In the tumultuous online world, where the lines between real and virtual are increasingly blurred, an old trick that never goes out of style continues to succeed: impersonating hot girls, pretty girls, and celebrities for profit.
Recently, “Trần Hà Linh” has become the next victim. With her name already associated with personal scandals, the fraudsters exploited the online community’s interest in this hot girl to further “dig deep” into the drama for profit with sophisticated tactics in cyberspace. The team behind this has created a fake fanpage. The ultimate goal is not to gain fame, but to make money.
Everything starts with gathering information and images
These scammers search for girls who have some fame on social media, attractive appearances, and especially those who have been involved in past controversies. They then create a fanpage with a similar name, sometimes adding signs like “official” or “verified” to build trust.
The first step, these “fake story” fanpages generate interest by posting captivating content. Initially, it may be regular photos, videos from the “real” source. Along with that, to create a strong viral effect, these scammers intentionally post “sensitive” videos or edit images to create misunderstandings. These videos often come with sensational stories, hints about personal lives, complex relationships, or love scandals.
In a specific instance, a fake Trần Hà Linh page with 55,000 followers posted a sensitive video. In it, the girl livestreamed sharing with a fanboy about the unfortunate scandal of her private clip being leaked at the age of 15. The video garnered hundreds of thousands of views, thousands of comments and interactions, with no sign of cooling down.
Notably, the post was “dug up” at a sensitive moment, when the pretty girl had just “varied” with another hot TikToker online for being accused of “playing dirty,” recalling the past despite her efforts to change for the better: “Have I ever said I’m proud? It was two years ago, I’m just TikToking normally, everything was settling down, but now they’re deliberately posting clips for everyone to come in and insult me…”.
From a fake fanpage to real profits
The purpose of posting these “sensitive” contents is not merely to attract views but to create a “tsunami” of interactions. These fake fanpages quickly attract a large number of followers, comments, and shares. The curiosity, criticism, or even empathy from the online community has turned into a “wave” that draws attention to this fanpage.
Once the fanpage has a massive amount of interaction, the person behind it starts posting articles related to business, selling products, or “running ads.” The titles of these posts are often very enticing. At this point, the fanpage is no longer just a playground for entertainment but has become a money-making tool. Profits come from various sources: selling products, affiliate marketing, running ads, or even reselling the fanpage…
The victims of this scheme are not only the girls whose images are exploited but also the naive social media users. They have unknowingly aided the fraudulent behavior by interacting, sharing, and spreading information.
The sophisticated scam named “fake Trần Hà Linh” is a prime example highlighting the dark side of social media. A place where attention and interaction can be “produced” intentionally to turn into profit. Sadly, despite being strongly condemned, such tricks still exist and become more complex over time. To protect themselves, every social media user needs to raise awareness, thoroughly check the source of information before interacting, and not aid those who seek to exploit others.