Fake followers on TikTok are bot or spam accounts that are used to inflate follower counts. People buy fake followers to make their accounts seem more popular and influential than they really are. Studies suggest that the percentage of fake TikTok followers can range from 10% to 20% of an account’s total followers. TikTok has an estimated 253 million active users worldwide, so fake followers are a significant issue on the platform.
The purpose of this article is to explain how you can identify fake followers on TikTok accounts. Knowing the signs of fake followers allows you to recognize inflated and disingenuous accounts. Maintaining an authentic follower base is important for building a genuine presence and audience on TikTok.
Spot Unusually Large Follower Counts
One red flag that a TikTok account may have fake followers is an unusually large follower count. TikTok is still a relatively new platform, so gaining millions or even hundreds of thousands of legitimate followers takes significant time and effort.
For example, according to Social Insider, the average TikTok account with 5,000-50,000 followers has an engagement rate of around 10%. Yet many accounts boast follower counts in the millions while still having engagement of less than 5%. This disproportionately small engagement for the number of followers is a telltale sign of fakery.
In 2022, the highest follower count for a legitimate TikTok celebrity was around 142 million followers. However, it’s not uncommon to come across accounts with follower counts of 500 million or more. Having hundreds of millions more followers than the top TikTok stars is a clear indicator that an account is using fake bot followers to inflate its numbers.
While unusually high follower counts don’t definitively prove that an account’s followers are fake, they should raise suspicions. You can investigate further by checking for other signs of inauthentic followers.
Look for Inactive or Bot-Like Accounts
One way to identify fake TikTok followers is to look for signs that an account is inactive or behaving like a bot. Some common characteristics of bot and inactive accounts include:
- No profile photo or avatar
- No bio information
- Gibberish username
- No posts of their own
- No likes or comments on other videos
- Follows an unusually high number of accounts
For example, here is an account showing several signs of being a bot or inactive:
As you can see, this account has no profile photo, username, bio info, posts, or engagement. Accounts like this are likely bots or inactive accounts rather than real users.
Look out for a high number of followers with these types of placeholder or bot-like accounts, as it’s a clear sign someone is using fake followers.
Check Engagement Rates
One way to spot fake TikTok followers is to check your engagement rates. Engagement rate measures the amount of likes, comments, shares, etc. that your videos receive compared to your number of followers. If you have a high number of followers but low engagement, it likely means many of your followers are fake or inactive accounts.
According to Rival IQ, the average TikTok engagement rate per follower is around 5-7%. This means for every 100 followers, you can expect 5-7 likes, comments, or shares on your content. If your engagement rate is significantly lower than this benchmark, it may indicate you have a substantial amount of fake followers.
For example, if you have 10,000 followers but your videos only get 100-200 likes each, your engagement rate would be 1-2%. This extremely low engagement signals your follower count is inflated with bot accounts that do not actually watch or interact with your content.
Analyze your last 10-20 posts and calculate your engagement rate. Compare it to the industry benchmarks. An engagement rate far below 5-7% indicates you may need to take action to remove fake followers and improve your authentic reach.
Use Online Tools to Audit Followers
There are several free online tools you can use to analyze a TikTok account’s followers and identify potential fake or bot accounts:
HypeAuditor (https://hypeauditor.com/free-tools/tiktok-audit/) allows you to enter any TikTok username and run a quick audit. It will analyze the follower count, engagement rate, audience quality, and potential fake followers. HypeAuditor provides an overall account quality score and highlights issues to investigate further.
Social Auditor (https://socialauditor.io/) offers advanced analytics on TikTok profiles, including detecting fake followers, engagement, and growth. It can identify bots, ghosts, fakes, and inactive accounts in a user’s follower list. Social Auditor offers insights into audience demographics as well.
Collabstr’s TikTok Fake Follower Checker (https://collabstr.com/tiktok-fake-follower-checker) is a simple free tool that audits a TikTok profile’s followers. It can estimate the percentage of real vs fake followers, highlight suspicious and bot accounts, and provide an overall account quality score.
These tools analyze follower counts, engagement rates, audience quality, suspicious spikes, and bot signals to detect inauthentic follower accounts on TikTok. They provide metrics and insights to help determine if someone has bought fake followers.
Manually Screen Followers
One of the most effective ways to identify fake followers is to manually look through a user’s follower list. Here are some things to look for when screening followers:
- No profile photo or generic default photo – Many bot and fake accounts don’t have real profile photos.
