Fake followers and likes are big business

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter; Almost everybody has at least one of them. Is it important to get as many likes as you can? I’m not sure, but I do know there are people who will get as many likes as they can. Even if this means that they have to buy their likes.

Nowadays, sellers of fake accounts, and thus fake likes and followers, get more money than the people who steals credit card numbers. Buying your online reputation is bigger than ever. I did a little research and maybe you can open Google and search for; “Buying Facebook fans or Instagram likes”. I promise, you will be surprised.  For some people it is interesting that they can buy 10.000 followers on Twitter for 20 euros or 2000 retweets for 6 dollars. Especially if you don’t know that much about that kind of social media. Because numbers don’t say a lot to you if you can’t interpret them. I bet you will say that 2000 retweets or 10.000 followers is ridiculous.

But how does it work? How is it possible that there are so many fake profiles and likes? A couple of years ago, the Virus “Zeus” was used to steal credit card data through the Internet. This same virus is used for the creating of fake likes and profiles on, for example, Instagram (tech365.nl). I found out that there are even different strategies in buying followers; Aggressive follower technique (buy a lot of followers everyday) and Zombie account following  (paying a 3th party for X amount of followers) (iag.me,2016)

But what do you think is more important; A lot of fans or just a couple of real friends? I bet you’re saying real friends. But let’s be honest; who hasn’t wanted to boost the likes on a picture or post, or boost your followers (not only individuals, but also companies).