Blog Post: The Instagram “Brand Ambassador” Scam I Almost Fell For

I recently experienced a common digital media scam known as the Instagram “brand ambassador” hoax, which targets young people looking for quick income, free products, or social media growth. A popular clothing brand called “Edikted” messaged me saying they loved my content and wanted to offer me a partnership where they send me free clothes in return for a few posts tagging them and wearing their clothing on my social media. Unfortunately I learned that the purpose of the scam was simply to get people to buy products upfront or give away personal information. The scam worked by sending flattering, generic DMs, instantly “approving” anyone as an ambassador, and then pressuring them to purchase items through sketchy websites with promises of reimbursement and commission that never happened. The page had fake followers, copied comments, bad grammar, and no real business information, which are all red flags I noticed before falling for it. In reality, the brand was just trying to make money by manipulating people’s excitement and urgency, which is so disappointing because I was actually a huge fan of them before. I realized it was fake when I saw there was no physical address, no legitimate reviews, and the brand asked me to pay them first—something real companies never do. To verify if something like this is real or fake, you can check engagement quality, search the brand name with the word “scam,” look for a real return policy, do a reverse image search, and trust your intuition if something feels rushed or too good to be true. Experiences like this remind people (me included) how important digital literacy is, especially when hoaxes and online scams are becoming more sophisticated every day.