‘Pay Rs 50 lakh or lose Instagram page’: In a first, influencer with 57 million followers falls victim to fake copyright scam

In a first-of-its-kind cybercrime case in Jabalpur, 28-year-old social media influencer Azim Ahmed has reportedly lost Rs 50 lakh to a gang of cyber fraudsters who extorted money by threatening to get his Instagram pages banned.

Ahmed, a software engineer-turned-digital entrepreneur, commands an online following of 57 million across 96 Instagram pages.

He built his massive digital presence from scratch, launching his first page in 2017 and seeing rapid growth during the Covid lockdown in 2021, reports NDTV. He later co-founded a digital marketing startup, Whoopy Digital, with friends.

However, his success has recently made him a target. “For almost a year, I’ve been receiving fake copyright strikes and threats. They claim my posts violate their content rights and demand money, warning that my accounts will be deleted,” Ahmed said.

Fearing the loss of his livelihood, Ahmed said he complied with the extortionists’ demands several times, eventually paying a total of Rs 50 lakh. The threats reportedly escalated to phone calls and fake emails that mimicked Instagram’s official communication.

“They call themselves mediators. One caller from Pune demanded Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 to remove fake strikes,” Ahmed revealed.

Jabalpur Cyber Cell in-charge Neeraj Negi confirmed the case, describing it as a new form of cybercrime exploiting social media’s automated systems.

“Fraudsters are using fake copyright strikes to threaten influencers. If multiple strikes are filed, Instagram’s system can suspend the account,” Negi said.

Authorities are now working with Instagram’s internal security team to trace how these fake bans are being triggered and to identify the culprits behind the extortion racket.