A look at OBNBrandon, a prolific scammer in a booming community focused on banning influencers' accounts, mainly on Instagram, and extorting for “reactivation”
https://www.propublica.org/... … @craigsilverman@mastodon.social : 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. … Tweets: Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : Kay Jenkins, a Miami realtor/model, was losing income because her Insta kept getting banned. She paid someone she thought was a Meta employee $8,000 for reactivation. But like so many other influencers, she got conned by the notorious Instascammer, OBN: https://www.propublica.org/... https://twitter.com/... Philip Lewis / @phil_lewis_ : There's a massive underground community of Instagram scammers who shut down profiles of influencers with millions of followers & then demand payment to reactivate them “I made about $300k [by] banning and unbanning pages,” the most notorious member wrote https://www.propublica.org/... @propublica : By allowing anyone to report an Instagram account for violating the company's standards, Meta gives enormous leverage to people who are able to trick it into banning someone who relies on Instagram for income. https://www.propublica.org/... Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : He denied knowing anything about OBN. After being told his bank account received more than $10,000 in payments intended for OBN, he changed his story. He said someone asked him to funnel money through his bank account to unknown recipients. He said he didn't know their full name. https://twitter.com/... Lynne Arnold / @lynnearnold : @DanLGolden @propublica Instagram has a terrible system and they're exploiting it. Meta doesn't care and obviously refuses to hire adequate staff to actually look at these problems. Instead, they're going after Tik Tok. Ian Frisch / @ianfrisch : this is so insane https://www.propublica.org/... @propublica : Takedown-for-hire scammers like OBN are proliferating on Instagram, exploiting the app's slow and often ineffective customer support services and its easily manipulated account reporting systems. https://www.propublica.org/... Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : We spoke to people with over 45 million total Insta followers who were targeted by OBN. They say Meta failed to help, or to take OBN seriously. At least one person is suing. Others hired lawyers. But OBN continued to run wild, mocking Meta and police as he banned and scammed. Elliot / @loh : New form of extortion: abuse the abuse-reporting systems to take down a profitable account, then blackmail said account with promises to get ban lifted https://twitter.com/... Bryson / @bryson_m : always boggled my mind how facebook gets away without a real customer service dept https://twitter.com/... @propublica : Banners like OBN trade tips on how to get Instagram to falsely suspend accounts. In some cases he hacks into accounts to post offensive content. In others, he creates duplicate accounts in targets' names, then reports the original accounts as imposters. https://www.propublica.org/... Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : Meta sent Reyes-Martinez a cease-and-desist letter on March 17, about two weeks after we contacted the company for comment and shared the connections between OBN and Reyes-Martinez. Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : People who've been targeted by OBN include @Adam22, host of @nojumper who has 1.6m Insta followers and @daniibanks_, an OnlyFans model with 7.9m Insta followers. OBN also claimed responsibility for banning @AsianDaBrattt, who has 4.2m Insta followers. https://twitter.com/... Thomas R. Wood / @modernwood : Tons of friends losing accounts to the Wild West that is @Meta's shit show lack of security and customer service. https://twitter.com/... Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : NEW: OBN, a mysterious fraudster, exploited Instagram's security gaps to ban influencers w/ millions of followers. Instascammers like him shut down profiles and demand $$ to reactivate them. OBN eluded Meta & police, but we followed his trail to Vegas: https://www.propublica.org/... Zula / @zulaqi : A Scammer Tricked Instagram Into Banning Influencers With Millions of Followers. Then He Made Them Pay to Recover Their Accounts. OBN, a mysterious fraudster, says he made hundreds of thousands of dollars by exploiting Instagram's security gaps. https://www.propublica.org/... @propublica : New: 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. https://www.propublica.org/...
Instagram's support is so bad there are crews of attackers who abuse the poorly designed, and poorly functioning systems to do account takeovers and scams, conning people out of money to get their accounts back …
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. …
Kay Jenkins, a Miami realtor/model, was losing income because her Insta kept getting banned. She paid someone she thought was a Meta employee $8,000 for reactivation. But like so many other influencers, she got conned by the notorious Instascammer, OBN: https://www.propublica.org…
There's a massive underground community of Instagram scammers who shut down profiles of influencers with millions of followers & then demand payment to reactivate them “I made about $300k [by] banning and unbanning pages,” the most notorious member wrote https://www.propublica.or…
By allowing anyone to report an Instagram account for violating the company's standards, Meta gives enormous leverage to people who are able to trick it into banning someone who relies on Instagram for income. https://www.propublica.org/...
He denied knowing anything about OBN. After being told his bank account received more than $10,000 in payments intended for OBN, he changed his story. He said someone asked him to funnel money through his bank account to unknown recipients. He said he didn't know their full name.…
@DanLGolden @propublica Instagram has a terrible system and they're exploiting it. Meta doesn't care and obviously refuses to hire adequate staff to actually look at these problems. Instead, they're going after Tik Tok.
Takedown-for-hire scammers like OBN are proliferating on Instagram, exploiting the app's slow and often ineffective customer support services and its easily manipulated account reporting systems. https://www.propublica.org/...
We spoke to people with over 45 million total Insta followers who were targeted by OBN. They say Meta failed to help, or to take OBN seriously. At least one person is suing. Others hired lawyers. But OBN continued to run wild, mocking Meta and police as he banned and scammed.
New form of extortion: abuse the abuse-reporting systems to take down a profitable account, then blackmail said account with promises to get ban lifted https://twitter.com/...
Banners like OBN trade tips on how to get Instagram to falsely suspend accounts. In some cases he hacks into accounts to post offensive content. In others, he creates duplicate accounts in targets' names, then reports the original accounts as imposters. https://www.propublica.org…
Meta sent Reyes-Martinez a cease-and-desist letter on March 17, about two weeks after we contacted the company for comment and shared the connections between OBN and Reyes-Martinez.
People who've been targeted by OBN include @Adam22, host of @nojumper who has 1.6m Insta followers and @daniibanks_, an OnlyFans model with 7.9m Insta followers. OBN also claimed responsibility for banning @AsianDaBrattt, who has 4.2m Insta followers. https://twitter.com/...
NEW: OBN, a mysterious fraudster, exploited Instagram's security gaps to ban influencers w/ millions of followers. Instascammers like him shut down profiles and demand $$ to reactivate them. OBN eluded Meta & police, but we followed his trail to Vegas: https://www.propublica.org/…
A Scammer Tricked Instagram Into Banning Influencers With Millions of Followers. Then He Made Them Pay to Recover Their Accounts. OBN, a mysterious fraudster, says he made hundreds of thousands of dollars by exploiting Instagram's security gaps. https://www.propublica.org/...
New: 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. https://www.propublica.org/...