this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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38
Sex Workers Are Getting Scammed on Instagram. Meta Needs to Step In (www.rollingstone.com)
submitted 5 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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[–] tal@lemmy.today 13 points 5 months ago (3 children)

For over a decade, I’ve worked as one of the leading MILFs in the adult industry.

There's a sentence that I didn't expect to read.

I have witnessed over and over again my friends and I losing our social media accounts

If someone robs my home, I have insurance. If someone takes my social media pages, I lose tons of future revenue. You can’t insure your Instagram account as an OnlyFans creator.

I don't use Instagram or OnlyFans. But I'd bet that they have some form of two-factor authentication.

kagis

OnlyFans does have two-factor authentication. Sounds like a time-based one-time-password.

https://onlyfans.com/help/1/5/29

Two step verification is recommended and encouraged to keep your OnlyFans account secure.

How to set up two step verification

To enable two step verification:

  • Download either the Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator app to your smartphone from the app store.
  • Log into your OnlyFans account and go to your "Account" Settings: https://onlyfans.com/my/settings/account/2fa
  • Click the toggle near "Two step verification" on the security page.
  • Follow the instructions to add the QR code or the Key provided to your Authenticator app. This will link the Authenticator app with your OnlyFans account.
  • Enter the 6-digit code from your Authenticator App into OnlyFans. Please note that a new code is generated every 30 seconds and each time you open the app, so be sure to use the most up-to-date code.

If you're really worried, get a dedicated smartphone, and never connect it to the Internet or a phone network, and use that as your physical authentication token. Back up your key in a safe deposit box or something.

Maybe OnlyFans should have some kind of different policy, like forcing use of two-factor authentication or something once revenue on an account rises above a certain point. Like, expecting random adult entertainer to evaluate the security of various authentication options they provide maybe isn't reasonable.

But that really seems like it should avoid people simply "losing" their accounts.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The quote you highlighted suggests it was an issue with Instagram, not OnlyFans...but Facebook has all kinds of account protection options, so I'm guessing Instagram does too.

[–] bytheway@lemm.ee 13 points 5 months ago

I may be very wrong, but it sounded to me like the problem isn’t the account getting hacked - the problem is the account getting suspended or removed by the platform itself. So 2FA etc will not help at all.

In some cases, the scammers apparently have a way to get the suspension reversed, which makes you wonder whether they actually work at Meta/OnlyFans, and are suspending accounts for no reason, in order to ransom them back to the owners.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Or... we don't blame the victim for wearing that short skirt.

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is really more like blaming the victim for leaving their car unlocked

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

And? It's not their fault for getting robbed. That's why the person who robs them gets arrested and they aren't penalized.

Being careless- or, in this case, not computer-savvy- does not make you not a victim of a crime.

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I didn't say it was their fault. You used a sexual assault metaphor for what was essentially a robbery. I thought that was a braindead level of poor taste so I suggested a better metaphor. You're like the last person on earth I need a morals lecture from, so spare me the self righteous indignation.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

You’re like the last person on earth I need a morals lecture from

Are you under the impression that I'm a serial killer or something?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

Right, but unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world with no thieves, so you should do at least the bare minimum to protect yourself. If you don't, you tend to lose people's sympathy.

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No it's their fault for leaving their car unlocked. Why do victims get absolved of responsibility for their own actions when it leads to negative results?

Play stupid games....you know the rest.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

No it’s their fault for leaving their car unlocked. Why do victims get absolved of responsibility for their own actions when it leads to negative results?

So if the person who robbed them gets caught, they shouldn't get arrested or charged or anything, right? After all, it was the person they stole from's fault.

[–] YarrMatey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago

This has nothing to do with MFA. Reread the article.

To understand these questions, you have to know how the scam works. Here’s what typically happens: One of my social media accounts goes down. Suddenly — in a way that feels too quick to be a coincidence, though it’s unclear exactly how they might get an account down taken down — a stranger contacts me via Twitter DMs or email. They promise they’ll get my account back if I pay a price. Sometimes, they claim they have an inside man at Meta.

Performer Abigail Mac has received these messages after losing her account. “It’s people that work at Instagram,” Mac says she believes. “[They’re] extorting them and just stealing their money.” 

In her most recent ordeal, Mac says, Meta took down her account then she received a message from a scammer, offering to retrieve the account for $15,000. They swore the account would disappear forever if she didn’t pay them in 24 hours. She replied that she would get her account back herself.

“Then they asked me what my budget was,” Mac says. “Every day [they] would knock some money off. It’s such a scam.”

The scarier scenario occurs when someone messages you are saying, “Hey, save my stuff in case you lose your account.” Then, whoopsie doodle, lo and beyond, your account’s gone. Now, when I receive these messages, my stomach drops.

The worst part is when I’ve paid these people, it’s often worked. They’ve retrieved my account. I’m thankful for that, but it raises questions about how these people operate and what they know, not just about sex workers’ Instagram accounts, but everyone’s. How do they get the accounts back? Where do they work when they’re not retrieving sex workers’ accounts? How do they communicate with Meta to fix the problem? And why does your account get deleted over and over again once you pay these people?

“Once you pay, they know you will pay and keep doing it,” Mac says.

Girls have paid up to $20,000 and have not gotten their accounts back. It’s plausible these scam artists message a girl, report her account, and then contact her via another avenue, such as Twitter or email. But there’s no way to know for sure. For all the talk about the dangers of social media, from teenage anorexia rates to smartphone addiction, the public pays little attention to the harms sex workers face on these sites. (Unless a porn star is fucking a president, you’re not going to see her on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.) We need Meta to investigate the problem and identify what has gone wrong before more people get scammed. 

[–] LouNeko@lemmy.world -1 points 5 months ago

It's really hard to find any sympathy for people whose entire business model is to leach money from young impressionable men. It's almost like their asking "Please stop extorting us, so we can continue extorting our own clientele in peace." And don't tell me that all those men are giving up their money voluntarily. It's like saying the gambling addicts put their money in the slot machine volutarily, therefore it's not a problem. No self-respecting individual in their right mind would or should enter his card information and buy naughty pictures of some rando, while there's a backlog of billions of them online for free. Rub one out and get in with your day.
They can themselves "sex workers" while there is literally zero sex in their work. Imagine thinking that posting pictures of "yourself wearing short skirts" ads any value to society. Actual sex workers at least provide physical and social comfort, even if it's just an act, it's still a professional form of commitment.
Do those women ever stop and think why there is no one stepping in for them and preventing this scam from happening? Almost like what they do has zero value to people with the actual power to do so.
Maybe take a long hard look at yourself and see your accounts being suddely deleted as an opportunity to freshen up that resume of yours and get a real job with taxable income.

Also the fact that this is happening to the 0.0X% of highest earners, is ironic. Usually, it's the lower end that gets scammed the most.