Claiming it was the official Instagram account of Miss Teen SA, the bio invited wannabe contestants to DM to enter, with the promise of R500 000 worth of prizes as well as a modelling contract on the line.

Who wouldn’t DM for that, amiright?

But after sending the account a private message, things got very dark, very quickly, explains W24:

It started with DMs on Instagram, where people were asked to add a modelling agency’s head scout based in the U.S. on Whatsapp.

The number was a +1 (American) number, so it even seemed legit. From there women were asked to send pictures of themselves – from clothed to nude.

Nudes were allegedly requested to ‘check for tattoos’ on these women’s bodies.

And, being a Miss Teen account, you might have worked out that the women were most likely to be teens.

Luckily, the real Miss Teen SA team caught onto the scam before things got too out of control, and released the following statement:

“The account makes use of the official Miss South Africa 2017 branding, which has been manipulated and claims to be the official account for Miss Teen SA.

“Sun International and its partners have no affiliation with the Miss Teen SA Instagram account that has abused our Miss South Africa logo to lend credibility to this fake page. We do not endorse any content published or prizes offered on this page. We have escalated our concerns and are taking the necessary steps to ensure that we address this as a matter of urgency.”

And then, having only gained around 500 followers, the account was shut down. Boom.

Emma Sadleir, social media law specialist and co-author of ‘Don’t Film Yourself Having Sex: And Other Legal Advice For The Age Of Social Media’, has some very good points to make about sending nudes:

She says that one should always live by the billboard rule. Before sending a pic think about whether you’d be comfortable seeing that picture of yourself on a billboard for everyone to see. The online space is such a dangerous one, one that sees pictures shared instantaneously; and in the era of the screengrab, the evidence lasts forever.

Unless you accidentally break your ex’s phone before you break up. Whooops.

Also reporting on the scam, Buzz South Africa reminded its readers of another recent attempt to defraud users:

Similarly, South African telecommunications service provider, MTN issued a note of warning in July to its subscribers to beware of the latest scam doing the rounds in the country. The method known as the SIM swap scam sees a supposed MTN call centre agent contact random customers, requesting their security details. The scammers claim to be blocking the processing of a SIM swap request that was made without the customer’s consent.

They will then use the information obtained from the customer during the call to perform a fraudulent SIM swap and possibly use it to access customer’s banking details.

And that, my friend, is why you never, ever send nudes that includes you face – and always use Truecaller to identify any potential scammers.

[source:w24&buzz]