Luxury brands with the most fake Instagram followers
Olivia Cole 
Fake news, fake likes and fake social media followers – FAKE has become one of the most talked-about words of the past couple of years. Fake accounts on social media are not only used to spread misinformation but also to boost the reach of certain influencers. It turns out that luxury brands are no different; in fact, they are among the most affected by this phenomenon.
The team at CasinoGuardian decided to find out which luxury fashion brands have the highest percentage of fake followers on Instagram. We selected the 20 most popular brands across industries such as fashion, cosmetics, jewellery and watches. According to the fake-account checker tool we used, 19 of these 20 prominent brands had at least a quarter of their followers flagged as fake or suspicious. Furthermore, for the leading names in our ranking, the proportion of fake followers is close to one third.
Fashion Brands with the Highest Percentage of Fake Followers
Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of fake Instagram accounts are created every single day. Consumer brands, popular influencers, and famous actors and singers are among the most likely to attract fake followers. A significant percentage of the followers of leading fashion brands are also fake.
According to research conducted by CasinoGuardian, 30 per cent or more of the followers of Estée Lauder, Bvlgari, Ralph Lauren, Cartier and Emporio Armani (the most popular brand within Armani) are not real people. It is possible, but highly unlikely, that these companies have bought influence on the platform, as they are among the most recognised luxury brands in the world. A more plausible explanation is that bots purchased to boost the reach of fashion and beauty influencers often automatically follow widely recognised brands.
Fake Accounts: What They Are And What They Are Used For
Fake accounts have plagued social-media platforms for years. These profiles are created either by scammers or by bots operated through algorithms – in either case, they are not controlled by real people. Some of these accounts are used to trick social-media users into handing over money, while others steal personal information. The majority of fake accounts, however, are created simply to inflate a user’s follower count.
On Instagram, some influencers try to build credibility by buying fake likes and followers. These accounts can be spotted very easily by their lack of posts, missing bio, and few or no followers. At the same time, they usually follow hundreds or thousands of people on the platform. Due to the algorithms behind them, they tend to follow famous people, companies and brands – often within the same niche. As a result, most top influencers and popular brands on Instagram end up with a significant proportion of fake followers through no fault of their own.
For years, platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been trying to tackle the millions of bots and fake accounts created every day. So far, they have been unable to stamp out the phenomenon and have instead focused on removing accounts deemed suspicious.
Back in 2021, Facebook, which, along with Instagram, is now part of Meta, said it disabled 1.3 billion fake accounts in the final three months of 2020. In the second quarter of 2022, the company removed 1.4 billion such accounts, and in the third quarter it identified and disabled a further 1.5 billion. While it did not provide figures for Instagram, it is safe to assume that a comparable proportion of accounts on the photo-sharing network are also fake.
Methodology
The engagement rate is an important metric because it shows how actively the audience reacts to a post, whether that post is a promotional campaign, a new product or a social cause. It compares the total number of posts by an account with the combined number of likes and comments, and is expressed as a percentage. An engagement rate of 1% to 5% is fairly common and indicates a healthy relationship with the audience. A rate below 0.5%, however, strongly suggests that the account has a high proportion of fake followers.