What s up guys! It s Jason here and welcome to my YouTube channel, Watch out for Get Rich
Quick Scams Insight. Would you want to document and share the location of every moment of
your life that you consider interesting or significant? Would you want to check the location
and goings-on of every acquaintance, friend, and ex-boyfriend or girlfriend that s in your
life and that of random strangers? If a vlogger randomly asked you this question on the street,
you probably wouldn t have to think twice about saying, no. Yet that s pretty much what
Instagram is and many millennials worldwide live for Instagram. They go places so they
can post photos on Instagram that they ve been there. Same with restaurants. Same with
pretty much every aspect of their social lives. In fact, as recently as April 2021, about
32% of Instagram users were between the ages of 25-34 and about 29% are 18-24 years old.
As anyone who has used Instagram even a few times knows, it s highly addictive because
it feeds into the human desire to keep up with the Joneses and show off your very best
life, even if it s not your day-to-day life. Even if it s not your real life. What does
that mean? Well, for instance, if you work at McDonald s, but are racking up credit card
bills to buy a Gucci bag to show off on Instagram, do the unboxing and match it with your outfit
of the day on IG, but not in your McDonald s uniform. That s not very picturesque.
On an even higher level, it s not uncommon for 9-to-5ers to open up Instagram to see
people their own age driving Lamborghinis, riding in private jets, buying Patek Philippe
watches, and showing off the best that money can buy. A lot of times, that means rich parents
and trust funds. Other times, it means using friends in high places to take photoshoots
in mansions and private jets they don t own. Still, other times, it means showing off ill-gotten
wealth---even at the expense of being exposed as an Instagram scammer. While scams continue
to proliferate on every platform, from cryptocurrencies to white-collar, Bernie Madoff scams, Instagram
has become a place where people engaged in showing off the high life to their followers
get adored digitally and sometimes get exposed on social media, too. Let s take a look at
a few of the most high-profile scammers who lived their best lives on Instagram and are
either in the custody of law enforcement, or have otherwise fallen from grace. You might
be asking, how do I avoid scams on Instagram. By the end of this video, I hope you ll know
what to watch out for to avoid falling for these social media scammers.
But before we begin If you wouldn t mind just tapping that LIKE button for the YouTube algorithm,
I would really appreciate it. The more engagement a video like this gets, the more likely the
YouTube algorithm is to push it out to more people to enjoy. And as this is a brand-new
channel I started this year, I appreciate it a billion fold. Leave a comment and I ll
definitely do my best to respond! Free of charge! If you find social media addicting,
be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell for new videos each week. Thanks for
doing that and now let us continue on with the Rise and Fall of Social Media Scammers.
Hush Puppi
By some accounts, up to 66% of Instagram accounts with more than a million followers were engaged
in fraudulent activity. Fraudulent activity can range from using click farms or paying
usually overseas contractors to like or click en masse on Instagram posts, all the way to
using Instagram itself as a platform to defraud people of money. In the case of one of the
most recent and high-profile Instagram takedowns, Hushpuppi, born Ramon Abbas, is a Nigerian
Instagram celebrity who was famous for living lavishly in Dubai without having a legitimate
career. It turns out he didn t as the 37-year-old was arrested in June of this year in Dubai
for business email compromise. What exactly does the term mean? It describes an illegal
get-rich-quick scheme that relies on the carelessness of others: scammers like Hushpuppi create
email addresses that, with one or two letter differences, look like those of law firms
and other businesses that regularly perform wire-transfer payments. The bigger the wire-transfer
payment, the better. With lookalike email addresses, scammers receive payments from
banks, law firms, soccer clubs, or regular people who don t double-check the recipients
of their payments. Authorities claim that the business email compromise scheme netted
Hushpuppi and his ring about $431 million, while the joint US-Dubai sting also seized
about $37 million from his Dubai apartment. According to the FBI and Dubai authorities,
Hushpuppi s operation targeted almost 2 million people. Ironically, Instagram helped the FBI
confirm Hushpuppi s identity. From his birthday post on October 11, 2017, FBI agents were
able to match his birthday with his Nigerian and St. Kitts and Nevis passports. The same
platform that got him VIP treatment at high-end shops like Fendi, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton
also ended up having him extradited to the US on wire fraud allegations. If found guilty,
he could face a maximum of 20 years in US federal prison.
