It is an interesting experience of meeting a scam. Actually, I had many similar experiences as I am very active in social media. But this is the first time I wrote about it. First, thanks for Life Outside of Design Studio give me this platform to tell my story. Second, I want to share my experience so more girls can avoid it.
TRUE STORY
I used my Instagram for promoting my fashion model job. So there are a lot of amazing photos of me there. I used it for communicating with the designers I have been working with for several years and receiving the photos from the photographers. So Instagram is a good platform for models/influencers.
Several days ago, I received the message from a jewelry brand (To avoid the trouble, there is nothing about the brand, the photo featured is by H&M). They were offering me 3 FREE jewelry and hope I can be their ambassador to take the photos with their products. I can even get a 30% commission if someone uses my code to buy the products.
But when I looked into their website. They have a very limited amount of products. Like 2 to 4 for each category. None of them catch my eyes and all look very cheap but with a high price. As a dedicated Taobao user, I can say these products would be 10 scents in the Chinese market. But they sell 30 USD dollars for each. (See some good jewelry)
But they say I can get them for free. You may ask whats the problem. The key point is, I need to pay my own shipping fee which is $19.87 USD dollars. WOW, here we go, the scam part. I need to pay this jewelry myself “in the name” of the shipping fee. They say the shipping fee is not their charge, it is for tax, tariff, blah-blah-blah.
So let’s be clear, they are not offering free products. I am using the shipping fee to pay for these products. As an experienced e-Commerce Merchandiser, the shipping fee can be managed by the owner of the website, so the amount is not provided by the third-party authorized couriers. Also, the shipping fee for such light jewelry, can not be $20. Second, if some brands want you to promote their products, they may send to you the free products but would never ask you to pay any fees. So good try, girl.
They may say some good words like “You will get endless jewelries”, “Boost online presence”, “Get $5 dollar gift card”… You may think these sounds good why not give a try. If you want to do so, go ahead. As I am saying they are the scam, they treated me for paying for their products and ask my photos for free. They use this way to get money from me instead of the real customers who want to buy their products. The live windows you see on their website like “xxx is buying the earing xxx” is all the “ambassador”.
I do not have any passion to buy these products and as a digital marketer, my feeling let me do the Google search, and the title of “Instagram Ambassador Scam” jumped out, which confirmed my doubt. They are scamming.
Last word
This is really a good trick that can make girls fall into it easily. $20 dollars is nothing for you if you want to give a try. But I do modeling and some influencer works I know how this industry works. This is not the way it should be and it would never help you to become an influencer.
Do you have a similar experience? Share with me in the comment section~
Thanks for reading
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