Phony Twitter accounts make up more of a presence online than most think. The black market for phony Twitter accounts could be up to $360 million a year. This black market purchasing of followers for money, takes place on websites such as eBay.
Why do people buy fake followers, you might ask? As a brand, the lack of results for all of your hard work on a social campaign could be frustrating. Fake Followers Erode Credibility Some believe if you buy a few fake followers then other real users will notice your brand or yourself due to the perceived increased following. Simply stated, the larger the number of followers an account has the more likely people are to pay attention to it. The problem is these fake followers haven’t been gained naturally at all, they don’t create engagement, and they don’t do your brand any good when it comes to needing a community to support it. These phony accounts are called follower-bots and are created to act as if they are a real person — spouting off tweets, following other users, and retweeting content. You’ve probably seen the more obvious follower-bots follow you on Twitter, but the people creating them are getting more and more advanced. These days, spotting a follower-bot can be nearly impossible. They even steal information from real accounts and duplicate it numerous times over to make them look real. If you look at this picture it shows how a follower-bot pulled info from a real account to make three fake ones.
Celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian have even been accused of buying a following. A month ago it was announced that Bieber reached 40 million followers. But soon a more accurate statistic surfaced.
After checking his account, it was estimated that:
• 44 percent of his current followers are fake
• 21 percent are inactive
• only 35 percent are considered “good.” So … more like 14 million Beliebers exist.
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