Career Bait – Don’t get scammed by fake Instagram job ads. Again!

Aged 20–35 and with a lot of time in hand, you are the main target for these Instagram ads.

There has been a high uptick in the number of fake job ads being promoted on Instagram, offering a lucrative work-from-home job and a fancy salary. As startup funding shrinks and jobs evaporate, young Indians seek opportunities on multiple platforms. Between desperation and hope, their vulnerability is exploited by Instagram’s scam hunters with promises of money and a career.

These bait-worthy posts, targeting desperate job seekers, especially young people, are frequently nothing but elaborate scams. The most concerning aspect? Instagram actively promotes them.

What does this mean? Your curated feed, which was supposed to be entertainment and fun, is now infiltrated with potentially dangerous and possibly unscreened content.

Clicking on the link will take you to a landing page, or Whatsapp, or Telegram, where it asks for some personal details as well as bank account details to verify your identity. These links could take you to an even deeper rabbit hole. It could lead to financial losses, identity theft, etc. Your personal data could even be sold to others.

Instagram’s responsibility?

With its vast user base and powerful algorithms, Instagram has the responsibility to filter out harmful content. Yet, these scams continue to proliferate, raising a crucial question:

Can anything be promoted on Instagram?

The answer, unfortunately, seems to be yes. This lack of adequate screening leaves vulnerable users exposed to potential exploitation.

What can we do?

• We should collectively spread awareness. Share this information with your friends, family, and online communities.
• Report content to Instagram. If you ever come across such scams, use Instagram’s tools to flag misleading or harmful posts.
• Practice Caution. Before interacting with or submitting any data to such a site, ensure the credibility of the links or telegram channels. You could use free tools like authifyURL to verify websites and social media sites of businesses and authifyFame to verify the credibility of links and profiles belonging to celebrities, influencers, and other celebrities.

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We built authifyURL to empower users to authenticate the credibility of websites, social media profiles, etc., thus helping them easily identify scams run by impersonating brands.