14 DAY TRIAL // Instagram was used by three men to successfully steal over $50,000 from various financial institutions.
This is a rather odd situation, but it seems that the photo sharing app was used as a recruiting tool as the schemers were trying to lure people into a bank fraud plan.
How did this all work, you ask? Well, it seems that the three suspects posted photos of the banks to Instagram and waited for people to like the posts. When people did that, they were contacted and asked to give away their account information in exchange for a cut of the money they planned to steal from those very same banks.
"These thieves used modern-day social media tools to lure people to help them commit old-fashioned crimes -- depositing fraudulent checks into bank accounts and withdrawing money that didn't belong to them. Whether the criminals are scammers targeting elderly Pennsylvanians, or con men targeting banks, we'll hold them accountable," said Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania attorney general.
Old idea, new implementation
This seems to be a brand new spin on that Nigerian prince scam that was going through people's emails across the world. Most people are aware of such schemes and know to avoid them, but others aren't. Social media sites are, nowadays, the new way of spreading information about this type of scams, the way con artists hope to attract people that have little to no knowledge about how to stay safe online.
According to the press release regarding this scheme, the investigation began in February when the Organized Crime Section investigators became aware of two Instagram users who posted bank logos on their accounts, requesting that other users who held accounts at those banks to contact them.
An agent contacted the users, arranged a meeting and the whole plan was explained to the undercover cop.
Three people have already been arrested, but the officials say that the investigation is still ongoing and they expect additional charges to be filed.