Paying a creator whose audience is inflated is one of the most expensive mistakes in influencer marketing. The good news: most inflated accounts leave public clues. None of these signals proves anything on its own, but together they tell a clear story.
1. Engagement far below similar accounts
If a creator’s engagement rate is a quarter of what accounts their size usually get, a large share of their followers may not be real or not be active.
2. Following almost as many accounts as follow them
A follow ratio above 1.5 on an account with thousands of followers often points to follow-for-follow growth, which fills the audience with people who are not interested in the content.
3. Too many comments per like
Fewer than about 4 likes per comment is unusual. It can mean genuine conversation, but it is also typical of giveaways, engagement pods and comment bots. Read the comments: generic emoji strings are a red flag.
4. Too few comments per like
The opposite pattern, hundreds of likes for every comment, can indicate purchased likes or a passive audience that never converses.
5. Reels that barely reach the audience
On a healthy account, Reels are typically watched by a meaningful share of followers. If an account with 50K followers struggles to reach a few hundred views, its follower count is probably overstating its real reach.
6. Wildly erratic engagement
One post with 20,000 likes surrounded by posts with 300 can mean a genuine viral hit, or a boosted post. Look at the typical post, not the best one.
7. A big following with very little history
A new account, or one with only a handful of posts, that already has tens of thousands of followers deserves extra scrutiny.
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Social Checkup combines these public signals into a graded bot-risk score from 0 to 100 and lists exactly which warning signs it found. It cannot see individual followers, so treat it as a screening tool that tells you where to dig deeper.