Instagram Promotion: Possible Scam or Fraud

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either had money in his CashApp and for whatever reason couldn’t connect his bank, or that it was cheaper to do it that way for some reason. I gave him my user name and he told me he would send the screenshot once he sent the money. Still confused, but not going to argue about getting a discount, I did. The money that came in was the same amount that I had paid and said it was from the promotion. I went ahead and sent the money. A few hours later, I get a different person sending me money. I messaged the guy and he told me to just forward it to them. He was having a problem with his account. I do this and tell him to not have anyone send me anything else. I wasn’t comfortable with it. A few hours later, the first person sent me another payment. After a few minutes of searching, I found the elusive refund button and sent it right back. I blocked the guy so he couldn’t send me anything else. I messaged the Instagram guy and told him absolutely do not have anyone send me money. I told him I sent the other guy’s money back. And then I blocked the Instagram account.Reddit DramaI wanted to look up if I had somehow just committed a crime or if I was being scammed. But looking up “I paid a guy for Instagram promotions and then he asked for my cash app. He said he was giving me money back, but then has other people paying me and having me pay him.” seemed like a long shot. Not sure how else to look it up, I jumped onto Reddit. More specifically, r/legaladvice. Note to self, that people there are either crazy, useless, or minorly helpful. I got responses from I was personally selling drugs, I was part of a scam to steal from old ladies on Instagram, I was being used as a mule, or I was being scammed. Not very helpful, but I felt I had made the right decision in blocking the guy.OMFGITSMIMII managed to actually find one of the two people who the guy had send me money. Her name is Mimi, and she is a gamer who had also paid this guy. That part checks out. She answered my message request and we got to talking. She told me he said the same to her.

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That he takes PayPal or card for payment. She, however, does not use PayPal and was not about to give him her card information. She told him to just forget about doing the promotion. That is when he sent her my cash app. She is a small gamer who is just starting out on TikTok and possibly Twitch as well. She currently has a good amount of game clips shared on her Instagram though. She has been posting for over 3 years. Out of slight paranoia, I told her that I hoped she was a real person and not just a bot or clone account of the guys. It was silly, considering she types in perfect English, using appropriate “text talk” and emojis. Thankfully she didn’t get mad at me for mentioning my concerns. She didn’t know that this guy was trying to have me be a middle man for him and I warned her not to get involved just in case anything sketchy is indeed going on. If you would like to check her out <a href="https://www.instagram.com/omfgitsmimi/">this is her Instagram page.</a> I know she won’t be reading this, but thank you Mimi for your help! She gave me permission to talk about her involvement in this whole ordeal.Where do I go from here?That is a good question. Honestly, I am not sure. My first step is going to be contacting PayPal to see if I can get the money back this guy had me sending. I then will contact cash app to get the people back their money. Reddit said I should close out my bank account and open a new one. While I had been considering this for other reasons. I may actually do it. I am not worried about any financial ramifications. It was less than $40 and even if I just send it back out of pocket, it isn’t the end of the world. I hope this guy was indeed just having issues with his cash app and was not doing anything sketchy. I am writing this as a cautionary tale. If you do choose to have anyone promote your stuff on their platform, give them the bare minimum of the information that they need. Better yet, ask if they offer their services on a platform like Fivver. If anything of significance comes out of this, I will be sure to make an update.</article></body>

My experience with paying someone to promote my Instagram page.

Just a few days ago, I started posting my RedBubble designs on Instagram. I was almost immediately flocked by people asking if I wanted to pay them to promote my items. For “science” I said sure to two of the people. They have a lot of followers and I figured even if nothing came out of it, I could write about it. This is not about any results from the promotions. This is about what I experienced from the 2nd profile that I decided to let promote my stuff.

Confusing conversation

This guy messaged me his prices and they seemed about average for what the other people were charging. He had over 11 thousand followers. He mostly promotes streamers and people on TikTok. I thought to myself, ok cool. My RedBubble has mouse pads and computer mats, so maybe a streamer would be interested to have something different. This guy’s English was not the best but good enough.

