Influx of fake Instagram profiles luring users to dating that is adult

Three fake Instagram profile variations utilized to make scammers money through affiliate marketing programs.

In current months, Symantec Security Response has observed a stable influx of fake profiles in the social photo-sharing solution Instagram. These fake pages, designed to use photographs taken from legitimate profiles, function three variants to adhere to users and photos that are like. Through these interactions, they lure users for their pages to be able to make a payment through affiliate links to adult dating internet sites.

Influx of fake pages Sometime in November 2015, users publishing pictures to Instagram started observing loves and follows from unknown users.

Figure 1. Fake pages on Instagram follow users and photos that are like

Three profile variants Among these profiles, we now have seen at the least three variants.

Pages within the variation that is first a taken avatar picture, but no real photos on their profile page. Their bio may or might not include some information, however they could have a web link resulting in a grownup dating site.

Figure 2. Profile variation number 1 contains no pictures, simply a hyperlink in the profile bio

Pages into the 2nd variation have a taken avatar and matching stolen photographs. They have some suggestive text in the bio (“Are that you intercourse giant?