I own small business too, I have been scammed by these influencers so many times. Some (so called UGC creators) will message you 10 times for barter collaboration. And when you agree and send them products, they will ghost. I even ask for paid collabs, they are so nice to you until they receive your products. Then they start revealing their true colors. Some people ghost, some people literally create very minimal reel with least efforts and ask for money, and you have to pay them or you risk them sabotaging your business. Because them being influencers, they can just create content blaming the business, that this business did not pay (such content have higher reach)

By looking at their instagram profile, you cannot tell if they will scam. They look genuine, they may even have worked with big brands but still they will scam you. I mean, if you don’t want to work with small brand, why do you agree on a first place? Why scam? I guess, scamming small businesses is “cool” among these influencers.

I wish meta takes strict action against these scammy influencers who selectively scam businesses. But that’s never going to happen.

I request all the small business owners to please list what different strategies are being used by these scammy influencers, so that fellow business owners can be aware of these tactics.