Screen shot of fake Downtown Kamloops BIA Instagram Account/via Brett Mineer
A new online scam is making the rounds, specifically targeting folks in Kamloops.
An Instagram account, posing — and appearing very much like — the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association’s account, is attempting to steal people’s personal information though a phishing scam.
It will claim you’ve won a prize, then ask you to fill out information.
Downtown BIA Marketing and Events Coordinator Alex Eaket says they first figured out — internally — what was happening on February 8th.
“All of us had the account follow us on our personal accounts, so that kind of posed a bit of red-flag, being like ‘I didn’t follow myself on the account, so who is following me.”
Screen shot of legitimate Downtown Kamloops BIA Instagram account/via Brett Mineer
The KCBIA says it has been attempting to reach out to Instagram to have the account removed but says its efforts have thus-far fallen on deaf-ears by the online firm.
“There’s an Instagram website that you can go through, and it goes through all the steps to report the account, but then it’s basically just a loop you’re going through. “Really, the only way that we were able to report the account was through our own personal accounts.”
The tell-tale sign for those looking out for the fraud is the fake Downtown Kamloops Instagram account has two “T’s” in “Downtown.”
