Dr Norman Blanco

My Instagram followers have recently been sending me a lot of fake accounts using the images of Dr Norman Blanco.  These are some images of the real man that the scammers are stealing and using to make their fake accounts on all online platforms.

Dr Blanco is a plastic surgeon based in Barranquilla, Colombia. If you are being messaged by an account that uses this man's images then you can be absolutely 100% certain that you are being approached by a scammer.  The real man is not approaching women on Instagram or other online platforms to make friends, to chat, to fall in love.  He is a well-respected and well-established plastic surgeon and a very busy man.  If you are being messaged by anyone using these images please report and block immediately.

When you go to report and block you will have to do so as spam on Instagram.  Dr Blanco, at the time of writing this post, is not verified so has to be reported as spam. Firstly, report as spam.  Then go and block the account too.  I have found that, even though an account is meant to be blocked as soon as you report it as spam, it doesn't work that way and you need to do it separately.

When I add fakes using Dr Blanco's images I use #drnormanblancofake

Christmas in July

One of the ways to check whether an account is genuine or not is to take note of the pictures being posted, their content and the date they have been uploaded.  Today I am going to show you a fake account that I was sent on Instagram a couple of days ago.

OK.   Well, I don't know who the real guy is here sadly but there are other clues that this is a fake account.

He has added 4 posts only, one of which is one of those yucky schmaltzy flowers ones - I mean what guy would really post something like this?  The genuine male accounts I follow just don't add posts like this.

The numbers of followers and following make me suspect fake - only 16 followers and he's following 161, many of which are middle-aged and older women.

His name - Williams Andy.  It's the wrong way round and I am sure should he have messaged me he would have said his Christian name is Williams.  Who has ever heard of Andy as a surname/family name?

I am going to add another screenshot here which is the biggest clue that this is a fake account operated by a scammer.

Take a good look at the photo and what do you see?  The man wearing a Santa Claus hat in front of a Christmas tree.  The photo says it was added 4 hours ago - when you hear that I took the screenshot at 8.03pm on 26 July and I am based in the UK you can work out that this account was added to Instagram at approximately 4pm on Sunday 26 July (UK time).  So it is 5 months until Christmas this year and 7 months since Christmas 2019 - why on earth would anyone add this now unless it had a comment explaining a reason behind posting it.  It doesn't.  The comment showing is from a follower.

I think this is the biggest red flag that this account is fake.  No real person tends to add Christmas images onto a new Instagram account created in July.  A scammer would, however.  They think that adding a Christmas shot makes it seem like the account has been around longer than it has which, in turn, makes it seem more genuine.  But it doesn't.  It's a big red flag for me and I hope that it will be for you too.

Fake scam recovery emails/messages

An interesting email dropped into my spam folder this last week and I discovered it when I went to clear the folder out.  I had been sent a fake email from Antonio Gutteres - the Secretary General of the United Nations no less!!  I mean that was my first clue - why on earth would this important man be messaging me via email?

Well I read the email and soon discovered a rather poorly executed email saying that victims of scams online including package scams and contractors bidding for non-existent work amongst others could email to receive compensation.

OK so take a look at the email address that is supposed to be that of the UN Secretary-General.  What do you notice?  Well, I hope you can see that the email address is incorrect.  It is not a genuine email address affiliated to the UN.  You can see that from the misspelling of unitednations with two i's.

So we now move onto the main body of the email.  I shall look at it paragraph by paragraph.

1.  The first paragraph is one single very huge and poorly constructed sentence.  It does not make sense because they are trying to make it appear authoritative and they don't have the skill in English to do so correctly.  There are mistakes with the grammatical structure and the use of punctuation.  This email would never have been sent out with Secretary General of the UN's name on it.  It is frankly appalling.

Paragraph two is full of the same nonsense.  It has spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, and is grammatically poor - this email would never have been sent out this badly constructed - what an image to send out of this World organisation.

Paragraph 2 moves onto the next screenshot and again just sounds wrong.  Where on earth is this compensation to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars coming from?? Also notice that the remit of the email is changing and the scams that can be compensated.

Paragraph 3 brings it onto me and why I've received this email. It is very flowery language constructed to make it look official.  In fact it doe the opposite with me and makes me skeptical and frankly amused.

Ok so paragraph 4 moves onto this screenshot.  Cheeky aren't they?  Saying that if you don't make a claim via telephone or email they will requisition your money for helping the displaced in Darfur and tsunami victims in Asia.  Well carry on as there is no money coming to anyone - me included.

