Hooked by Promises of High Returns, Trapped by Endorsement Ads
Instagram is being exploited as a platform for various scams disguised as 'high-income side jobs.' According to the fraud information sharing website 'The Cheat,' the first report of an Instagram side job scam was registered in June 2020, four years ago. These scams led to 348 cases last year, and as of the 2nd of this month, 241 cases have already been reported this year. A representative from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) stated on the 14th, "Many scams involve using Instagram as a recruitment platform, luring victims to Telegram and then inducing them to transfer money under the guise of investment."
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Accounts advertising promotional services and recruiting members for side jobs often either have a structure that generates no real income or exaggerate potential earnings. Pureun “Ian” Hong , managing partner at Decent Law Firm and a financial crime expert, explained, "Recently, most of the scam reports related to Instagram involve types such as proxy shopping scams."
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While catching the perpetrators is the only solution, it is challenging to track them because they frequently change their Instagram accounts. The police handling the case involving Mr. Kim remarked, "It's difficult to identify the targets, so it's unclear how long the investigation will take."
Attorney Hong pointed out, "Fraud investigations can take months, but for these types of scams, it takes even longer due to the difficulty in securing evidence and identifying the suspects. The problem is that in the meantime, the criminals can funnel the money elsewhere." He added, "We need to interpret the 'fraudulent use of accounts' defined under the Telecommunications Fraud Victim Compensation Act more broadly, rather than limiting it to voice phishing, to develop more practical methods for victim compensation."
