Every day as you scroll through your feed the odds are you are going to see one or two posts of instrapreneurs being dragged to shreds by dissatisfied customers. Often for good reason too.

What you’ll order vs what you’ll get.

Or perhaps even you who’s currently reading this has fallen victim. Maybe even more than once. You’ve also most likely told yourself you’d rather die than shop on Instagram again.

But that’s easier said than done. Every time you open your page to see how many likes your recent selfie just got, or what your ex and her new boyfriend are up to, you are bound to see something you like. A really cool phone case to prevent the screen that just broke from getting broken again, or a seemingly really good tailor to help you sew the aso-ebi one co-worker just forced you to buy.

So how do you avoid the vendors who are out to scam you? By looking out for these signs.

Anyone using stock photos or photos obviously pulled from other websites.

With pages like this, it’s always one of two things. It’s either you pay for the item and never get it or you order this and get this.

You can’t find any evidence that the vendor has ever made an actual sale.

No customer reviews, no comments from people who have actually bought stuff, nothing.

Their prices are suspiciously low.

You too how can you pay 150k for the new iPhone Xs and expect it to come. It’s not as if it’s a sale or a giveaway, that’s the normal price.

The account has 10k followers but you are seeing only 12 likes and 0 comments on posts.

They definitely bought their followers. Flee.

There are too many underscores in the Instagram handle.

Any Instagram vendor with a handle like @ladies_beauty_fashion_boutique_nigeria, is definitely a scammer. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

If the page has only ten posts or a hundred posts that suddenly went up over a 48 hour period. Be wary.

Don’t let your case be one of had I known.

Everyone is calling the vendor out for being dubious.

Just last week you saw the handle trending for making the discount version of Ebuka’s agbada for someone and you still carried your cloth to give the person. You are the architect of your own misfortune.

After noticing one or more of these signs, they tell you to send money to a random account before you get what you want.

That’s one chance. You’ve just dashed someone’s son or daughter money for no reason.

Do you have a story about Instagram scammers or do you know anyone who has one? Please share so that they don’t scam us too.

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