Spam users and fake followers can usually be identified by their username and profile. If they have a username with a scramble of numbers and letters, a default profile picture, and no posts on their profile – then these are tell-tale signs!
Look for these red flags: Followers with No Photos or Posts: If an influencer is followed by users that have not posted and/or lack a profile picture, you can typically assume that these followers are fake. Brands should also look out for influencers with followings of tons of private accounts and “spammy” usernames.
Fake followers could hurt your credibility.
Remember the risks: these followers will probably never like or comment on a post, and if you're caught with a ton of fake followers, that could ruin your credibility with your real audience.
Instagram Recognizes and Purges Fake Followers
They have considerable experience of finding fake accounts and know all the signs to look out for. You may not think that you have paid much for your followers, but it will still be too much if these followers disappear soon after you buy them.
You will not be able to check each follower. However, if flipping through, you come across a large number of shops, beauty salons, usernames with numbers, you have got on the trail of someone who has bought followers. Pay attention to how many accounts a person is following.
No, Instagram does not punish you for buying followers. Millions of Instagram users are purchasing followers from third party apps for a few dollars and no one gets punished for doing so.
So some celebrities have adjusted: not only are they buying followers, they're also buying likes to make sure their engagement rate looks high at first glance. A good way to see if a celebrity's engagement is legit is to compare the number of likes to comments.
What percentage of Instagram followers are fake? Every profile is different. Profiles with larger numbers of followers typically have a higher percentage compared to smaller profiles. Typically, anything above 25% could be a sign of fraud.
Influencers and companies often buy followers to boost their credibility, thinking that users are more likely to follow an account with 20,000 followers than 200. But you're not fooling anyone, and the users you are hoping to attract will run the other way.
“Why Am I Getting Spammed by Fake Followers, Anyway?” In the case of some Instagram bots, there isn't much rhyme or reason in terms of who they target. These bots are built to get people to click on links. Making that happen is often a numbers game.
It can harm your engagement rate: Fake followers are often inactive and do not engage with your content, which can harm your engagement rate. This can also negatively affect how Instagram's algorithm ranks your content and may make it harder for your posts to reach your real followers.
Paris Hilton is the celebrity with allegedly the highest number of fake followers on Instagram. She has 15.5m followers, but 28.6% of these are estimated to be bots.
Instagram has an estimated 95 million fake accounts. With a total user base of around 1 billion, that means roughly 1 in 10 Instagram accounts are fake.
Fake Instagram accounts can be traced by police Instagram records IP addresses and other information for every session someone logs in to their account. When requested, Instagram shares the information with Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), including the police.
From TikTok to LinkedIn, fake followers are rampant on social media, where fake influencers (and even high-profile celebrities and public figures) use them to inflate their follower lists. Marketers often go to Instagram and Twitter first to find influencers, experts, and leaders to partner with for various campaigns.
The pros of buying Instagram followers are that it can help you build your brand quickly, increase your social media presence, and connect with more potential customers. The cons are that it's not an organic way to grow your following and some people may see it as dishonest.
Using Google image reverse search will reveal a potential red flag. The best way to find out if someone has bought their audience and has fake followers is to use a fake follower audit tool such as ours. It's a great way to find out instantly the follower quality score of an influencer's audience.
Instagram accounts with 1,000 followers make $1,420/month on average and up to $100 per sponsored post. However, Instagram does not pay influencers directly, so you can begin making money whenever you land your first sponsorship deal or join an affiliate program, even if you don't have 1,000 followers yet.
Olivia Rodrigo has the lowest percentage of fake followers, with just 11%. Nicki Minaj, on the other hand, has 160.3 million followers, with 28% of them being suspicious accounts.
Major brands with the highest proportion of fake followers were found to be Pizza Hut, Victoria's Secret, KFC, Burger King, Subway, Wendy's and Krispy Kreme in the report (pictured, below).
Data collected by Statista concluded that in 2021, approximately 49% of Instagram influencers participated in follower fraud.
So, the main reasons you should delete fake followers with no regrets: They decrease your engagement rate. Brands don't like to work with influencers with high percent of bots. Bots are deleted by Instagram, so you'll have negative trend in your followers count history.
Ghost followers are inactive or fake Instagram accounts that may follow you, contributing to your overall follower count. However, they never interact with your content. Sometimes these accounts are created by real people who simply don't use their account.