LOS ANGELES—Cherie DeVille has shared tips about social media scammers’ ongoing victimization of adult performers in a new Rolling Stone first-person article, "Sex Workers Are Getting Scammed on Instagram. Meta Needs to Step In."
In the article, DeVille stated, "I have witnessed over and over again my friends and I losing our social media accounts, only for some scam artist to direct message us, offering our accounts back in exchange for a bounty. Worst of all, these scams often work, and once they work, adult performers get targeted again and again."
DeVille also admitted, "Many in the adult industry have refrained from discussing this problem in public but with so little information available about who these scammers are and how they operate, we need to raise the alarm so Meta and other tech behemoths can investigate. These scams are popping up more and more with the rise of artificial intelligence. They raise several important questions both about sex work and the state of the major tech platforms."
While she further explained that many performers have paid thousands of dollars and still not gotten their accounts back, the problem shows no signs of going away as long as tech companies continue to ignore it. DeVille noted that Meta has been made aware of the issue, but declined to comment for the article.
DeVille wrote, "For all the talk about the dangers of social media, from teenage anorexia rates to smartphone addiction, the public pays little attention to the harms sex workers face on these sites. We need Meta to investigate the problem and identify what has gone wrong before more people get scammed."
To read the DeVille’s Rolling Stone article in full, visit RollingStone.com.
