One of my clients suddenly got 2x er over the last 2 weeks and some incredible high likes – 5 to 20 times normal. Then he got a dm from somebody saying 'hope you like your likes and comments up – pay xxx per month for me to continue or I will send fake likes your account. You guessed it, fucking up the account. Beware.
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Thanks for heads up. It interesting that the guy said he would begin to send fake likes… wasn’t he already doing that to double your clients ER?
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It would prob be best for your client to just ignore that person. That person will just try to find other people to try to scam unfortunately. The person prob works for a company that sells fake follows/likes and this might be a new method for them to get money.
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Did the comments look really fake? I doubt he will continue sending fake likes to your client’s account if your client doesn’t pay him. he has probably sent the same message to many other IG users.
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yes he is probably just phishing for users willing to pay for fake stuff by showing them the results, thanks for the heads up Alex.
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I never thought I’d see the day where someone used fakes for extortion. I never openly discussed that since I didn’t want anyone to get any good ideas from starting that conversation… And it seems there are limited options to combating that (Going private, stop posting for a while, disable the account for a few days to get off their radar, & ignore the abuser).
Unfortunate to hear. Have you advised your client to take certain actions on this?
Also, if you are open to sharing, is your client’s account representing a business, (personal) brand, or personal page?
I think the point beyond that obvious lapse of logic from the scammer is that in either case, they can fuck up your account if you don’t pay them. We know by now what fakes can do to account, regardless if you choose to get them or not.
They can effectively hold your account [integrity] at ransom.
Of course, lets hope they are as dumb as the ruse they setup (also hope its from a “company” with a bad marketing team who came up with this “free test” model).
If they are spamming it for low-hanging fruit, they won’t think about doing the above maliciously or any further.
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there is really no defense. Going private is an option but it kills ER going back to public. I said ignore it, if high likes come – ER can bounce back in a few weeks
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Also the likes/follows will probably drop.
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Ignoring it like you didn’t notice would be the best option, scammers move on when they realize they can’t get anything out of it or are being unnoticed.
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Won’t be profitable for them in the long run to keep sending engagements if it gets completely ignored (fake engagements or not).
Enjoy it while it lasts and just don’t pay, they should soon move on!
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might seem that way, however client then expects that type of ER from me. having doubts of my ability and might cancel contract. It’s a lose lose for client and growth agent.
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Okay agreed, not a great position to be in. Perhaps reporting to Instagram and seeing if they could do anything about it? Not sure if you have a Facebook rep or not.
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You should just explain to them that it is fake. Have them look at the profiles of the fake accounts.
Yeah it’s really easy nowdays for someone to mess up with your account’s trust score and to harm you real bad. 
my clients are sophisticated and so are the vast majority of insta owners who purchase services.
I educate them when we get work together and find out, they know quite a bit more than say 3 years ago when many did not even know bots existed.
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