‘Pay Rs 50 lakh or lose Instagram page’: In a first, influencer with 57 million followers falls …

Add Tribune As Your Trusted Source Home / Trending / ‘Pay Rs 50 lakh or lose Instagram page’: In a first, influencer with 57 million followers falls victim to fake copyright scam Cyber fraudsters extort lakhs from Jabalpur influencer using fake Instagram strikes In a first-of-its-kind cybercrime case in Jabalpur, 28-year-old social media influencer Azim Ahmed has reportedly lost Rs 50 lakh to a gang of cyber fraudsters who extorted money by threatening to get his Instagram pages banned. Ahmed, a software engineer-turned-digital entrepreneur, commands an online following of 57 million across 96 Instagram pages. He built his massive digital presence from scratch, launching his first page in 2017 and seeing rapid growth during the Covid lockdown in 2021, reports NDTV. He later co-founded a digital marketing startup, Whoopy Digital, with friends. However, his success has recently made him a target. “For almost a year, I’ve been receiving fake copyright strikes and threats. They claim my posts violate their content rights and demand money, warning that my accounts will be deleted,” Ahmed said. Fearing the loss of his livelihood, Ahmed said he complied with the extortionists’ demands several times, eventually paying a total of Rs 50 lakh. The threats reportedly
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