Jay Mazini
Jay Mazini is another famous Instagram scammer who, before deleting his Instagram, had a
million followers and has now been charged with wire fraud, as well as aggravated assault,
luring an adult, kidnapping, possession of weapons, criminal coercion, endangering an
injured victim and making terroristic threats. Mazini, whose real name is Jebara Igbara,
was once famous and viral on Instagram for giving money out to random people spontaneously.
At one point, Mazini became such a social media hit, that Mazini teamed up with rapper
50 Cent to give out more than $30,000 at a Burger King in 50 Cent s hometown of Jamaica,
Queens.
Describing himself as an Entrepreneur on his Instagram page, Mazini actually made money
scamming his followers. The scam played on Mazini s persona as a generous and philanthropic
person. In reality, Mazini told his followers he would buy Bitcoin from them for between
3-5% above their market value because Bitcoin exchanges were limiting his transactions.
Mazini claimed he would wire transfers to the Bitcoin sellers who agreed. He did send
altered screenshots of alleged wire transfers to fraud victims, who soon realized they were
defrauded after they had screenshots, but nothing else. In fact, one victim of Mazini
s wire fraud even discovered that the bank account associated with the wire transfer
had nothing in it. This netted Mazini at least $2.5 million for Mazini.
In a free fall from his once good guy image, Mazini is now being held in a New Jersey jail.
His appeal to be released was denied after it also came out that he had also orchestrated
a kidnapping. From his jail cell in Bergen County in northern New Jersey, Mazini landed
himself in hotter water by trying to silence one of his rivals who threatened to reveal
Mazini s other scams and crimes. Assisted by two of his lackeys, Mazini had his rival
beaten up to the point of having a concussion and threatened with a machete. One of Mazini
s lackeys made the threat even more explicit by threatening to kill him if he called the
police. He did call the police and he isn t yet dead, but Mazini is now deemed a flight
risk and stuck in prison, especially since he s even texted friends about plans to leave
the USA for Colombia. For his illegal get quick scheme, Mazini faces up to 20 years
in prison, while his kidnapping and assault charges could get him anywhere between 15
to 30 years in prison. It s a sobering prospect for the Instagram personality who obviously
loved both cash and attention.
Kayla Massa
While Hushpuppi and Jay Mazini pulled off bigger heists, the Instagram scamming game
is equal opportunity: you can be scammed by men and women on the platform. Kayla Massa
is one example. She scammed on a much smaller scale---to the tune of more than $1.5 million
and more than 45 victims that included Instagram followers and businesses. At twenty-two years
old, Kayla from New Jersey, was arrested on February 13, 2020. She made her fortune through
Instagram and was caught partially through the inevitable papertrail that all social
media leaves behind.
As of right now, nine other people besides Massa were arrested for their role in a classic
get-rich-quick scam conducted mostly on Instagram, but also advertised on Snapchat. Massa utilized
the ephemeral nature of Instagram Stories to show off stacks of cash and money orders
with not-so-subtle messages such as, If you got a bank account and you are interested
in making legal money, (hit me up) ASAP. Massa or one of her co-conspirators would then ask
the victims to empty their bank accounts prior to giving her their debit card and PIN. Essentially,
Massa attempted to assure victims they did not have anything to lose because they had
already withdrawn their own money from their accounts. She would then take fake checks
that were under the names of real businesses and deposit them in unknowing victims accounts
and withdraw the cash before the bank s fraud department could reject or further analyze
the counterfeit checks. Massa and her co-conspirators would then attempt to launder the illegally
obtained money by buying legitimate money orders, often through Western Union.