Again, there are spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and punctuation is used poorly.  I cannot stress enough that this just would be 100% unacceptable for any business to send an email out with these mistakes but one claiming to be from the UN Secretary-General is appalling.

So onto the next paragraph - the person to contact. And isn't this interesting she has a Nigerian phone number. Given that the Secretary-General is based in the UN HQ in New York City, you would think that she would be too, wouldn't you?  So why a Nigerian phone number?  Your email is from a Nigerian scam group. Please note that the email is rubbish as well - she would have a proper UN email address as discussed above, not one that looks like this.

OK so right at the end of the email you have who it is from.  There is also a blue hyperlink underneath to take you to an online resource to see who it is you are talking to - just in case you are a little unsure at this point. Note that it uses http not https. Do not follow any links sent to you like this at all ever.  They could contain malware and viruses that can wreck your device and phish for you secure information like passwords and bank account details leaving you vulnerable to being hacked or having accounts set up in your name.

Finally the last paragraph about receiving the email in error.  What a joke!! But it too is badly written with grammatical mistakes.

So, now we have walked through the email what do you think?  Genuine or fake??

The answer is clearly fake because of these reasons:

1.  It went to my spam folder for a reason.  My email provider detected that it was a fake.

2.  The emails used by the author and the phone number included for the contact are massive red flags.  They are incorrect and the contact number is in Nigeria.  

3.  The poorly written email.  The whole message is badly written with poor English,  spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and punctuation that is used incorrectly.  I cannot stress enough that the Secretary-General would NEVER send out an email as poorly written as this one.

So what is the scam?  Suppose you decide to call the number or respond to the email?  You will be expected to provide them with a load of information about you.  Your personal details including your bank account details so they can send you your 'compensation'.  They get all this information about you that they can use to hack your accounts.  Will you receive any money?  Probably not.  They will likely ask you to pay an administration fee.  However, there is a chance that you may well receive cash.  Some will be for you to keep and a bigger chunk will be for you to pass onto someone else.  This is money laundering and a way that the scammers can legitimise their earnings from their scams.  Do not ever do this as you can serve actual prison time for laundering money like this.

The best thing to do with emails you receive like this is to add them to your spam folder.  This means that your email provider will do the same for any other emails you receive like this one from the same address. 

Whatever you do please do not respond to an email like this at all ever.  Just delete it or add it to your spam folder.

Dr Bradley Schaeffer

I thought today is the right time to introduce you to another Dr that is used a lot by scammers as their face for their fake accounts.  I have reported a huge amount of fake accounts using this man lately.  Please meet Dr Bradley Schaffer.

The real man is a doctor of podiatry, that is, he specialises in issues with the feet.  He is also a TV doctor and has appeared in a programme on American channel TLC called 'My Feet are Killing Me'.  I can also tell you with 100% certainty that if you are being messaged by someone anywhere at all that is using images of this man, then you are being messaged by a scammer.  The real man is not finding women or men to chat to on Instagram with a view to forming a relationship.  Neither is this man wanting money from you for any reason at all.  

If you find a fake account on Instagram using the doctor's pictures or one begins to message you then please report the account as inappropriate (not as spam).  Dr Schaeffer is verified so you can follow the inappropriate route to report for impersonation and add the account he is impersonating.  Reporting this way will speed up the removal process.

I also add many fakes of the real guy regularly on Instagram using #drbradleyschaefferfake

Fake Promotion Profiles

Today another of my followers sent me this fake account.

So, the question is, why is this account fake?

The answer simply is that there is no such promotion run by Samsung on Instagram.  So now you are asking what is the scam?  Well, you will be sent a message claiming that you have won a monetary sum or perhaps even a new piece of Samsung tech.  They will ask you for either:

1.  An administration fee in order to send you your prize.  Think about it.  You have won a prize.  They should cover the fee to send you your prize, not you.

2.  For bank account details to send you your winnings if it is a cash sum.  They want these for phishing and for operating other scams and perhaps to hack your account to have access to your money.

3.  They may ask for your home address and other personal details that could be used to generate fake accounts, apply for financial products such as loans, etc. 

In their communication with you, they may ask for all these things from you or just one of them.  Any account like this that has a person message you claiming you have won a promotion is fake.  Please remember that if it seems too good to be true then it is.