- No posts or videos – Authentic accounts tend to have at least some content posted.
- Generic names – Fake accounts often have names like “user123” or “tifollower456”.
- No bio info – Most real users will provide some basic info in their bio.
- Lots of usernames with similar formats – Batches of fake accounts often have similar formatted usernames.
You can view examples of suspicious followers in this screenshot: https://socialbu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/tiktok-fake-followers-768×432.png
As you can see, many of the accounts have no profile photo, posts, or bio info. The usernames also have similar number formats. These are red flags that these followers may be fake or bots.
Take the time to scroll through a user’s followers list and look for any suspicious patterns or accounts that look obviously fake. This manual screening can help reveal if someone’s follower count has been artificially inflated.
Watch for Sudden Spikes in Followers
One telltale sign of fake followers is if a TikTok account suddenly gains a large number of new followers in a short period of time. According to Backlinko, the average monthly user growth rate for TikTok is around 10-15%. So if you notice an account getting thousands or tens of thousands of new followers over the course of a few days or weeks, that should raise some red flags.
For example, if an account with 10,000 followers gains another 5,000 followers overnight, that would be a 50% growth rate in one day, which is highly abnormal. Or if an account goes from 50,000 followers to 100,000 followers in a week, effectively doubling its audience, that level of sudden growth is very unlikely to occur organically.
These types of vertical spikes in followers are usually achieved through artificial inflation, meaning the account holder likely paid for fake bot followers or used some other underhanded tactic. So always be suspicious of any accounts that seem to rapidly balloon in popularity.
Be Wary of Follower-Buying Services
There are many websites and services that claim to sell TikTok followers. However, it is generally not advisable to use these follower-buying services. While they may temporarily inflate your follower count, most of the accounts provided are bots or inactive accounts that will not actually engage with your content.
Purchased followers usually get removed by TikTok once detected as fake or spam accounts. This means you end up wasting money for followers that disappear after a short period of time. As this article explains, “When you receive a chunk of random new followers to your account, TikTok checks their validity. TikTok will cull fake accounts, meaning that the high number of followers you just paid for will sharply decrease.”
Having a high percentage of fake or inactive followers also looks bad to potential brand partners and sponsors. They want to see that you have a genuine, engaged audience base. Inflated follower counts from purchased bots and spam accounts don’t provide value to advertisers.
Rather than buying followers, it is better to grow your account organically through high-quality content that resonates with real viewers. This takes more time and effort but results in authentic followers who will like, comment on, and share your videos.
Report Fake Followers to TikTok
TikTok prohibits any accounts that artificially inflate popularity through fake followers or engagement. Their community guidelines state that accounts using any service to “artificially grow” their audience will be banned. They also ban accounts impersonating others.
If you spot fake followers or impersonating accounts, you can report them directly to TikTok for review:
- Go to the profile of the suspicious account
- Tap the three dots in the top right corner
- Select “Report” and choose “They’re pretending to be someone else” if it is an impersonation account or “Artificially inflating popularity” for fake followers
- Follow the on-screen prompts to submit your report
You can also report specific videos that violate TikTok’s guidelines. TikTok reviews all reports and will remove accounts or content that don’t follow their policies.
Reporting fake activity helps protect the TikTok community. Make sure to use the in-app reporting whenever you come across suspicious accounts artificially inflating their popularity.
Focus on Creating Quality Content
The best way to gain real, engaged followers on TikTok is to focus your efforts on consistently creating high-quality, engaging, and shareable content. Chasing vanity metrics like follower counts often leads to wasting money on fake followers or using other questionable tactics. While large follower numbers may seem impressive, what matters more is having an audience that genuinely cares about your content.
Aim to post content that provides value, entertainment, or inspiration for your niche and ideal audience. Tap into trending audios, hashtags, and video effects, but put your unique spin on them. Use captions that are inspiring, funny or informative. Respond to comments and engage with your followers. Post frequently and consistently. Analyze your analytics to see which types of videos perform best.
Patience and perseverance are key. Gain followers organically by offering people content they truly love and want to see more of. Avoid buying followers or using follow/unfollow techniques, as these will not get you real engagement. Focus on improving the quality of your content rather than taking shortcuts. Eventually, you will start to build a community of people who look forward to your next videos.