He wanted me to pay by PayPal or give him my card information. Absolutely not paying by card. So I did PayPal. I figured PayPal would be fairly safe since he has a business account and I can just dispute the charge if he didn’t make a post and story featuring my products and shop. Not much to lose other than my time and a $19. After I pay him is when things got weird. It started with him saying he would give me a partial refund.

CashApp fiasco

He told me if I gave him my CashApp user name, he would send me back my money then I could just pay him back 70% of it. I was confused. I was wondering why he didn’t just issue a partial refund through PayPal. I assumed that he either had money in his CashApp and for whatever reason couldn’t connect his bank, or that it was cheaper to do it that way for some reason. I gave him my user name and he told me he would send the screenshot once he sent the money. Still confused, but not going to argue about getting a discount, I did. The money that came in was the same amount that I had paid and said it was from the promotion. I went ahead and sent the money. A few hours later, I get a different person sending me money. I messaged the guy and he told me to just forward it to them. He was having a problem with his account. I do this and tell him to not have anyone send me anything else. I wasn’t comfortable with it. A few hours later, the first person sent me another payment. After a few minutes of searching, I found the elusive refund button and sent it right back. I blocked the guy so he couldn’t send me anything else. I messaged the Instagram guy and told him absolutely do not have anyone send me money. I told him I sent the other guy’s money back. And then I blocked the Instagram account.

Reddit Drama

I wanted to look up if I had somehow just committed a crime or if I was being scammed. But looking up “I paid a guy for Instagram promotions and then he asked for my cash app. He said he was giving me money back, but then has other people paying me and having me pay him.” seemed like a long shot. Not sure how else to look it up, I jumped onto Reddit. More specifically, r/legaladvice. Note to self, that people there are either crazy, useless, or minorly helpful. I got responses from I was personally selling drugs, I was part of a scam to steal from old ladies on Instagram, I was being used as a mule, or I was being scammed. Not very helpful, but I felt I had made the right decision in blocking the guy.

OMFGITSMIMI

I managed to actually find one of the two people who the guy had send me money. Her name is Mimi, and she is a gamer who had also paid this guy. That part checks out. She answered my message request and we got to talking. She told me he said the same to her. That he takes PayPal or card for payment. She, however, does not use PayPal and was not about to give him her card information. She told him to just forget about doing the promotion. That is when he sent her my cash app. She is a small gamer who is just starting out on TikTok and possibly Twitch as well. She currently has a good amount of game clips shared on her Instagram though. She has been posting for over 3 years. Out of slight paranoia, I told her that I hoped she was a real person and not just a bot or clone account of the guys. It was silly, considering she types in perfect English, using appropriate “text talk” and emojis. Thankfully she didn’t get mad at me for mentioning my concerns. She didn’t know that this guy was trying to have me be a middle man for him and I warned her not to get involved just in case anything sketchy is indeed going on. If you would like to check her out this is her Instagram page. I know she won’t be reading this, but thank you Mimi for your help! She gave me permission to talk about her involvement in this whole ordeal.

Where do I go from here?

That is a good question. Honestly, I am not sure. My first step is going to be contacting PayPal to see if I can get the money back this guy had me sending. I then will contact cash app to get the people back their money. Reddit said I should close out my bank account and open a new one. While I had been considering this for other reasons. I may actually do it. I am not worried about any financial ramifications. It was less than $40 and even if I just send it back out of pocket, it isn’t the end of the world. I hope this guy was indeed just having issues with his cash app and was not doing anything sketchy. I am writing this as a cautionary tale. If you do choose to have anyone promote your stuff on their platform, give them the bare minimum of the information that they need. Better yet, ask if they offer their services on a platform like Fivver. If anything of significance comes out of this, I will be sure to make an update.