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Social networks, especially TikTok and Instagram, are a rich source of creativity. Content creators don’t hesitate for a minute to share their best tips to their community by creating POVs, product tests and other types of content.
However, in the midst of all this concentration of resources and ingenuity, scams abound. Scammers will do anything to steal your personal data or even take money from you. Here are the top 5 scams on TikTok and Instagram to avoid.
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1. Products with crazy coupons amount
The dropshipping business has been making a lot of noise lately to expose influencers on the TikTok and Instagram platforms. Indeed, dropshipping consists of praising the merits of a product, a service or an item in order to sell it to a large number of users. If nothing seems very illegal so far, the practice goes further since it is about reselling much more expensive items from China.
These items are bought on Chinese e-commerce websites at very low cost and resold at a much higher price by the influencer. The deception goes further as it is not uncommon for the influencer to provide a “promo code” and receive a free commission on the validated orders. In general, the promo code is dizzying, easily reaching 50 to 80% off. The goal is, of course, to lure the victims of this scam. Moreover, the target of potential victims is often young adults or teenagers. So be careful when you see products sold on TikTok and Instagram.
It’s fairly easy to spot these types of scams. To foil unscrupulous influencers, you can do an image search of the item or product on your favorite search engine like Google Image. If you find the item on a foreign online store, you are most likely dealing with dropshipping.
2. Training by people without skills or registered business
It is to your credit that you want to upgrade your skills by taking a training course. But before you jump in head first, take the time to find out who the tutors and/or mentors are who will be providing the training.
Indeed, many courses are offered on social networks, but few are given by competent tutors. While it is not forbidden to sell training courses, it is forbidden to practice false advertising and to promise professional development when the training organization has no legal status.
It is also possible that after paying for the training, you will never hear from the trainer or his courses again, simply because they never existed. So be careful and always check the providers you are dealing with before signing any document or making any payment.
3. Influencers who want to make you money at all costs
There are influencers who propose to make you earn money. The principle is simple: you invest a sum of money that you entrust to the influencer or one of his partners such as copy trading. The latter is supposed to make your capital grow and pay you back a larger amount than the one you invested in the first place.
The scam on financial products is not recent, but it is democratizing at full speed via social networks. Trading remains a risky activity, especially if you don’t know the person to whom you are entrusting your assets. Always remain very vigilant, easy money does not exist, otherwise we would all be millionaires, guys!
4. Travel plans or not to pay for shopping (there is no such thing as free!)
“You just won!”, “Claim your prize quickly!”, “Your free groceries!” Winning a prize or getting a free good deal, especially when you haven’t done anything to get it, is a source of instant gratification. Indeed, what being endowed with reason would refuse a gift graciously offered. And yet… We must not forget that scams are plentiful on social networks.
Many scammers claim to offer you a gift of significant value, totally free and unselfishly. To get it, you only have to pay the shipping costs which are reasonable (on average 5 to 6 €). In the case of good travel plans, you are usually asked to pay only the application fee, which, once again, is low. But this is where the plot thickens, because by sharing your bank details to pay the hypothetical shipping costs, the scammer has access to your personal data and can therefore hack your credit card details.
Nothing is free! If you are not asked for a sum of money for a service or a product, ask around, as there is often something fishy going on. The same goes for suspicious partnership requests where you are promised “free” gifts in exchange for your bank details.
The other scam consists in making you pay a subscription to access a platform, for example a travel platform. This one will allow you to pay 10 to 30% less for your hotels and flights… which is technically not really possible, but why not! The problem I noticed is the fact that to access it, you have to pay a monthly subscription and good luck to unsubscribe from this kind of scams!
Gaining popularity on social networks, such as TikTok and Instagram, represents the promise of being able to get substantial income from these content creations. Some influencers in need of recognition no longer hesitate to pay fake accounts and profiles to get extra likes and subscriptions.
Although selling “fans and followers” is not an illegal practice, it is very borderline. The concern, once again, is the false promises sold with these services. Indeed, the sellers promise you to create a viral content that will make the rounds of the web. To do so, they insist on the possibility to:
- To increase your income exponentially;
More visibility on the platform;
A better referencing;
A greater number of subscribers and/or followers
These are all smoke and mirrors that you may pay a high price for. And what about quality? Isn’t it better to have a healthy account with real interactions from your TikTok and Instagram community?
