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A real psychic will never DM you

So many readers have impersonators on Instagram. Even The Green Man Store had one, recently. Here are some tips to protect yourself.

There’s been a recent spike in impersonating accounts on social media, and it’s impacted several of our readers here at The Green Man – even the store itself! Here’s what we’ve seen happen:

  1. A scammer creates an Instagram account that looks like their target’s profile – similar name, bio, and profile photo.
  2. They follow many of their target’s followers, and get some of them to follow them back by making them think it’s their target’s new profile.
  3. They DM their new followers, saying they have a message for them as a psychic, and they’ll ask you to pay them for the reading so they can tell you.
  4. The person agrees and sends money for a reading.
  5. The impostor disappears with their money, OR;
  6. The impostor gives them a horrifying reading they’ve copy/pasted from somewhere, and tries to get more money out of them by selling them more services.

No one at The Green Man Store will ever DM you directly to get you to book a reading or any other service.

Free will is important to us. It’s a foundational element of everything we do. As someone seeking a reading, the act of booking it claims the reading for yourself. We would never mess with your free will by pressuring you into doing anything, and that includes reaching out to you directly to sell you any service.

Social media is an important place to find and connect with our community, especially after the last couple years where it’s been difficult if not impossible to connect in person the way we’re used to doing at the store. It can also be a place where anyone can pretend to be anyone else, and it can be difficult to tell truth from lies.

How to tell if you’re looking at a fake account

  1. Compare the user name to the user name you know already. Does it have any extra letters or characters? Scammers will add underscores ( _ ), numbers, and sometimes even extra letters — doubling or tripling an L or an O.
  2. Click on some of the photos. Do they have only a few likes? Are they missing captions? If so, it’s likely that someone used a piece of software to copy someone else’s photos, but didn’t copy the captions. Then, they may have used other fake accounts of theirs to make it look like someone likes the photos.
  3. Check your DMs. If they messaged you pretty quickly after following them, it’s probably a scam. If they ask you for money, don’t do it! Sometimes they won’t ask for the money right away, and they’ll try to gain your trust first.

How to protect your account from hackers

Sometimes, scammers won’t impersonate someone. Instead, they’ll break into someone’s account and then change the email and password associated with it, so the real owner can’t get it back easily.

When that happens, look at their behavior. If they are DMing you with things that sound fake, but the account itself looks real — trust your gut.

You can also take steps to secure your accounts, so hackers are discouraged from targeting you.

  1. Turn on Two Factor Authentication on your Instagram profile. This is in your account settings. It means that even if someone has your password, they can’t log into the account without also having your phone or your email account. It slows them down.
  2. Make sure your account passwords are hard to guess. If you use a password on more than one site, or it’s easy to remember, it’s probably not very secure. A password manager like 1Password can create unique, hard to guess passwords for every account you have, and automatically enter them in for you through a mobile app or browser extension. This way, the only password you have to remember is the one that unlocks your password manager.
  3. Make sure your email account is secure as well. Follow the same steps – If you use Gmail or Gsuite, they offer built in tools for Two Factor Authentication. You don’t want to end up in a situation where someone has hacked your Instagram account *and* your email account, because they can prevent you from warning anyone that your account is compromised, and make it very difficult if not impossible for you to recover the account.

What to do when you find a fake account on Instagram

  1. Try to confirm with someone in real life whether they have a new account. If it’s a reader from The Green Man Store, you can call us and ask
  2. If it’s fake, click the three dots in the top right corner of the Instagram account and select Report.
  3. It’ll ask you to select a reason you’re reporting them. Select Report Account >
  4. Then, select “It’s pretending to be someone else”
  5. Then, it asks you who this account is pretending to be. Click “A celebrity or public figure” or “A business or organization”
  6. On the next screen, it will ask you to select the account being impersonated. Search for the real person’s Instagram name and tap the button next to it in the list that comes up
  7. Then, click Submit Feedback. You’re done!
  8. You can optionally block the impersonating account as well, so they can’t contact you

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