The Fake Ad Deal

Photo by The Feligrapher on Pexels

The Hook

A message comes in offering to pay you, often a few hundred dollars, to place a single ad on your page or profile. It might be a paid placement of their product or service, with you demonstrating or holding the product. The number they are offering is usually higher than a real ad placement would go for, but when it shows up out of nowhere from someone excited to work with you, that detail is easy to overlook.

The Build-Up

You agree, and the story shifts. The scammer says they need to track the ad’s performance, so they ask you to add them as an admin on your account. It sounds like a normal request from someone protecting their own investment, so most people go along with it.

The Steal

Once they have admin access, they remove you from your own account. The page you spent time building, along with your followers and history, now belongs to them. The ad payment never actually arrives.

Never give someone access to your account, no matter how legitimate it seems.