As a 3rd tier, mediocre social media influencer, I have had my fair share of fake brand influences and business inquiries. Although most can be detected as fake from a mile away, one reoccurring scam has almost gotten me on multiple occasions. 

It started with a casual business email, offering an ongoing partnership with a well-known brand in exchange for reoccurring videos every month. They offered a down payment of an insane amount of money that was too good to be true. This came off as a red flag to me, but it was worth digging deeper. I offered to hold on any payment until videos were posted or at least product was shipped, but the “company” insisted on sending me not one, but two separate checks. Once I started getting more skeptical and doing my research on if this was a well-known scam and came to realize these checks were going to bounce. Before they were going to have the chance to bounce, the brand was going to insist on calling off the deal and having me send their money back, resulting in them taking my money when those checks flag. After realizing the brand deal was a scam I blocked the account, the email, and the number, yet still get messages to this day threatening to call the police. The lengths people will go to for a couple hundred dollars! Since this occasion I have read up on these scams. A good way to decipher if a company is legit is by looking for gmail accounts, typos, and pushy attitude toward your finances.