Leading on from this, you will also see on Instagram a lot of accounts that claim to be run by lottery winners from different countries.  These are all scams.  Think about it logically.  If you were to win a huge sum in your country's lottery would you set up an Instagram page and message random strangers from around the world and say that you are going to give them X amount of cash just because you want to get rid of it? No, I wouldn't and I am sure that you wouldn't either.  So you may well be asking, where is the scam here?  And the answer is the same as the promotion shown in the picture.  They will ask for personal details of yours, supposedly to send you the money, but really they are wanting those details to use for nefarious means.  They also may ask you to pay and administration fee.  If you pay it what happens?  Well, the scammers get richer, you get poorer and you don't receive what you are expecting to receive.  What you may get are more and more requests for money from the scammer plus threats to be sent. 

The easiest way to deal with these kinds of accounts when you come across them or if they want to follow you or message you, is to report them and block them immediately and just have no contact whatsoever.

What makes this account fake?

Yesterday, I was sent a great fake account by one of my Instagram followers (thank you - it did make me laugh!).  I thought I would share it here with you and show you why it is fake - and why it made me laugh!

Well here is the screenshot of the fake account.  

So why is it a fake account?

1.  The use of a young American man with children (could be his, could be nieces or nephews who knows?)

2. There are only 10 posts and all were added quickly to the account and not over time.

3. The biography is poorly written English. it is grammatically incorrect, with poor use of capital letters for place names.  He thinks a widow is male. 

4.  The scammer thinks that this man could pass for 42!!!  I mean hardly.  He looks to be in his twenties. And this is what made me laugh out loud.

5.  There are not many followers and he is following a good few people - many of which when I looked were female.

6.  Looking at his biography again - the scammer says he has a daughter, meaning he has one child.  The man in some of the photos clearly has two.  Also, the pictures of the girls are not the same.  Scammers often do this and mix up their images claiming that two different ones are in fact one child of theirs.

I do hope that you can see that these clues really do point to this being a fake account.  There is no doubt in my mind at all that this account is operated by a romance scammer.

Dr Andy Baldwin

Let me introduce you to another American doctor that scammers use over and over again and have done so for literally years and years.  Please meet Dr Andy Baldwin.

If you want to find out more about the real man that the scammers use then please click the link here

If you are being messaged or followed on any social media platform online then you are being approached by a scammer.  The real man is not approaching anyone in any way shape or form online.

When I add fake accounts using his images on Instagram, I hashtag like this: 

#andybaldwinfake - you can do a search for this hashtag on Instagram to see just how many have been added so far (by no means all that there are or have been).

Can you see the red flags? 🚩🚩🚩

Yesterday I was sent a fake account by one of my followers.  They really are fabulous people on Instagram and they send me all kinds of fake accounts.  This one is just perfect to illustrate some of the things my last couple of blog posts I have published here have been about.

There were lots of red flags waving when I first saw this fake account.

🚩The circular profile picture is Dr Fernando Gomes Pinto

🚩The picture in the first and only post is not the same man - it's a guy called Robert Schmalohr (another man scammers use quite a lot)

🚩The user name does not appear to go with either man - it looks African/Middle Eastern to me

🚩There is only one post on the account and, although you can't see it here, the first post was only an hour old when I saw the account

I hope you can also see the red flags when you look at this account. Once you start looking for red flags like these on Instagram accounts you will see lots and being able to see the red flags will stop you from becoming a victim of a romance scammer.

Instagram basics

One of the questions I am regularly asked on Instagram is how to stop so many scammers.  That's a huge question with a massive answer but the simple one is to shield yourself from them as best as you can.  Now you are going to ask me how you can shield yourself from getting approached all the time.  

My first piece of advice is to make sure that your Instagram account is set to private.  As I showed in my previous post, making your Instagram profile private means that your posts and stories are not shown to everyone.  All that is visible is your username, your profile picture, and your biography.  If someone would like to follow you they have to send you a request.  They do so by clicking the follow button and you see in your heart feed who wants to follow you. From this point on you have complete control over who follows you and who doesn't. My advice is to not accept a follow request from any account that you don't know. All you have to do is decline their request and that's it, they can't follow you. The same is true when someone sends you a direct message.  You access your direct messages from the home page - the arrow in the top right.  An account that messages you cannot do so easily.  They send a message to you but you have to accept it or decline it when your account is private.  If your account is public anyone can message you.  You access your direct messages from the arrow.  Click the arrow in the top right of your home page.  You will see a message request.  Click this and it will show the profile picture and the message sent.  Don't accept it if you don't want to.  I regularly just decline messages as I know they are from fake accounts or are scams.

