The number of cybercrimes and scams is rapidly increasing with the advancement of technology. The police said that a new cyber fraud with social media influencers has been detected.
There are a great number of followers of social media influencers on social media and companies are paying them regularly for their handles to promote their products. Many famous people get roped in, too.
Cyber fraud is a kind of cybercrime fraud that uses the Internet to hide information or to provide erroneous data to knock victims out of money, property, and heritage.
Cyber Law Expert N.Karthikeyan notes that mainstream media cannot include an advertisement on gambling or false investments. Such imaginary operators can utilize these influencers of social media who are unaware of the consequences. There are influencers on social media that only promote fictitious mobile apps. Fraudsters also send dubious links as supporters of influencers on social media. Once the victims click in and the details are registered, the fraudsters acquire complete control of the influencer's page or channel. They'll then post their content – that can be anything.
However, the Cyber Crime Cell officials noted that no specific complaint had yet been made on the matter.
A woman social media influencer who was a candidate in recent elections said, " After uploading my affidavit into ECI website, I had three lakh downloads. I got good reviews on a social media page but only one person alleged that I had hacked the ECI site- which was baseless. He went on leveling allegations on me. I just ignored it."
With the increase in such cyber frauds, a Youtuber who himself was a victim of this, stated that the overwhelming majority of influencers on social media are being used by fraudsters. They at times typically represent themselves as an established company or brand and appeal to influencers with lucrative publicity deals while proposing to administer the ads on behalf of the influencers. Later, they gather personally identifiable information or passwords from social media and seize complete control of the website or handle used by the influencers.
"We have lodged a complaint against an Instagrammer who specifically targeted women influencers. He texted asking them to join in an Instagram live. If they accepted and came on live, he would level baseless allegations. If they didn’t agree to live as he was the stranger, he projected them as scammers, " said Joe Praveen Michael, an event manager.
