The eSafety Commissioner has issued a warning about a new Instagram scam which sees legitimate account holders impersonated and payment taken for explicit images which often don’t exist.
eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant said eSafety had received reports from people who had their non-intimate images ‘harvested’ on social media sites, like Instagram, to create imposter accounts which redirected traffic to subscription services claiming to feature explicit content of the person.
“Even though the explicit content may not be the person, if it is purporting to be that person, it may constitute image-based abuse and victims can report to eSafety to have this content removed, and we have an 85 per cent success rate,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“Victims can also report to the Australian Cyber Security Centre as this may constitute a crime,” she said.
“Misusing another person’s image or identity in this way is also likely to violate the relevant platform’s terms of service and we also recommend reporting it to the platform.”
Ms Inman Grant said eSafety also received reports from people who had set up an account to monetise their intimate images, something which became popular as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and had seen those images shared more widely than intended.
“Depending on the circumstances, eSafety may be unable to take removal action on this scenario, however, misusing another person’s image or identity in this way is likely to violate the relevant platform’s terms of service,” she said.
“We recommend reporting it to the platform.”
The Commissioner said eSafety could support those who had been harmed by the misuse of their images, assess any report made to it and help people understand their options.
Further information on image-based abuse, including how to make a report to eSafety, can be accessed at this PS News link.
