Everyone knows that one girl from school who is now semi-Insta famous with 15k followers. And all she does is post sh*tty Pinterest posts, pictures of her boyfriend and highly staged candids on holidays.
Don't worry, you haven't gone crazy, she's probably just bought herself a load of fake followers. And I can prove it. So how can you tell if someone has fake Instagram followers?
Follow these five steps below to check if someone's Instagram followers are real:
1. Run their account through a social media statistics website like Social Blade
You will be able to look at their recent follower history and if they've added a large chunk in one day, you'll know they probably bought them. No one randomly adds 10,000 followers in one day.
Also look at their follower growth, if they're constantly dropping followers, it's most likely because they're fake.
2. Compare the number of likes they get per picture to how many followers they have
Usually you're looking at about 1/10 ratio of likes per followers on a healthy Instagram account with a few thousand followers. If an account has 50,000 followers but only a 100 likes, you know something is off.
3. Also check how many comments their latest pictures have gotten, because Instagram likes can be bought too!
In 2019, not only can you buy followers, but you can buy Instagram likes too. Which is why it's crucial to check the number of comments too. An account with a large following, as well as loads of likes on pictures and no comments suggests the followers are fake.
4. Look at the quality of their followers, do they look like real accounts?
Scroll down their followers and see if they have loads of made up followers without any posts, profile pictures and gibberish names.
5. Check with an Instagram fake follower checker app
There are a few websites which can do the checking for you. Some apps like HypeAudior and Fake Check Co can tell you the percentage of how many Instagram followers are fake.
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FAQs
Check for sudden spikes in their follower count
One way to easily spot if someone bought fake followers is by analyzing their follower growth over time. If you see sudden spikes, you're probably seeing the moments in which the influencer bought followers.
How can you tell if someone bought fake followers on Instagram? ›
Check for sudden spikes in their follower count
One way to easily spot if someone bought fake followers is by analyzing their follower growth over time. If you see sudden spikes, you're probably seeing the moments in which the influencer bought followers.
How to check for fake followers on Instagram? ›
Most of the bots acting as fake followers have very few posts and/or activity on their page. Also, many bots don't have a profile picture on their account or are using a photo taken on Google image. Using Google image reverse search will reveal a potential red flag.
Can people tell if you buy Instagram followers? ›
To do so, you can look at an account's followers to see if they are bots or real people, look at their “likes” compared to their follower ratio and amount of likes on other posts, and look at how many accounts they're following. Any outliers in these can indicate that their followers are fake.
Can you report someone for buying fake followers on Instagram? ›
If you see something that doesn't follow our Community Guidelines, you can select Report and follow the on-screen steps. Keep in mind that your report is anonymous, except if you're reporting an intellectual property infringement. The account you reported won't see who reported them.
How to check if someone has fake followers? ›
The first and most obvious tactic is to visit the follower's page. Many fake followers have just a couple of posts (often none at all) and don't appear to be very active. Fake followers usually don't use pictures of real people in their profile pic or posts.
Can you find the owner of a fake Instagram account? ›
Track the IP Address: By clicking on location tracking URLs, you can reveal the IP address of the user behind the Instagram account. This can help you track down the person behind the fake account.
Are fake followers illegal? ›
While buying followers isn't illegal, it can violate Instagram's terms of service. This can lead to consequences such as the removal of fake followers or, in severe cases, account suspension or banning.
What happens to fake followers on Instagram? ›
When a large percentage of your followers are fake accounts, most of the audience that your posts are shown to won't be interacting with your content. Instead of real fans seeing your posts, fake fans will be shown your content. This kills your engagement rate, as your reach will go down on future posts.
How do I remove fake followers from Instagram? ›
To remove potential spam and bot followers on Instagram:
- In the Instagram app, go to your profile and tap Followers or Following.
- If Instagram has detected potential spam followers, you'll see a notification where you can tap Potential spam.
- From here, tap Remove all spam followers to remove all spam followers at once.
Most purchased followers either unfollow or stop engaging with an account's posts after some time (merely a few days after the purchase.) They will end up skewing your account's follower: engagement ratio to such an extent so as to make your account appear untrustworthy and dishonest.
Who is the highest paid Instagrammer? ›
Who is the most paid social media influencer?
- Cristiano Ronaldo, who makes $3,2 million per sponsored post.
- Lionel Messi, who earns nearly $2,5 million per sponsored post.
- Selena Gomez, who makes nearly $2,5 million per sponsored post.
- Kylie Jenner, who makes $2,3 million per sponsored post.
Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about it. The only option I recommend is to manually block them, so that Instagram automatically unfollows them from your profile. However, you also need to be extremely careful with this action and block no more than 10-20 users per day, as well as take breaks.
How do you tell if an account is buying followers? ›
High follower count, low engagement: If an account has a high number of followers but low engagement (likes, comments, shares), it may be a sign that the followers were bought. Sudden spike in followers: If an account experiences a sudden spike in followers, it may be a sign that the followers were purchased.
Can people tell if you buy Instagram likes? ›
It is quite hard to catch someone buying likes on their Instagram posts nowadays. Because even when the bought likes are from fake, bot profiles they usually look real and genuine people. But of course, you can notice simple patterns to determine whether the profile is fake or not: The profile has no posts.
How much does Instagram pay for 1k followers? ›
Do you get paid for 1,000 followers on Instagram? Instagram accounts with 1,000 followers make $1,420/month on average and up to $100 per sponsored post.
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