People in Slovakia have discovered a free-cash treasure hunt on Instagram, and they seem to love it. (source: Pixabay/Bru-nO)
First they hide a banknote, then post a video on Instagram as a hint and wait a few minutes for the lucky finder to inform them about a discovered treasure. People in Slovakia are, undoubtedly, crazy about this treasure hunt, a social media trend that has gone wild abroad.
The idea arose a decade ago in the USA. Instead of Instagram, the activity then used Twitter as its main communication channel.
Regardless, in more than three months, the Instagram profile cash_catch_sk has managed to amass almost 36,000 followers. The two Instagrammers behind it conceal money, €5-€20, all around Slovakia. They began in Trnava.
Despite occasional criticism that the game is a waste of time due to the small amounts of money hidden in bushes and other obscure locations, most people seem to enjoy the game.
“It won’t change anyone’s life, but as you can see, there are plenty of people whom [a small sum of money] makes happy,” the people behind the profile responded to criticism on Instagram
In the comments, people frequently ask the owners of the profile to come to their towns.
At the same time, the two Instagrammers rejected the claim that their content harms children or gives them a false idea about the value of money, adding that children are not their target group. Regardless, they have not ruled out incorporating financial literacy elements in their videos in the future.
“We want to entertain people, reward them for solving the riddles and brain-teasers,” they told Refresher.
Hidden identity
One of their videos - made in Bratislava - has around 1.6 million views.
Unlike similar profiles abroad, people behind the Cash Catch profile also try to include riddles below the videos to make people think and have more fun. This is, in part, the reason why they do not want to be publicly known.
“It’s better that people don’t know our faces, because then they’d already know it’s us and find the money easier. People would follow us and the impact of the riddles and hints we try to create would be lost,” the pair said.
They also explained that they leave a larger amount of money in larger towns, or in cases where their riddle is more difficult to resolve.
Free-money treasure hunt in Žilina
Mystery Cash, another Slovak profile hiding money around the country, appeared on Instagram about the same time as Cash Catch. The first videos were made in Žilina. In the northern city, “Pravý Jánošík” (zilinsky_janosik) also began to hide money in early May. Jánošík was a Slovak highwayman from the Žilina Region, seen as a national hero by many and often compared to Robin Hood.
“I'm happy to see how our activities bring smiles to people and motivate them to actively spend their free time,” he told The Slovak Spectator’s sister publication My Žilina.
