Influencer Fraud: What Is It and How to Spot It

The influencer marketing industry is valued at over $7.36 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach a value of $69.92 billion by 2029, according to Data Bridge Market Research analysis. There’s a lot of money in influencer marketing and it seems like some people are stooping pretty low to get their hands on some of that cash. Influencer fraud has become a problem in the industry, with fake accounts popping up, and even worse, brands falling for those fake, so-called influencers.

How to protect yourself from influencer fraud

What is influencer fraud?

Genuine influencers build their following naturally. Maybe they started by creating a blog and posting videos on YouTube. People found their blog posts or videos, liked what they saw, and started following them. In some cases, influencers on Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok built up their following by creating eye-catching posts or funny and interesting tweets.

Fraudulent influencers cut out organic growth. In some cases, influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter purchase followers to build up their platforms. They’re likely to buy followers, usually for pretty cheap. Some might even post content stolen from genuine influencers or purchased from stock photo sites.

Influencer fraud occurs when these fake influencers connect with brands and promise to work on a campaign with them. The brand might agree to pay the so-called influencer based on the number of followers the account has because the brand doesn’t realize those followers and engagements were not genuine.

Since robots and fakes can’t engage or buy things, brands that work with fraudulent influencers waste their time and money.

5 signs of influencer fraud

Influencer fraud is both annoying and costly. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, though. If you know what to look for, it’s not too difficult to spot influencer fraud. It’s like knowing the difference between a real Chanel bag and a fake one someone’s trying to hawk on the street. 

Once you spot the things that make an influencer fake, you can’t un-see them. Here are a few common signs of influencer fraud you should be looking out for:

Sudden increase and spike in followers

Is overnight success a real thing? It is if you’re a scam influencer account. One way to tell that an influencer is a fake, or at least that an influencer’s following is less than genuine, is to pay attention to how quickly that influencer got those followers. Some tools let you see the total number of followers and how many followers that person gains or loses daily. A sudden jump in following usually signals that an influencer paid for those followers. Of course, viral posts can cause a surge in followers, but you can check whether the influencer posted that particular day and see whether the engagement was authentic.

Big following counts but little engagement

Another sign that an influencer isn’t an influencer is if he or she has hundreds of thousands of followers but pretty much no comments or likes. In 2023 the average engagement rate for photos was 1.18%, and 3.15% for carousel posts. In 2022, marketers saw the highest engagements on Instagram out of any other platform, which means that if an Instagram account with tons of followers isn’t getting solid reactions to their posts, something could be wrong. 

Fake comments

If a social media account is full of posts with unusual comments left on them, something could be up. Some fake influencers are hip to the fact that buying followers isn’t enough to have influence. So they also buy comments. One way to know that comments are fake or from bots or fake users is to look at their content. If an “influencer” has posted about a “vacation” he or she recently took, but the comments are all about weight loss pills, well, you just know those aren’t from followers who are genuinely engaged with that influencer. Comments being generic or unrelated to the actual content of the post are a tell-tale sign of influencer fraud.

Comments/likes from the same people and accounts

It is common for our family, friends, and loyal fans to comment on multiple posts. However, many fake accounts are full of a group of followers and influencers, or pods, that all agree to like and comment on each other’s posts. The change in Instagram’s algorithm threw some influencers for a loop, and because of that, they saw a drop in engagement rates and panicked. These pods of influencers joining together to like and comment on one another’s posts might seem harmless; however, it is a form of fake engagement.

Stock photos

The tricky thing about being a fake influencer is that there’s no real life to live. Fake influencers aren’t going on vacation or cooking in their kitchens, or raising kids. One very easy way to spot a fake influencer is to do an image search using one of his or her photos. Does that photo appear elsewhere online, like maybe in a stock photo repository? If so, you can bet your pennies the influencer isn’t real.

The same number of likes and comments

As we already mentioned, comments and likes from the same influencers and accounts are a form of influencer fraud, so is receiving the exact same number of comments and likes per post. On platforms like Instagram and Twitter, where likes are often visible, it is easy to notice the consistency and activity of their followings. Another thing to look out for in Influencer fraud is influencers with the same number of comments and likes on every post. Instagram allows influencers to hide likes, so when working with creators, ask for the likes to be visible.

How to protect your brand from influencer fraud

The best way to protect your brand from engaging with a fake influencer and from becoming a victim of influencer fraud is to vet and verify influencers before you agree to work with them. What’s the influencer’s story, does he or she have a long history of posting on social media or a blog or vlog? Or did he or she seeming come from nowhere?

Using an influencer marketing platform can help understand who an influencer is and where their following came from. For example, an influencer platform like IZEA Flex will show you how many followers an influencer has and provide details such as engagement rates. The platform can also show you how well an influencer engages with his or her audience, if at all. By using Flex, you cannot only manage your campaigns, content, tracking links and payments, but you can use associate campaigns with Shopify and Google Analytics to accurately see how many conversions an influencer actually inspires.

Flex can help you avoid working with a fraudulent influencer. Want to learn the ins and outs of our next-gen, flexible influencer marketing software? Start your free 10-day trial today.

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