It's no surprise to learn that celebrities, even lesser ones, can make big money plugging products on Instagram. And as ProPublica explains, that has led to a lucrative hustle scammy in nature by those who know how to manipulate the system. The story focuses on an mysterious online figure known as OBN—"one of the most prolific and notorious members of a booming underground community of Instagram scammers and hackers who shut down profiles on the social network and then demand payment to reactivate them," writes Scott Silverman and Bianca Fortis. The story details how the operations of OBN and others like him work: They can't shut down the profiles themselves, but they can trick Instagram into doing it for them. For instance, they might hack into the account, post something offensive, then flood Instagram (owned by Meta) with complaints.
At that point, they demand money from the victim to get the account back up again, which may or may not happen even if payment is made. Sometimes, these scammers get paid by others to take down the account of a rival. OBN has boasted of his talents online and of the huge amounts of money he has made. The story not only talks to several of his victims, it goes a remarkable step further: "ProPublica’s investigation led to one person who either is OBN or is closely linked to him: 20-year-old Edwin Reyes-Martinez, who lives with his mother in an apartment complex roughly 13 miles north of the Las Vegas strip." Reyes-Martinez denies being OBN but acknowledges at least being affiliated with him. Read the full story for much more. (Or check out other longform stories.)
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