There was a time when they said, ‘don’t believe everything you see in movies. It’s hardly the truth’. Today, however, it can be said that ‘don’t believe everything on the gram, you are being fooled! Influencers have changed the way the planet functions and perceives things. Their word holds as much weight as their photos garner likes, so many influencers also get away with duping followers. Not too long ago, Nigerian Instagram celebrity Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai on a $432 million cyber scam claim. Another social media influencer Jay Mazini, best known for handing out large sums of cash at random as part of viral stunts, has been charged with wire fraud, allegedly swindling his followers out of at least $2.5million worth of Bitcoin.
The 25-year-old Instagram star had induced victims to send him Bitcoin in exchange for wire transfers of cash, but he never sent the money in reality. The influencer enjoyed nearly one million followers under the name ‘Jay Mazini,’ with a feed replete with videos showing him handing out large amounts of cash to strangers as gifts. That kind of video garnered a lot of attention. In addition to this, the stunt featuring rapper 50 Cent along with Mazini handing out more than $30,000 in cash to employees at a Burger King in Queens, New York, really got followers’ attention.
In January 2021, Igbara began posting videos to his Instagram offering to buy Bitcoin from other users at prices 3.5 to 5 percent over market value. In February, Igbara had offered to pay $52,000 for one Bitcoin, which had a value of about $47,000 at the time. Once victims agreed to transact in Bitcoin with Igbara, he sent them documents that included images of purported wire transfer confirmation pages that falsely confirmed Igbara had sent a wire transfer for the promised amounts and fooled clients. Unfortunately for the victims, they lost the Bitcoin, and the wire transfers never arrived. Igbara is currently being held on unrelated state charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, making terroristic threats, and weapons possession in New Jersey.
[Via: BuzzFeed News]
