Flexing is a term for showing off whether it be your physique, your belongings, or some other thing you consider superior to those of others. This behavior has been criticized widely, but lately flexing on social media has also become an effective way to manipulate victims. Sometimes, flexing contains malicious intent.
Flexing scam has similarities with these two true popular stories people talk about in various media.
First is the viral Netflix series Inventing Anna. The series is based on true stories of a 26 years old woman who loves to flex her glamorous look and claim to be the heir of her royalty father’s wealth so that she can fit in among socialites. With a quibble of seeking investors for the business she is building, Anna managed to trick rich people, officials, bankers, and even rob a bank.
Anna was arrested by the police and faced 10 fraud charges. In no time, Anna went viral and shook America through an article in a magazine uncovering who Anna Delvey was actually.
Anna’s flexing was an attempt to build connections and friendships to support her scam. Just like the saying, “birds of a feather flock together”. With the social proof she got, she gained the access or privilege to enter the inner circle of wealthy people and performed her scams.
The second story comes from Indonesia. Some viral Indonesian ‘Crazy Rich’ who love to flex their wealth on social media turned out to be affiliates of a binary options app.
An affiliate is a partner of an investment/trading app whose duty is to recruit new members for the app. These affiliates will get commissions from the recruitment and trading activities of their recruited members.
By flexing his income and wealth, he managed to be famous on social media and attract people to be new members. Unfortunately, those new members suffered huge losses and their money was drained. Feeling manipulated, many of them reported him to the police.
A Binary Option is a trading method involving investment in the form of assets, such as money, stock, or commodity in a set period of time, usually in one minute or a few hours. The binary option is based on a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ proportion to guess if the asset price is up or down in that set period of time. Many binary option apps are not legally licensed.
You need to be aware of the looming suspicious ‘investment’ or ‘trading’ apps around us. Some time ago, there had also been a scam using a robot trading for Crypto-currency. This scam also often used the member-get-member method and has no license to operate.
Flexing patterns that are potential scams.
- Posting flexing content on social media.
- Making you question “How could s/he be that crazy rich”.
- Scammers start to build relationships with prospective victims.
- Manipulating through perceived similarities, such as “I was living in a rent room too back then”.
- Exposing success secrets, like “Because of XYZ, I no longer need to rent a room, and I can buy a Mercy, lavish house, and many others”.
- Making everything seems easy, as they will promote instant ways to be rich.
Tips to avoid falling victim to flexing
- Never trust people from only their looks. Moreover, those who flex on social media.
- Never say yes to any request related to financial matters, such as transferring some money, or giving access to your bank account/credit card/personal data, to anyone.
- Never get tempted by the dream of being rich quickly through instant ways.
- Never trust information or a business without checking the legality first.
- Only invest in secure, legitimate, and profitable platforms, such as the Welma app by BCA.
If you find anything suspicious, call Halo BCA at 1500888 or report via the Halo BCA app immediately. Share this information to your loved ones to help them get a safer banking experience.
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