In the era of social media, Instagram stands out as one of the most prominent and influential platforms, connecting millions of users worldwide. Getting new followers is always exciting, but have you ever tried to find out whether they are genuine or fake? Behind its vivacious exterior is a sophisticated web of accounts; where some fake and inactive accounts are also present. The spectrum of fraudulent and inactive accounts is large and continuously expanding, ranging from automated bots to fake identities. Whether you are a normal profile, a celebrity, a brand, or an influencer, spotting and removing fake followers is always essential to maintain the authenticity of your profile and save it from suspension from Instagram bots. These fake accounts even have the potential to manipulate engagement data, mislead other followers, and even facilitate fraudulent marketing activities. Moreover, when you purchase followers, it becomes even more important to check whether the followers sent by the company are genuine or fake. To find and eliminate them, it’s important to know how exactly you can spot such fake and inactive accounts. In this blog, we will discuss some simple and practical ways to identify the accounts that are not what they seem to be.
Check their Profile Information
Fake accounts generally have incomplete information on their profile. The lack of a proper bio, add too many emojis, links, and generic lines in the bio, missing/blurry profile pictures, and unoriginal usernames depict that the profile is either fake or completely inactive. Legit and real accounts want to show their actual self on Instagram and avoid hiding their information. Inactive or fake accounts do not provide any benefit to your page in the form of engagement, plus they invite Instagram bots for suspension. Therefore, it’s important to remove them from your account immediately to maintain its quality and standard. Moreover, if you want to purchase likes or followers, consider genuine sites like Blastup and Useviral as the chances of fake followers from those websites are nil.
Check the Activity of Suspected Accounts
Fake accounts generally avoid posting any personal or professional stuff on their profiles to avoid their account suspension. Therefore, checking their followers, following, and number of posts is an effective way to ensure that the account is merely a profile that does not have any activity or performance on the platform. Fake profiles have no posts or may have posts that are copied from somewhere else. Moreover, if the following is much more than their followers or vice versa, then those accounts are also suspicious. Bots usually have zero followers and followings as they only aim to send spammy links to the other profiles.
Engagement of their Posts
Many fake accounts are present on Instagram that post several times a day with 0 likes and comments. However, in the case of purchased followers, it’s important to ensure that what kind of profiles are liking and commenting on their posts. If they have real accounts in the form of purchased followers, they may have brought them to build an initial following and are real accounts aiming to increase their reach. Check their comment section and their following to ensure their credibility. If the followers are real accounts, but the engagement is low, they must have purchased followers to gain visibility. Hold them on your profile till you see any red flags that confirm them being fake.
Scroll their Profile and Check the Content Quality
Evaluate the profile and check what they are posting. Real profiles post their own pictures or the pictures they have taken. If it is a brand or a niche page, their posts must be related to that only. However, fake profiles post random, generic, low-quality, and repetitive stuff just to show their activity. These accounts add links in their bios and try to influence people to click those links with the help of fake posts. Avoid clicking on such links, as they can take you to harmful phishing sites or vague file downloads on your device. It’s always better to remove such profiles immediately from your account, as they can have a negative impact on your profile.
Spammy Comments and Massive Hashtags
Accounts that make too generic or spammy comments are generally fake. Comments like “great,” “amazing,” “good pic,” ” well done,” etc. are generic comments that normal people avoid making. Real people add creative and unique comments about the post when they actually feel like doing so. Fake profiles even make spammy comments like “follow for a follow back” to bring people to their profile and take them to phishing websites via a genuine-looking fake link in their bio. Besides that, to increase their reach and visibility, they excessively add all the trending and popular hashtags in their posts that do not even relate to their content and niche. These are the signs of a fake account whose primary aim is to bring people to their account and get their information via their profile.
They Offer Discounts or Sales
Many people must have experienced falling for scams and cheating in the name of discounts or sales. There are many fake accounts on the platform that promise to sell costly products like mobiles, laptops, etc., at a relatively low price. They scam you by taking money online and later block your profile forever. It’s important to stay aware of such scam accounts and avoid giving any personal or account details to links they provide.
Suspicious and Spammy DMs
Fake accounts may send you messages of aggression or urgency, like sending messages for donations, relief funds, child welfare funds, etc. They may even take the name of your friend or relative and ask for money. Avoid giving them any money before ensuring their credibility and cross-checking with the person whose name they take. Such fake accounts may even send generic messages presenting themselves as a reputable brand, a trading or crypto company, and try to send you to a new site. They are generally fake and want you to make purchases by paying online money. Avoid falling for scams by giving any information or account data.
Conclusion
In this digital world, identifying real and genuine people and removing fake and inactive accounts from your Instagram is paramount. Fake accounts can harm your credibility, lower your engagement rate, reduce your reach, and cause a lack of trust among genuine followers. Inactive Accounts are just a number for your profile as they do not show any engagement, and Instagram bots do not promote such followers. Therefore, it becomes crucial to identify and remove both fake and inactive followers from your account and maintain its decency and authenticity. Genuine followers depict that the profile is legit and genuine, which brings more new followers and increases engagement.
