I am pretty sure that all of you have heard of Instagram and probably many of you use it regularly. I use it and have enjoyed it for the most part. However, I have found the site to be rampant with people posing as famous people and trying to extort money or iPhones from you. Have any of you experienced the same?

Over several years of use I have had no fewer than four people pretend to be Keith Urban, Henry Cavilll, or Alexander Skarsgard. All approach you in their messages section where supposedly the users can interact with one another autonomously. All have said that they love their fans and then ask for money to meet them or an array of other ridiculous excuses. I have blocked them and reported them and for the most part they crop back up in another fake account only to do the same. What can be done?

 

 

I have tried to report this fraud to the management of these celebrities and have no response there. I have reached out to Instagram or Instascam as I now call it for assistance. Today, I was in the mood to do a bit more digging. I found out that Instagram is owned by a man by the name of Kevin Systrom or his handle on Instagram is @kevin. I sent him a message after selecting to follow him and hope he replies, but have my doubts about that possibility.

While doing a search for ownership it appears that META does nothing for Instagram and perhaps the CEO Kevin is now it. Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook said they would sell verifying badges on both Facebook and Instagram according to Wikipedia in February. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram) Is he even at the helm there? It is totally unclear who is driving the Instagram train.

Another article from https://www.socialnationnow.com/instagram-ceo-declares-to-emphasize-more-photos-in-2023/ states that Adam Mosseri is the CEO. According to this article they, Instagram, is placing emphasis on photos and videos. They have tallied which gets more replies and said it was equal. Reels is now the leader of content on this site which they say are “…engaging experiences that launched the initial version of the platform…”.

In yet another article it states that Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger developed Instagram and then sold it to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. (https://listings.co.ke/who-is-the-owner-of-instagram-today-2021/) This states that Kevin remains CEO while Mike is enjoying his $100 Million. I am no closer than when I began to unraveling who is in charge and how to best contact them about the fraudsters.

Each time I select another article to research ownership I become more confused and maybe this is by design. Anyway, I hope that @Kevin responds and tells me something positive to thwart these posers. I’ll let you know more when I know more. Thanks for stopping by.