How to check if an influencer has fake followers: five steps with free tools

How to check if an influencer has fake followers: five steps

To check if an influencer has fake followers, work through these five steps in order.

1. Open a sample of the creator's followers.
2. Read the follower growth curve.
3. Set likes and comments against the follower count.
4. Run two free checkers and compare their measures.
5. For a creator worth the spend, read a report that sorts followers by type.

Open a sample of the creator's followers

Open follower profiles from across the list and look for the traits Modash lists for fake accounts: no profile image, a gibberish username, no bio, and few or no posts of real people. HypeAuditor's checker page adds a poor follower-to-following ratio, random letters and numbers in a username and zero to 10 posts.

Read the follower growth curve

Read how the follower count has grown over time. Modash says bought followers arrive all at once, a sharp spike followed by a flat stretch. HypeAuditor's reports plot a followers graph and, when they detect suspicious patterns, put a warning under it. A spike alone is not proof: HypeAuditor's help center lists a loop giveaway and a TV appearance as innocent causes of sudden growth.

Then set likes and comments against the follower count. Modash says fake followers do not engage, so engagement often sits below what the follower count suggests. Heepsy calls a large account with very low likes and comments a classic warning sign. The how to spot fake influencers guide covers the full manual checklist.

Compare two checkers' fake follower measures

Run the same account through two free checkers. Each checker uses its own measure, so do not merge two checkers' numbers into one. HypeAuditor's checker returns an Audience Quality Score (AQS), its 1 to 100 score for the quality of an account's audience, plus the follower count and engagement rate. It works on accounts with at least 1K followers, and its page also invites a free sign-up.

Modash's checker returns a fake follower rate, the combined share of suspicious accounts and bots, with no sign-up. Heepsy's tool needs no sign-up either, though its page says some metrics need a Heepsy account.

Modash says most Instagram accounts fall between 5% and 25% on that rate, so a result above zero is not a verdict. Its own example: a creator with 500,000 followers and a 25% fake rate still has 375,000 real followers. The HypeAuditor fake follower checker guide shows what HypeAuditor's tool returns.

What a paid report adds: audience types

On Instagram, HypeAuditor's paid report goes past a free fake follower check by sorting followers into Real People, Influencers, Mass Followers and Suspicious accounts and giving the share it calls Quality Audience.

• Real People: accounts that behave like regular live users.
• Influencers: accounts with more than 5,000 followers and fewer than 1,500 followings.
• Mass Followers: accounts that follow more than 1,500 accounts.
• Suspicious accounts: bots, fake or stolen accounts and accounts that use services to buy likes, comments or followers.

Quality Audience is the share of followers who are Real People or Influencers. The checker page promises an instant result, while HypeAuditor's help center says most reports take one to two hours and, in rare cases, up to 24 hours. HypeAuditor focuses on public accounts with more than 1,000 followers. The influencer fake followers checker guide lists the free tools that come before this step.

A brand paying a handful of creators a year can stop after step four. A team vetting creators every month is the buyer for a report. Every free checker on this page costs nothing to run, and HypeAuditor's free trial comes on request through its sales team; ask what it covers.