All women tell the same story of how they got cheated. A company called The SkinGlo sent an email with them An attractive deal: She was looking for content to fill out her Instagram feed, and her team hand picked them to help. For five photos of them using a SkinGlo electric facial cleanser – even pictures taken from their phones – they’d get 450 euros, or about $ 525. They can even watermark photos and only send a clean file as soon as they get pushed. It looked like a good deal.
There was one small catch, though. The women will have to purchase the company’s facial cleanser themselves, at 50 percent off the discount code, bringing the total to € 40, or about $ 48.
Although this condition was a bit odd, the company still seemed to be trustworthy, the women say. she has website This is basic, yet colorful and clean. Her Instagram page has over 12K followers, and at one point, it was filled with many positive comments on her posts. One woman says the page even spoke about a partnership with ASOS, a popular clothing retailer, and linked it to her page. Seven women say the edge They bought a washing machine.
And that’s when the company vanished. After the photos were snapped and sent, you never heard of any of the women from The SkinGlo again. Nothing has been posted on his account since October, and all comments have been disabled. the edge She sent in seven women who confirmed they were not paid, although the scale of the fraud is unclear, as is how the company found their accounts. We reached out to The SkinGlo for comment and received no response.
Of those seven women, the company made more than 200 euros and sold seven out of stock without having to pay for marketing, advertising, or structured products. All the people behind SkinGlo had to do was send some emails and communicate multiple times with the women.
“The fact that they ask to pay is just a way to ensure they have the money in their pockets instead of supporting the creative side to do the work on their behalf, really,” says Lauren Clitheroe, the photographer who made YouTube video About what happened.
This scam did two things right to convince women to hit the buy button. For example, someone claiming to work for SkinGlo’s PR department emailed everyone instead of relying on the DM.
“The email looked very professional,” says Rachel Gross, the online content creator who was scammed.
The company also sent a link to a webpage detailing the “terms and conditions of the partnership” and sent a contract via email that did not need to be signed. The company told the women that buying the product and telling the team was equivalent to signing up.
“I said: Well, if there’s a contract it makes me feel a lot better because I know it’s legal,” says Clithero. “They have to stick to what they say, or at least so I thought.”
Another creator, Christine McCleary, says her husband has read the contract and reported some clauses related, including the one that said the contract was subject to the laws of Malta. But she thought the $ 50 wasn’t much to gamble with to make more than $ 500. The company finally cast a shadow over the photo, without even receiving the pictures it took.
“It was definitely a scam,” she said. “I didn’t send them an email.” “And I’m definitely not threatening a lawsuit for $ 50 in Malta International Law, whatever that is.”
The fraud could have been worse, of course, but the women also lost hours of their time taking and editing pictures, as well as money and pride. Even more, Clitheroy says, the company took advantage of people during an especially difficult year, which is unforgivable.
“My husband and I lost our jobs at the beginning of this year, just as the epidemic started, so we were struggling a little for a few months,” she says. “There will be people in the same boat because of the epidemic, and it is taking advantage of people in a desperate situation.”
Several women posted about the scam on their accounts, as others chime in the same thing that happened to them. There are nearly 20 reports on Trustpilot, Which is a website that collects user reviews, and warns people against collaborating with the brand. One of the labels, from yesterday, says they almost agreed to order the product but thought back after reading the reviews.
Gross says seeing other women who had been cheated on made her feel slightly better. Overall, though, the takeaway for her is not to be tempted to promote brands she doesn’t really like.
“I promised myself a long time ago that I would never post about products that I personally do not like or believe in – they will not be purchased” I wrote In a post about the experience. “I let myself down.”
Although, as I also noticed, the cleaning tool wasn’t so bad and it felt fine on her face, the photos I took were not in vain. You still get a nice post from him.
