What Are Fake Followers? How Do They Work?

Social media algorithms prioritize content with high engagement. When a business has low engagement despite many followers, platforms typically lower the priority of their content in feeds, limiting its organic visibility and reach to real users.

That’s why you need to take fake followers seriously. In this post, we'll cover what fake followers are, how they work, why they hurt your accounts instead of helping, how to identify them, and most importantly, how to remove them to protect your business's social media presence.

What Are Fake Followers?

Fake followers, also known as bot followers, are social media accounts that follow profiles or pages but don't represent real people.

Basically, they're automated programs, purchased followers, or inactive accounts that give no actual value past inflating follower counts. These accounts exist only to make profiles appear more popular than they actually are.

While fake followers might seem like a quick way to boost your numbers, they create significant problems for businesses trying to build relationships with their audience.

How Do Fake Followers Work?

Here's a breakdown of how they work:

1. Fake followers are created by companies that use automated bots or inactive accounts, which they then sell to individuals and businesses. These operations run large-scale systems generating thousands of fake profiles designed to look “real” at first glance.
2. They sell them in packages, offering different amounts of followers, likes, or comments. They go from a few pennies to a few hundred dollars. The pricing typically depends on the quantity purchased and how realistic the fake accounts look.
3. Buyers purchase these packages to boost their follower counts and engagement so they appear more popular and influential. Many businesses fall into this trap thinking higher numbers will attract more customers and partnerships.
4. Fake followers typically don't engage with content but when they do, they leave generic comments like "Awesome pic" or leave emojis. Their interactions lack the type of engagement that builds real communities and drives business growth.

Why Fake Followers Hurt Accounts Instead Of Help

Having a large follower count might seem impressive at first glance, but fake followers damage your social media presence in many ways.

For example, they dramatically lower your engagement rate, trigger platform algorithms so it limits your content's reach, and damage your credibility. Think about it, when brands see 10,000 followers but only 50 likes per post, they immediately know something isn't right.

Moreover, fake followers skew your data. When you're trying to measure what content works best, having thousands of bot accounts makes it impossible for you to know what content your audience actually wants to see. This leads to poor strategic decisions based on false information.

Also, they don't let you reach people who might be interested in your content, your products, and services, meaning you'll miss prospects, genuine connections, and community building opportunities.

Lastly, it violates your account's terms of service, leading to potential shadowbanning (or, in worst-case scenarios, account removal). Major platforms actively fight against fake engagement and penalize accounts that use these services.

Buying fake followers might seem like a shortcut to success, but it's actually one of the worst things you can do for your account.

How To Identify Fake Followers

It's not hard to sport fake followers once you know what to look for:

Having A Random Username

Having generic or randomly generated usernames like "JohnSmith1." Real users typically choose more creative or personal usernames that reflect their interests or personality.

Misspelled Usernames

Mismatch or misspellings in account names and profile URLs, fake accounts often use names very similar to the person or brand they're copying but with slight tweaks or errors, like "Jane.Doe" instead of "JaneDoe." These small differences help them fly under the radar while still looking legitimate.

There’s No Profile Picture

Look for accounts without profile pictures or those using stock/generic images. Do a reverse image search to check if the profile picture appears elsewhere online. Low-quality or stock photos are huge red flags, while real users typically have personal photos or branded imagery that's unique to them.

Low To No Engagement

If an account has tons of followers but barely any likes or comments on posts, it's probably fake. For instance, if an account has 5,000+ followers but only 100 interactions a week, it’s odd. Real accounts show consistent engagement patterns that match their follower count.

Check if the content matches what you'd expect from the person or organization. Watch for out-of-character posts or an excessive focus on controversial topics. Fake accounts often post random content or share divisive material to generate quick engagement.

Sudden Spikes In Follower Growth

Watch out for sudden spikes in follower growth without doing anything to earn it. Organic growth happens gradually as users create valuable content and engage with their community.

Following A Lot Of People

Be suspicious if an account follows thousands of people but has very few followers themselves. This behavior pattern usually indicates automated following strategies instead of genuine interest in content.

How To Remove Fake Followers

There are different effective ways to remove fake followers. Here's what you can do:

Use The Platform's Built-In Detection

For example, if you have a business or creator account on Instagram, start by checking Instagram's own tool. For that just go to your profile, tap "Followers," then "Flagged for review" to see accounts Instagram suspects are fake or inactive. Review them and tap "Remove all" to remove all flagged followers at once.

Instagram will automatically send incoming follows from flagged accounts as requests rather than allowing them to follow you directly.

To review these requests, go to your profile, tap "Followers," then open the "Flagged" folder. From there, you can either tap "Delete all requests" to remove all flagged follow requests at once, or choose "Delete" or "Confirm" for individual accounts.

Manually Review Your Follower List

Use the warning signs we mentioned earlier, like followers having generic profile pictures or misspelled usernames, etc. to remove suspicious followers.

Go to your profile, click "Followers" at the top, select the follower you'd like to remove, click the three dots in the right corner, and select "Remove follower." This method works on most platforms.

Block Users

Block users to get them to stop following you, and don't worry they won't be notified about you blocking them. This method is particularly useful for obviously fake or suspicious accounts.

However, built-in tools have their downsides. Some platforms only offer detection features to business accounts or through paid subscriptions. And, doing it manually can be tricky, you might accidentally remove followers who simply aren't very active, and if you have a large following, it could take forever.

That's why there are options like using social media cybersecurity tools. They're used to help protect your account from various online threats including fake followers.

Use Social Media Cybersecurity Tools

They automatically analyze followers to detect and remove bots, scan accounts for potential issues that might trigger shadowbans, identify impersonator accounts that are trying to scam or damage your reputation, detect phishing attempts and malicious links, stop hijacking and spam from spreading, and more.

Take Spikerz for example. This tool monitors your social media 24/7 to quickly spot and remove fake followers. More than that, it:

1. Filters out spam and harmful language from your comment sections, protecting your brand reputation from inappropriate content. The platform uses advanced AI to understand context and identify threats that simple keyword filters miss.
2. Alerts you immediately about data breaches and exposed credentials before hackers can exploit them. This proactive monitoring helps prevent account takeovers and unauthorized access.
3. Blocks suspicious login attempts and updates passwords automatically when threats are detected. This multi-layered security approach keeps your accounts protected even when you're not actively monitoring them.
4. Analyzes content before posting to ensure guideline compliance with platforms, helping you avoid shadowbans and account restrictions. The system checks your posts against platform-specific rules to prevent accidental violations.
5. Backs up all your content securely in case of accidental content removal, bans, or account deletions. This comprehensive backup system ensures your valuable content remains safe regardless of what happens to your accounts.

If all of this sounds like something you would benefit from, give Spikerz a try. We are sure you’ll find it useful.

Conclusion

Fake followers are one of the most deceptive threats to your social media success. While they promise quick growth and credibility, they deliver the exact opposite.

The most successful businesses understand that sustainable social media growth comes from genuine engagement with real people who are actually interested in your products or services.

That’s why you should identify and remove fake followers to create a space for building a community that drives real business results. Whether you choose platform-specific tools or security solutions like Spikerz, taking action to clean your follower base is essential for protecting your brand's reputation and ensuring your social media efforts translate into meaningful business growth.