Thread by @CraigSilverman

Kay Jenkins, a Miami realtor/model, was losing income because her Insta kept getting banned. She paid someone she thought was a Meta employee $8,000 for reactivation.

But like so many other influencers, she got conned by the notorious Instascammer, OBN: propublica.org/article/instag…

We spoke to people with over 45 million total Insta followers who were targeted by OBN. They say Meta failed to help, or to take OBN seriously. At least one person is suing. Others hired lawyers. But OBN continued to run wild, mocking Meta and police as he banned and scammed.

OBN is part of a thriving underground economy of account banners/scammers who shut down profiles and demand payment to reactivate them. He exploits Instagram’s slow and often ineffective customer support and manipulates its account reporting systems.

People who’ve been targeted by OBN include @Adam22, host of @nojumper who has 1.6m Insta followers and @daniibanks_, an OnlyFans model with 7.9m Insta followers. OBN also claimed responsibility for banning @AsianDaBrattt, who has 4.2m Insta followers.

@adam22 @nojumper @Daniibanks_ @AsianDaBrattt A Meta spox said OBN has gotten accounts temporarily removed by abusing its systems. But they said Meta addressed those situations and has removed dozens of accounts linked to OBN. They said he mostly scammed people by falsely claiming to be able to ban/restore accounts.

@adam22 @nojumper @Daniibanks_ @AsianDaBrattt Meta declined comment on the aforementioned accounts. It filed to dismiss a civil suit from a woman who said she lost income when her Insta w/ 2.8m followers went down. Her filing included screenshots of messages from OBN offering to reactivate her account for a fee.

OBN posts in a Telegram channel about accounts he says he got banned, unbanned or verified. He touts software used to file false reports that allege an account violated Meta’s community guidelines, triggering a ban. And he shares shout outs from influencers like Celina Powell.

Powell gained fame by claiming to have had sexual relationships with prominent rappers. She has more than 3m Insta followers.

Jenkins said Powell got OBN to ban her account after seeing a video of her then-boyfriend dancing with Jenkins at a club. (Powell declined comment.)

After being repeatedly banned and reactivated, Jenkins tried to make peace with OBN. She paid him $5,000 to reactivate her account. He took her money and blocked her. So she tried to work directly with the Meta employee OBN said he used for his account services.

She found a Telegram account for the employee and paid $8,000 to the person running it to reactivate and verify her account. Jenkins thought it was a real Meta employee. But our investigation reveals it was OBN all along. Telegram later removed the "fraudulent" account.

Despite his frequent activity on Telegram and Insta and the shoutouts from influencers, OBN’s true identity — and even whether the account is run by one person or more than one — remained a mystery. We followed his trail to Las Vegas.

Last summer, OBN posted an email from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept.’s Office of Human Resources that said the recipient, whose name was redacted, met the requirements to continue the application process for becoming a police cadet.
“Wish me luck boys,” OBN wrote.

A partially redacted email in the LVMPD letter matched one OBN used to receive money. We linked that to banking and personal info and continued connecting the dots until I ended up in the apartment of a man who either is OBN or is closely linked to him: Edwin Reyes-Martinez.

He denied knowing anything about OBN. After being told his bank account received more than $10,000 in payments intended for OBN, he changed his story. He said someone asked him to funnel money through his bank account to unknown recipients. He said he didn't know their full name.

Meta sent Reyes-Martinez a cease-and-desist letter on March 17, about two weeks after we contacted the company for comment and shared the connections between OBN and Reyes-Martinez.

Read the full story from @biancafortis and me for more on OBN’s exploits, our efforts to identify him, and the world of Instagram account banners and scammers: propublica.org/article/instag…

And if you want more background the community of Insta banners and scammers, @josephfcox of Motherboard has done some great reporting: vice.com/en/article/k78…

You can also read more from @kattenbarge about how adult performers feel their Instagram accounts are unfairly put at risk due to Meta's inconsistent and punitive policy enforcement: nbcnews.com/tech/internet/…