Instagram account question

[Iwonder08]

I wonder if anyone could help me.. I had a call earlier today from a cousin of mine who confessed about 'meeting someone on instagram'. I don't have Instagram and don't know how it functions, but the story sounds a bit strange to me.

My cousin has an Instagram account. She is a lday in her early 40s, not famous, a teacher. Nice enough looking but not a model. There are no provocative pictures there etc. She is telling someone from another country subscribed to her account. She looked him up, he seems to be similar age, doctor working abroad. She subscribed to his account too and they started talking. He doesn't speak the same language so they use some sort of translator service (perhaps Google) to communicate. It is now getting intense, they talk for hours and she feels in love.
What I don't understand is how he found her in the first place. He just tells her he was browsing in Instagram and her accou t somehow appeared in his view. He looked at her profile and decided to add her.
Is it possible for that to happen? They have no connections in common, don't live in the same country, not subscribed to the same Instagram..
It does sound a bit dodgy to me. For the reference they are just talking, he is not asking for money or anything sexual.
Any thoughts?

Totally a scammer.
My Insta is set to private and yet I still get requests from all these doctors, pilots and military men!
Please tell her to block him straight away before he asks for money.

The urgent requests for money will come soon. He's grooming her now. Please urge her to block him.

Yep I get the 'Generals ' US army..widowed and looking for the love of their life!! Probably 3 a week!

This is a very common scam. I have a popular account for my niche, and use hashtags all the time for discovery. But along with that comes 10+ accounts like this daily following me. They usually have a very brief bio like 'Doctor' or 'Dad & firefighter' or 'Military Man', have 5-20 images relating to their bio (that they have STOLLEN from someone else!) often with a child in them. The images are usually posted all within a very short period of each other (a few days to weeks) usually with no image description either. And they will have a load of people they're following. Usually far more than are following them. The minute one of these people follows me I block them.

The other type of account that is rampant at the moment are bitcoin investor accounts. A woman I follow actually got conned out of a whole bunch of money last month and had her account hacked. I genuinely didn't think anyone under the age of 50 could be so daft to fall for such a thing, but she did and is out of pocket big time and lost her account with 12k+ followers.

Tell your cousin to steer clear!!

I get lots of messages on Instagram from doctors and pilots, as well as brands wanting me to be their ambassador. I block them instantly. Some might well be genuine. I’ve got real life friends (women though) who I have initially connected with on Instagram. Per pp, it’s easy to find people who have similar interests because of hashtags or the Explore tab. In my case it’s clothes, cats, and makeup, so the sad doctors are an unusual match!

I don't use Instagram or Facebook, but a wicked part of me suggests that cousin feigns poverty and asks HIM for a dig out tomorrow. Have some fun with it. No harm done, as in the unlikely event man scam offers funds, cousin will block him (is that possible?) and move on.

Alright, I am a bit mad and bad sometimes.

You guys confirmed what I thought. It is just such a bad timing for her. She is emotionally vulnerable going through separation after her long marriage fell apart due to husband's affair over 10 years. She now feels there is a connection with this Instagram doctor because he understands her so well and appreciates her and makes her feel wanted...

Update: predictably he is a scammer. Simple reverse Google search confirmed everything. She has now blocked him

Glad you both got to the bottom of it before she got really attached, I hope she alright.

Oh thank god OP. Hope your cousin's ok x

It screams out scam. Doctors without borders is a translation of Medecins sans Frontiers.

They are usually doctors, pilots or military.

Before long he'll need some money to get him or a relative out of a tricky situation.