Now I am going to show you other little checks you can do when a strange account requests to follow you.  I am going to use my Instagram account profile page again to help me.  

1.  I don't accept any followers or messages from anyone that doesn't have a proper picture for a profile image.

2. I check the username.  Does it go with the picture? Does it match the name given in position 6?  I've had scammers using accounts with female usernames with a male image and a male name on the account.  I've had usernames that are clearly an African/Indian/Middle Eastern/Asian name with a picture of a man or woman that is not that nationality and with a name under the image that does not match.  If any of these are the case I don't accept the follow or message.

3.  Check the number of posts made. Then look at some of the posts.  When were they posted? When was the first post added?  What kinds of posts are being added?  You can see when a post was made so if it is just minutes or hours old or even a few days with only a small number of posts added then a red flag is waving for me.  

Look at the type of posts being made.  Memes, sayings, quotes, schmaltzy romantic stuff waves another red flag.

Check for stolen photos as some leave the Instagram icons on and don't crop them off properly - another red flag. They even leave on the real person's watermarks like their username - an instant report and block for me if I see this.

4.  Check the number following them - the smaller the number, a male with a lot of female followers or a female with lots of male followers yet it's a new account then that is a red flag straight away.  

5.  Check who they are following.   If it's a man and they are following a lot of women that look to be a similar profile to you then there's a red flag waving.

Often they have few followers yet they may well be following a big number of people - another red flag for me.

6.  Check the posts they are tagged in at position 12.  I've seen scammers tagged in to their Nigerian friends' posts.  Huge red flag waving.

7.  Search for other users with a similar name.  Eg you have a request from a frankwilliams20201 (made up username).  Search Frank Williams to see how many others there are who are using the same images - there usually are some.  If this is the case then it's a red flag.

8.  Read their biography at position 6.  Does it make sense?  Are there a lot of spelling mistakes?  Some make such glaring errors that show them up as scammers immediately.  

9.  Within their biography, you will often find a web address included as a link.  Do not click the link.  These usually don't work, sometimes they do, but they could be adding malware or spying software onto your device so they can find your bank details, your passwords, etc making you extremely at risk of fraud and theft.

These are just a few basic ways I check out any profile that wants to follow me or send a message, either on my Instascammers profile or my personal one. I get a red flag then I report and block them and I certainly do not let them follow me or send me a message.

 

Parts of an Instagram profile.

Today I am going to show you around a profile page on Instagram and tell you what each part means.  Before I do that though I need to discuss the difference between a public and a private profile.  

A public profile is an account on Instagram that can be seen by anyone and everyone.  All posts and stories are visible at all times to any Instagram user.  Your posts will also show up occasionally in the search feed too.

A private profile is one where your username, profile picture, and any biography added will be visible to all Instagram users.  They will not be able to see your posts and stories, however.  There will be a blue button on the screen saying 'follow' which you click and a follow request is sent to the user. They will get a notification of your request which they can either accept or deny. If they accept you will be able to see their full profile and if they deny it you won't be able to follow them at all.

 

This is a screenshot showing you a private Instagram profile.  I have hidden the profile picture, username, and name of the person as, after all, they are private.  But you can clearly see the blue follow button.

This is my Instascammers Instagram account which I have taken a screenshot of and edited a little to help here.

1.  The circular picture is a profile picture.  I have chosen a saying here which I think is appropriate to my account and it's purpose.  I don't have a picture of me here as I don't want scammers to connect this account to my personal Instagram account.

2.  This is my username.  The three dots (or lines) near it can be clicked and you can see another menu from which you can report and block accounts or share profiles as a message.  This is how I like to have fake accounts sent to me.  You can also see that my account is not verified because it doesn't have the tick at the end of my username.  Please see the picture below for more information.

3.  This tells you how many posts I have made on Instagram.

4.  This is how many accounts are following me on Instagram.

5.  This number is how many accounts I am following on Instagram -  I choose to follow a very few and I don't follow any of the real men.

6.  This is the place to add your name and a bit about yourself ie your biography.  I've also added the web address to this blog.

7.  My account is a public account and you can just click the follow button to see my posts on Instagram and my stories.

8.  The message button enables you to send me a direct message which I can access from the home button and then the top right arrow on the screen.

