There are many websites like (https://follows.com) and (https://getplusfollowers.com) these websites claim that they would give you real followers on social media, from twitter to Instagram. In turn you have to pay them for the bulk volume of followers that you order from them. There are no laws that state buying Twitter followers is illegal, but Twitter does not encourage it. The reasoning is most followers are fake and inactive accounts, which do not help Twitter or the user buying them. Most purchased followers are not real accounts. There are many service providers that sell legitimate followers. The buyer will start receiving new followers until your order is completed. Many aspiring celebrities get trapped in these practices.
In the digital world, the more followers on social media, the greater or more powerful a person is considered. This practice has now become a business and big companies’ pay heavy amounts to such people for gaining more followers.
The scam came to light after Bollywood singer Bhumi Trivedi discovered a fake profile of hers on social media and lodged a complaint with the police. A person had created Bhumi’s fake profile on Instagram and chatted with people and kept screenshots of it. The fraudster showed these two others to increase followers.
Micro (a hackers handle) told Afternoon Voice, “There is nothing new in this, very famous and popular celebrities to politicians buy these bots to follow them because its number game, you will find many celebrities with millions of followers but not even one percent of their followers are seen active, they hardly retweet or like or comment to their posts”. You will find some politicians with many followers, but hardly any retweets or interactions”. There is no point in such profiles, but when we search their handle our first impression is by the number he is followed by”.
Rascal, another hacker told Afternoon Voice, “Buying followers, likes is business these days. But creating fake accounts of celebrities and by adding followers to it and then play filth is dangerous. It’s tarnishing the repute of a particular celebrity.” There are so many such accounts across social media and literally getting hold on them is simply not possible”.
So far Mumbai Police have found that as many as 176 high-profile people, including some Bollywood celebrities and sportspersons, allegedly paid money to get followers. Mumbai Police has started fixing down on many high-profile personalities, including Bollywood celebrities, builders and sportspersons after it uncovered a racket that helped these people falsely increase their followers on social media. The racket also includes international companies.
A SIT has been constituted by Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh to probe the entire matter. Police suspect that this might threaten the law and order situation in the country.
The racket was uncovered after the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Mumbai Police arrested a man named Abhishek Dinesh Daude in connection with creating fake profiles on social media. A foreign social media marketing company www.followerskart.com where Daude claimed to work is now on police radar.
Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police Vinay Kumar Chaubey said, “We have investigated and found as many as 54 firms involved in this racket. SIT comprising Crime Branch along with Cyber Cell has been formed which will help in investigating this case.”
