How do I know if a brand collaboration offer is a scam?

Most fake brand-collaboration offers follow a small number of repeating patterns, because scammers reuse the same script across many creators rather than customising each one. Learning the pattern is faster than researching every individual brand from scratch.

• The brand contacts you first, out of nowhere, over Instagram DM or WhatsApp — rather than through a listed business email or a known agency.
• They ask you to pay for the product upfront and promise "reimbursement" after you post — a pattern documented repeatedly under the reimbursement-collab scam structure.
• There’s pressure to decide and pay quickly, often with a countdown ("offer expires in 2 hours") designed to stop you from checking.
• The brand profile, website, or Instagram account is new, has almost no organic content, or was created shortly before contacting you.
• Payment is only ever discussed vaguely — no written brief, no contract, no purchase order — despite claiming a legitimate campaign budget.

• Search the brand and agency name plus the word "scam" or "review" — genuine complaints from other creators usually surface quickly if the pattern has repeated.
• Look up the company’s registration details (GST number, CIN, or trademark) if they claim to be a registered business — a real brand can usually provide this without hesitation.
• Check whether the same offer has been sent to other creators verbatim — a quick search of distinctive phrasing from the DM often surfaces identical messages sent to many people.
• Ask for a written brief and a point of contact on a company email domain, not a personal number or a generic Gmail address.

A genuine brand will not be offended by reasonable questions about payment terms, a written agreement, or a small deposit before you spend your own money. Hesitation or evasiveness in response to basic questions is itself informative.

Checking a brand or agency’s public review history — including any disputes or payment complaints from other creators — before committing is one of the fastest ways to separate a real opportunity from a scripted one.