If you are a long-time follower of mine then you how much I can’t stand spammers and know I will do whatever I can to help you avoid getting scammed. (Remember last year when someone tried to get me to design a logo and some brochures and tried to pass a fake check, if you don’t remember, or if you are new to Finding Connecticut, you can read the story here. A quick update on that, the “person” who tried to pass a fake check on me, has contacted me directly from the same email, and from other ones, since asking me to do the same project.)
This past week I noticed only on Finding Connecticut’s Instagram, that I was getting these comments that said “Send pics to @connecticut_community”. Finding Westport, Finding Norwalk, Finding Fairfield and the other Finding’s pages were not getting these messages. I looked at Connecticut’s Community profile and right away it has a series of red flags.
1. The account of 106K has no blue check mark
2. “Connecticut,usa” – no space between Connecticut and usa – we know USA should be in caps
3. This account is not following any of my followers – now I have a large range of popular businesses and they were not following anyone, including popular pages like 203local, heystamford, or news publications, sports teams etc.
4. Then I posted something over the weekend with no hashtags – within twenty minutes, I had a message from “Connecticut_Community” telling me to send them my pics. This account is not a follower of mine and I used no hashtags – how did they know I posted something? This tells me they were watching my account, most likely checking it frequently until I posted.
5. This was only happening on Finding Connecticut’s Instagram account until a few days later when they found Finding Bridgeport’s Instagram account.
I have been busy with a war with Facebook the last few days and haven’t been able to address my followers to keep an eye out for these trolls. It happened again earlier in the week when I had 20 plus messages on one post telling me to promote with “Connecticut_community” and “Connecticut_community.” I had enough. I even wrote a post about them telling my followers that they are fake Connecticut accounts. They commented with the usual “Promote on Connecticut_community” – so I made a reel with the screenshot and wrote “fake” over it and tagged them. But there was no response. However, when I posted something with no hashtags and within minutes later they are commenting on my posts as if they are watching my accounts.
After I posted the screenshot photos and the reel, I quickly learned, that it was not just me, it was happening to other Connecticut accounts as well. Arielle who owns A Shrine Thing told me “I think like the past week or two, any time I post some and I’ll put CT as the location when I make the post someone will tag the @connecticut_community account. And it is a few different accounts that are the ones making the commence.” Then a while later Scott Chiappetta of Scott Chiappetta Photography told me the same thing was happening to him.
How can an account that wants to promote Connecticut posts but not follow any businesses – while looking at their followers I noticed a few things… it was all sites for strippers and people who don’t live in this country. Yes, the 106K is appealing for the small business owners, someone with a lot of followers what to promote their products, but what good is going to be to promote their products to a large group of people who are most likely dead accounts? (by dead accounts I mean they have 3 people following them and are following 5K). Or accounts that are based out of India, Morroco, Russia, or China? How is that helpful to anyone who target market is here in Connecticut?
I did notice with their posts that they seem to change location every so often trying to gain attention for themselves. If you scroll back far enough you will see they were targeting the Washington DC area and then it changed. It could be their way of trying to gain followers or it could be another way to get someone’s information that can lead up to identity theft.
I dug a bit deeper and found a way to stop these accounts from commenting on posts.
- Go to Setting on Instagram.
- Click on Privacy
- Click on Comments
- Click on “Allow comments“
- Choose who can comment everyone, people you follow, your followers, and the people you follow and your followers
Since I changed my settings, the trolls have been kept at bay.
By following or submitting to these pages can lead to a massive mess. For instance, a few small facts in a photo can lead to private information, which can lead to identity theft. We don’t where these sites are from and if they are phishing for information by using other fake accounts to get you to submit to them. We also don’t know who is viewing these photos. I know we live in a digital age, where we have taken down our guard but when someone is pestering you to send photos and information to them, it means they are up to something.
I know things are hard right now for small business owners, we have inflation, skyrocketing gas prices mixed with a few other things and we are all trying to stay afloat. Please keep in mind, that we are still using the internet and anyone anywhere can make a Connecticut account and act like they are promoting your stuff to the right people. If you are unsure of an account, please feel free to send me an email (I don’t always see DM’s) and I will get back to you. If you are unsure of who your Connecticut influencers are – the most common ones are 203Local, 860Local, Hey Stamford, and of course ourselves Finding Connecticut.
Have a good weekend and stay safe,
J.
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