Caroline Calloway And The Rise Of The Instagram Scammer

Bella Breakdown

Caroline Calloway is a 27-year-old Instagram influencer who first drew attention for her biographical posts that read like fairytales and life dramas during her time at Cambridge University. She quickly drew over 800,000 followers to her page, and was even offered a $500,000 book deal, although she eventually dropped it, putting her in a serious amount of debt.

Despite some ups and downs, she continued to write her longform Instagram posts, documenting her life in New York City as a young 20-something. It’s a tried and true concept, and a lot of fans relate to her stories and the trials of finding yourself in the city. Where Calloway went wrong is when she decided that her next business model would be centered around a multi-city tour of creativity workshops. She promised to give her fans intimate group settings, conversations about social media and careers, personalized letters to each participant and a decked out care package.

In theory, it’s not a terrible idea, and a lot of people shelled out $165 to spend a day with Calloway. In reality, the plan was ill constructed and Calloway admitted later that she threw together the workshops in less than a day. She assumed that she would be the main draw, and that if she just sat in a room with a bunch of eager young women answering questions, that would be enough.

“This woman is a blatant scammer who’s now organizing a WORLDWIDE TOUR with this ‘workshop’ she admits she wrote in one day, I think it’s categorical bullshit that nobody is talking about & that we glorify this ‘influencer’ nonsense,” writer Kayleigh Donaldson tweeted.

Donaldson had documented Calloway’s efforts when she began to think this whole thing was a hoax, and she was right. Calloway eventually cancelled the tour, though she hasn’t really, formally apologized. It makes us wonder who else might be trying to scam their fans, simply because they have an Instagram following.