Our favorite photo sharing App has turned two!! Since
October 2010, Instagram has surpassed 100 million users worldwide. This ever
popular app sold for $300 million in cash and $23 million in stock shares to
Facebook's Mark Zuckerburg earlier this year and has since boomed. On the eve
of Instagram's second birthday they celebrated their 100 millionth user.
Instagram is known for its wannabe celebrities, fans, and picture aficionados
(like me). But as I write this blog I can't help but think are these 100
million users real? Has anyone noticed the rise in spam accounts on our
favorite app, Instagram?
InstaSPAM
When Instagram was iPhone exclusive and not linked to
Facebook whatsoever there were zero spammers in site. Instagram users' strive
to get as many followers and likes on their accounts as possible. Personally, I
think hashtags should do the trick but forking cash for followers is an option
now. One of my spam followers' profiles links back to this Insta-Followerz site
where you can choose between four packages ranging from $15-$100 offering 100
to 1000 followers. You enter your username and payment information and voilà! - more followers. These spammers
claim these followers are ‘real' but I'm not convinced.
Spot
the spam
- These spam accounts' usernames start off as
"more_followers_now" plus random numbers.
- These accounts find you via hashtags - make your
account private to avoid spam on Instagram in general. Spam accounts will
leave you these weird comments - see picture to the right. As the account
holder you can delete
these spam comments thanks to a recent update. @rachelleflessner 96 caught
me off guard because this account didn't start with the "more_followers_now" -
seems the spammers are getting smarter.
- Any account that says the word ‘FREE'
is definitely a scam. I have gotten followers offering me ‘free' Ray Ban® sunglasses and Starbucks® gift cards. As much as I
wish this was true, we have to remember that nothing in life is free for the
most part.
InstaSPAM
Solution
Instagram developers know what's going on and have taken
measures to stop the spam. On their Tumblr
Blog, Instagram wrote on how they are decreasing spam with an app update. Spammers
who post a comment multiple times get this warning:
Instagram is also filtering and monitoring certain words and
phrases. Users can go to the spammer account, report them and Instagram will
delete their account after investigation. It seems that this online Spam plague
continues to sweep our favorite apps and sites. Facebook has starting cutting
all the fake
profiles from their site and Pinterest
is asking its pinners to report any spam boards and pins. Have you
purchased Instagram followers? I'm interested if it was a good experience and
if it worked - do these new followers interact with you post following your
account?