9.  This drop-down menu shows you other accounts that are similar to mine that you may also like to follow on Instagram.

10.  The circles in this row are the different stories I've added that I've chosen to make permanent.  These can be accessed and viewed by anyone as I am public.  If I had a private account they can only be seen by followers I have agreed to let follow me.

11.  The grid is where you can access my posts on my feed.  The first one in the top left is my most recent post.  My earliest post on this account is the very last post shown on the feed (I don't recommend you search for it because I do have over 13.7 thousand posts on my profile now).

12. This person in a tag is where you can see posts that your username has been tagged into.  Swipe left or click the tag to see them.

13. The squares that you see on the profile here in position 13 are my posts.

14. The house icon is the home screen.  You click this to get back to your feed which is where you can access the posts of the accounts that you follow on Instagram and any new stories added by those that you follow and your own stories.

15.  The magnifying glass icon can be clicked and it will take you to the search page.  Here you can look for a user or a specific hashtag.  A hashtag on the internet is used as a way of rounding up all posts that it appears in.  So I use hashtags for the real names of the guys plus the word fake eg #drfernandogomespintofake. The # would highlight in blue and can be clicked.  This then takes you to a separate page with all posts with the #drfernandogomespintofake hashtag on Instagram.  I do this to keep the accounts all together and give you a way of seeing just how many fakes are made using the pictures.

16.  The + button is the one you click to add a new post onto your Instagram profile.

17.  The heart is the icon to click to see all the interactions on your profile.  When someone tags you when someone likes a post, when someone comments on a post you have made, or when someone follows you or sends a follow request you will receive a notification here in this feed.  You will be able to see the previous 99 interactions only. Tagging someone in means you type @ plus their username eg @insta_scammers2020 it will turn blue and you can click it and it will take you to their profile. The person will receive a notification too as I have said.  This is why I d not like it when followers tag in the fake profile.  They can see this tag and then go and report me to Instagram which means I could have my account disabled or even removed.

18.  This is a small picture of your profile image.  I have disguised this one because I don't want my identity shown as I took the screenshot from my personal Instagram account.  You can click on the small image and it will take you to your profile page as shown in the screenshot above.  From your profile page, you can add posts, search, check your heart feed, change your settings, and so on.  You click the 3 lines or dots in the corner to reveal a menu to change settings, add information, and more besides.  Click them on yours to see just what you can do.

This is the account of Dr Fernando Gomes Pinto.  I have added it here because you can clearly see the blue burst shape with a tick in it.  This is the only verification mark that Instagram uses.  Do not believe an account that says they are verified and do not have this mark next to their username.  It is not shown anywhere else other than after their username on a profile page and in a search.

I do hope this walk around an Instagram profile has helped you just a little.  My next post will be how this knowledge can help you decide whether a profile looks fake or not.

Oops I did it again!!

I definitely started this year off with very good intentions at updating this blog regularly - perhaps not daily but certainly a couple of times a week or so.  Well we are now at the back end of July (how in the heck did that happen???) and I am appalled to say that I haven't added a post since January.

When I first started this blog a couple of years or so ago I really was quite naive.  I genuinely had little idea of just how big an issue this romance scamming is on Instagram and other platforms online.  Two years on and I am older and a lot more savvy about the issues and the reach this has with women and men around the world.  My idea was to update about fake scamming accounts on Instagram and that still really is the case but I think my focus needs to shift a little.  Rather than showing you accounts that are fake I think I am going to continue to zone in on the real people that are being used by the scammers.  I shall also explain a little more about how the fakes will try to groom you and the scams they use to make you willingly part with your money.

I suspect we would all like to see an end to this type of scamming.  But, truthfully, it is never going to happen is it?  Human beings of all races, genders, nationalities will trick a fellow human. I guess it's been going on since time immemorial under the guise of survival of the fittest.  These days it happens online.  I think what I am trying to say is that we are never going to be able to stop people scamming other people but we can prevent it happening to us and our loved ones.  We need to take responsibility for our actions online and keep ourselves as safe there as we do in the real world. Taking a few moments of time to make sure that you are safe online is all it entails.  Do a little research, learn to use reverse image search, find sites like this one which will help you.  Education is the way forward, the way to stop us sending money to them.  Be cynical, be skeptical and don't believe what a handsome stranger says via a message online.  Start from a viewpoint of 'What does he/she want with me?'  You won't go too far wrong and you will soon learn to spot the red flags waving at you. And I hope to help you recognise those red flags.