Though social media networks like Instagram, Facebook and X attempt to verify every user\u2018s identity, their algorithms are far from perfect. As a result, most businesses and brands have a number of fake followers \u2014 in some cases, tens of thousands. Even a personal account set to private could have stalkers who aren\u2019t who they claim or appear to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To understand the gravity of the problem, let\u2019s\nlook at the following statistics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this article, we\u2019ll take a brief look at why\nbusinesses and individuals should audit their social media followers to remove\nfraudulent accounts. We\u2019ll also give you some easy tools \u2014 like Spokeo<\/a> \u2014 to help you investigate your followers and ban the fake\nor potentially dangerous ones in a flash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But first, let\u2019s look at the common sources of\nfake followers that could be jeopardizing your internet safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are the most common sources of fraudulent\nsocial media followers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing where fake followers come from should be\nenough to make you want to ban them forever for internet security reasons. But\nif you\u2019re a business, they are also negatively affecting your brand<\/a>. Here are the most important reasons to ban fraudulent\naccounts from your list of followers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are four of our favorite tools for\nidentifying and removing fake followers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spokeo<\/a> is a people search tool that uses data from both online\nand offline sources, including 12 billion public records. It\u2019s particularly\nuseful for investigating followers you don\u2019t recognize on your personal social\nmedia accounts (even MT<\/a>V\u2019s <\/a>Catfish<\/em><\/a> uses it<\/a> to help the subjects of each\ninvestigation discover if their love interests are who they say they are).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A quick search of your potentially fake\nfollower\u2019s name can either confirm their identity (meaning they aren\u2019t fake after all!) or confirm your\nsuspicions.. Spokeo will provide background\ninformation and you can decide whether to ban them . If it\u2019s a fake person, the\nname may not show up on Spokeo, and you\u2019ll\nknow to ban them immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fakers App<\/a> is a free tool that lets you scan your Twitter followers\non up to eight accounts. It analyzes everyone following your Twitter account\nand produces a report. By using special metrics to analyze your followers and\ntheir Twitter activities, the Fakers App identifies whether they are fake,\ninactive or good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a great practice to purge your Twitter\naccounts of all the fake users that this app identifies. If you want to be\nextra safe, block the inactive ones too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cleaner<\/a> for IG is\nsimilar to the Fakers App, except it focuses on cleaning up your Instagram\naccount of fraudulent users and bots. It identifies suspicious accounts based\nprimarily on how often they interact with your posts and profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, you might want to review the accounts\nit flags before automatically deleting them. You might find a few friends and\nfamily \u2014 or even loyal followers \u2014 on the list simply because they\u2019re not very\nactive Instagram users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the best ways to purge your Facebook\naccounts of false followers is to review your follower list for\nsuspicious-looking accounts. Although it could take a couple of hours to go\nthrough your friends list, this is a great option for a personal account with\nbetween 1,000 and 2,000 friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you find a person you don\u2019t recognize,\nvisit the profile to see if it looks inactive or suspicious. Then do a Spokeo<\/a> search to do a name or email look up to figure out if you\u2019re dealing with a real person, and block anything that looks out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For larger Facebook accounts, you can use Facebook\u2019s Graph Search<\/a>\nto organize your friends and followers under different characteristics to look\nfor potentially suspicious accounts. For example, based on the following\nstatistics, you might want to start out your graph search by focusing on female\nprofiles from certain countries and looking for unfamiliar ones:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Graph Search, you can focus on other stats\nthat you think are unusual for your friends and followers to identify and block\nadditional suspicious accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Spokeo<\/a>, we\u2019re passionate\nabout internet safety and assisting businesses and individuals in protecting\nthe security of themselves and their followers. It only takes a few seconds to\ncheck up on someone\u2019s identity with our search tools. Bookmark our site so you\nhave it in your back pocket as a resource to investigate suspicious accounts on\nyour social media profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with his fascination for emerging technologies like internet technology, blockchain, encryption, and the laws and market trends that follow them, Jeremy Hillpot\u2019s background in consumer-investor fraud litigation provides a unique perspective on a vast array of topics including website tech, investments, startups, cryptocurrencies and the law. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Though social media networks like Instagram, Facebook and X attempt to verify every user\u2018s identity, their algorithms are far from perfect. As a result, most businesses and brands have a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":23477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Do Fake Social Media Followers Come From?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Why You Should Purge Fake Followers Immediately<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Engagement is an important metric for measuring the success of your social. media presence. If you have 1 million followers but your posts are only getting a handful of likes, it\u2019s pretty clear that your account is loaded with fake followers \u2014 and that will seriously affect the trustworthiness and success of your business.<\/li>\n\n\n\nHow to Identify Fake Social Media Followers <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Spokeo<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Fakers App for Twitter<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. Cleaner for IG<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
4. Graph Search for Facebook<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Brazil, Chile, Pakistan or the Philippines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nFinal Thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
References: <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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