer that requires you to pay upfront to get paid later, it’s likely a scam.
The “Brand Ambassador” Trap
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8 Responses
Bro, I get those DMs all the time on Insta. I always wondered if anyone actually fell for them. Good look pointing out the zero comments thing, I never noticed that before.
Appreciate it! Yeah, the fake follower counts definitely make them look legit at first glance. Always gotta check the engagement on their posts to see if it’s a real brand.
This is a great warning! Scammers are getting so creative these days. Did they send you a link to pay the shipping fee?
Thanks! Yes, they sent a sketchy link that looked somewhat like a real checkout page, but the web address was totally completely weird. Definitely a red flag.
Great post. We literally just talked about phishing and social engineering in class. Asking for the ‘shipping fee’ is a classic upfront fee scam.
Exactly, It connects right back to what we are learning. It’s crazy seeing the stuff we learn about in a textbook actually show up in our own DMs.
Glad you didn’t give them your card info! Have you ever had a real brand reach out to you, and how was it different from this?
Good question. Real brands usually reach out through official business emails, not random Instagram DMs, and they provide a clear contract. They definitely never ask for my credit card.