OBN, a mysterious fraudster, says he made hundreds of thousands of dollars by exploiting Instagram’s security gaps.
He’s eluded Meta and law enforcement, but we followed his trail to Las Vegas.
This story digs into the booming underground community of Instagram scammers and hackers who shut down profiles on the social network and then demand payment to reactivate them.
Read more here: https://www.propublica.org/article/instagram-fraudster-ban-influencer-accounts
@craigsilverman @pluralistic I see so many articles about people being burned because they decided to make their living providing free content to media corporations and making side deals, with no contractual guarantee from the media corporation or even in explicit contradiction to the corporations rules. Then they get upset when someone else takes advantage by blackmailing them.
The problem here is not OBN, it’s Meta. Their entire business model on Instagram is based on a foundation of insecurity, corruption, graft, and crime.
@craigsilverman @pluralistic I see so many articles about people being burned because they decided to make their living providing free content to media corporations and making side deals, with no contractual guarantee from the media corporation or even in explicit contradiction to the corporations rules. Then they get upset when someone else takes advantage by blackmailing them.
@craigsilverman Wow, this is FASCINATING. Can't believe it.
@craigsilverman @ProPublica This was a really great read!
Now give me $4,000 or I’ll get you banned.
I’m super-cereal, you guys.