Scam watch: lured by ‘lottery winner’ on Instagram

An Instagram account has been sending private messages promising $50,000 of lottery winnings to its first 50k followers. It’s a scam, and this is how it works.

Carl got in touch with us to let us know he’d been sent a private message on photo-sharing app Instagram. It read:

“I’m Julie Leach the powerball winner of $310,500,000. I’m giving out $50,000 to the first 50k followers and to those in need of help”

There are pictures of a lady collecting the winning cheque on the account itself.

Julie Leach was a genuine lottery winner in the US in 2015. Her name and image have since been abused by scammers via email and on social media.

Fraudsters often use genuine news stories and events to add plausibility to their story. In January, scammers were posing as EuroMillions winners Frances and Patrick Connolly on Twitter.

Multiple Instagram accounts

Our cursory search of Instagram revealed 20 accounts bearing the name ‘Julie Leach’ alongside promotional images of the genuine Julie Leach collecting her winnings.

The account that messaged Carl was still active and had doubled its follower numbers. We tried to report it via Instagram’s reporting tool, but found there was no specific category for scam accounts.

When we instead tried to report it as ‘impersonation of a public figure’, we were unable to do so unless we provided the genuine account username of the real Julie Leach.

Facebook (Instagram’s parent company) has confirmed that scams and fraud should be reported as ‘spam’. A Facebook spokesperson said:

“We are aware of this issue and will continue to look into this matter to disable any accounts in violation of our policies. The account you spotted has now been removed for violating Facebook’s community guidelines”

Impersonation of celebrities on social media

As our investigation has shown, scams impersonating celebrities on social media continue to crop up regularly.

The observation that this account had doubled its followers in an important one – more often than not accounts like this are sold on then rebranded and renamed once they’ve accrued a large audience.

This then makes its following vulnerable to whatever content the new owners may choose to post, including scams.

If you’ve spotted this scam or anything similar, make sure you report it. If you’re concerned that you may have given your bank details to scammers, contact your bank immediately.

You can also read our guide on getting your money back after a scam.

Have you spotted fraud like this on Instagram? If so, get in touch and help warn people in the comments.

wavechange says:

25 October 2019

Why should anyone believe that anyone should give away a substantial amount of money for following them on Instagram?

I cannot see any easy solution other than banning anything to do with money being posted on social media.

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duncan lucas says:

Your first sentence says it all Wavechange much comment is made along the lines–“old people are vulnerable to scams ” , its on Which ? convos- national media -charity groups etc but it begs the question —why are YOUNG people so susceptible to this type of crime ?
Answer —because they have been “programmed ” to accept that modern methods of communications are “above board ” as that’s how big media companies make money .

Every time this happens up pops the $billionaire owners to “prove ” their social app is “secure-trustworthy” etc and young people believe them .
I don’t blame the young people I blame modern capitalist society where they are taught from childhood probably at schools where MS or Google has paid for the computers and you cant criticise them now –can you ?

GCHQ issued a statement complaining that those criticising them snooping should take note of Google who -( they say ) holds more info on the British public than they do.

Maybe. I wonder if many of us are conditioned to accept something for little or no effort. Look at the number of people who queue up for Lottery tickets.

If there is a philanthropist wanting to give away money, I’m going to miss out.

malcolm r says:

“young people believe them”. Another very dubious generalisation. I give more credit to most people, young middling and old, for having common sense.

People do gamble, whether on the lottery, pools, horses, but this is more in hope of winning something than expectation, so suggesting we are conditioned to use little effort to get something does not, I believe follow for the vast majority.

I would not ban gambling, even though there are people who mis-use it, as some do other things. What I would do is make it less instantaneous so people think a little before using a credit or debit card to, in the main, lose their money and feed the gambling operators. After that, people need to be able to take responsibility for their own behaviour without interference from a nanny state.

I have just bought a line or two on the lottery. Just for fun – I can afford the outlay and will get by without a win. As it happens, I am in credit on this particular financial operation so mustn’t complain.