By the time the banks realized the checks were fraudulent, Massa s victims would already
have overdrawn accounts and wouldn t be able to reach her because she had blocked them
on Instagram. Usually, the victims had to work out repayment terms with the companies
that had fake checks going around in their names. Other times, their debit cards and
checking accounts were closed. The businesses whose checks were impersonated also sometimes
had to pay fines.
Just as she posted photos of herself going shopping with different BMWs, Escalades, and
other high-end cars, Massa was also being investigated after several victims of her
scam reported being lured by a young woman with the Instagram handle @Kayg0ldi. Coincidentally,
in July of 2018, the U.S. Postal Service found out that a New Jersey branch actually had
more than 50 missing money orders. That sparked an investigation by authorities ranging from
the Postal service to local police and to agents from the Department of Homeland Security.
Unfortunately for Massa, cameras in a store associated with the fake checks, caught her
and several of her co-conspirators very often. In fact, the alleged criminals preyed on places
they already knew as a key part of their scheme, with a car dealership where one of Massa s
friends worked having fake checks passed off as theirs.
As luck would have it, a few months after the investigation of Massa began, police in
Winslow Township, New Jersey, happened to pull over a black Nissan. After searching
the car, they found 30 checks from a local car dealership, Nissan Turnersville, that
were written to Keith Williams. No one in the car was named Keith Williams, though,
and two Bank of America debit cards that were found in the car also didn t match the names
of anyone in the car. Blank postal money check orders didn t exactly inspire confidence in
the police. The final nail in the coffin seemed to be that the black Nissan s driver had a
phone with a photo of a Woodbury Nissan employee s number. That employee was one of only a
few people with access to the car dealership s blank checks.
None of that would be a big deal, except that around the same time, a Woodbury Nissan dealership
had lost a bit less than $14,000 in check fraud. Another sixteen car dealerships had
also reported check fraud. What did they have in common? You guessed it. They all had done
some sort of business with the Woodbury Nissan location. It didn t take long for the authorities
to pinpoint Massa once they subpoenaed Instagram for her account information, including its
associated phone number. As with many scammers who are savvy on Instagram, but not savvy
enough to be low-key while scamming, Massa was sloppy. She deposited fake checks into
her mother s bank accounts and had a money order paid out to her sister---in her real
name. When Massa and her friends bought real money orders to launder the ill-gotten profit,
they didn t even bother going to post offices that were out-of-the-way. Instead, they went
to post offices near their homes. One of the people caught on camera? The Woodbury Nissan
employee. Surprise, surprise. Like Hushupuppi and Jay Manzini, Massa and her gang aren t
off the hook just yet. They haven t been sentenced, but have been charged with conspiracy to commit
bank and wire fraud.
Conclusion
And that brings us to today. Hushpuppi, Jay Manzini, and Kayla Massa are probably just
the tip of the Instagram scamster world. It s just a matter of who hasn t been caught
yet. As with many other social media networks, Instagram was intended as a fast and convenient
way for people to stay connected by sharing photos. After all, a picture is worth a thousand
words. Instagram can most definitely still be used that way, but it s also become a way
to create your own personal brand, regardless of whether it s connected to reality. Many
people maintain an Instagram to cultivate a certain image of themselves, even if it
s just to keep up within their own circle. In the case of Instagram scammers, cultivating
a certain image---whether its being affluent or a prophet or a sex symbol, helps them lay
a foundation for money-making scams. Sometimes it s a long game and sometimes it s a short
game. Their followers seem to enjoy the thrill of living vicariously through the often millennial
scammers who also seem to be addicted to enjoying the limelight and keeping up appearances to
the very end, even if it s inside of a prison cell.
So with that said, thank you so much for watching my video. There was a significant amount of
research and production that went into making this video possible. As this is a brand-new
YouTube channel I just started this year - if you enjoy videos like this, please click the
subscribe button and hit that notification bell! I respond to all comments! If you haven
t seen already, check out my video on the Rise and Fall of Second Life or the Rise and
Fall of Google Stadia. As always, stay happy and healthy and stay tuned for another episode
of Company Insight next week.