MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CELEBRITY NEWS

Jenna Bentley: Playboy ex-model gets death threats as IG catfish accounts scam fans

Everything was going good for Jenna Bentley till her verified account and her popular backup account on Instagram were suddenly deleted

Former Playboy model Jenna Bentley has claimed that she is afraid for her safety after getting death threats from Instagram fans who have held her responsible after being 'scammed' by fake catfish accounts set up in her name.

Bentley, 32, from Los Angeles, has fast made a name for herself after she modeled for magazines like Playboy and Maxim as well as launched an OnlyFans account — a platform which has become known for its raunchy content. As a result of her popularity, she has found more than 800K followers on Instagram. She has over 87K followers on Twitter. Some of the other OnlyFans models who recently made news include Nita Marie, Mercedes Morr, and Courtney Tillia. 

READ MORE

Playboy star Luana Sandien who posted ‘obscene’ Dubai pics says she's autosexual

Playboy model Luana Sandien vows to pose naked with Lionel Messi's handkerchief

Jenna Bentley's 'verified' Instagram disappears and the threats start 

Everything was going good for Jenna till her 'verified' account and her popular backup account on Instagram were suddenly deleted in February of this year. In the past seven months, without a blue-check-approved presence to indicate her official account on the social media app, Bentley said that she had been receiving DMs from Instagram users threatening her life or urging her to "kill herself".

In the absence of her verified account, a number of fake accounts popped up on Instagram, some of which convinced unwitting fans to pay a certain amount in exchange for racy images and videos. However, when the fans paid up and failed to receive anything back, they grew angry. "Being told by strangers on the internet that they want me to die, that they're going to come and kill me or telling me to kill myself — it's really scary," Jenna told Daily Mail. "I don't feel safe."

She claims that she had no knowledge that the catfish accounts existed until her verified account was deleted and she began receiving an array of violent DMs, which in turn caused her to investigate the issue further. "Normally I never even look at DMs, I block and ignore but when my verified Instagram account was deleted in December 2020, the abuse really went up," she said. "I had 809,000 followers and when that [was removed], I used my backup account, which had 15,000 fans. After that was shut down too in February 2021, the death threats began and I discovered there were dozens of fake accounts pretending to be me."

The scammers are not only tricking her fans; they have also found a way to get in touch with the people she works with. "And the scammers are so sneaky. One even messaged a photographer I work with a lot and asked for the links to the photos we'd done together. Luckily the photographer was suspicious because we never speak on Instagram, so he texted me and asked if it was actually me."

Jenna Bentley 'begged' Instagram for help

After the level of online abuse, Bentley called out Instagram for deleting her account. She insisted that she never shared the kind of provocative content that would justify the removal of her verified account. "I don't know why my accounts were deleted, I've always been very careful with what I post," she explained. "I see celebrities showing off their bums in thongs or covering their boobs with their hands but they aren't removed. This level of abuse and the worry that I'm losing money is having a profound effect on my mental health."

She has chosen not to report the death threats to the police because she is afraid that she wouldn't be taken seriously. "I live in LA you know, there are gangs shooting at each other, murders and stuff," she said. "They wouldn't come out and hear me talk about stealing my identity and getting death threats on the internet."

Despite Bently "begged them for help" on a number of occasions, she has not received any information from Instagram on how to get her account back. "It's getting to the point where I don't know what to do anymore, I'm so tired of it," the former Playboy model said. "I've begged them to help me and sent emails explaining what's happening but I never hear back. It's like they don't care. I've tried my absolute hardest to follow their guidelines and in my opinion, have not broken them."

When Daily Mail approached the social media company with Bentley's claims, a spokesperson provided general guidelines and background on the app's take on imposter accounts. "The account in question has been taken down for breaking our rules," the statement said. "Instagram is a global platform for people of all ages and we have rules around nudity and sexual solicitation to ensure content is appropriate for everyone. We allow sex positive content and discussion but we do not allow content that facilitates or coordinates sexual encounters between adults. We remove content that breaks these rules whenever we find it, and if an account repeatedly shares content like this, we will remove it."

Instagram added that while they have gotten rid of some of Bentley's fake accounts, they will not be removing fan sites. "We have removed the suspicious impersonation accounts brought to our attention but not the fan pages," the statement continued. "Accounts that impersonate a person or entity are against our Community Guidelines and will be removed when we are made aware. If someone believes they have spotted content or an account they believe to be fake, they can report it using our in-app tools. We have a trained team of reviewers who check these reports 24/7 and move quickly to remove content or accounts which violate our guidelines. Regardless of the outcome, we will send them a notification to let them know the decision we made."