- Scammers are already profiting from selling fake views on Reels, Instagram’s short-running Instagram feature that only launched on August 5th.
- One seller said they had already made enough of selling fake views for a “good car and a decent home.”
- Typically, a customer can pay $ 5 for 1000 views, or $ 15 per 1000 likes.
- A Facebook spokesperson said: “Inauthentic activity is bad for the community and since the early days of Instagram we have invested in ways to identify and remove millions of fake or spammy accounts. We will continue to build on these technologies, to the best possible experience across our platforms. “
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
Fake views on Reels, Instagram’s new short-form video feature, launched on August 5, were offered for sale just hours after it launched.
In addition to websites offering 100 likes on a Reel for 75 cents, managers of large botnets have offered artificial engagement for a price to their followers on protected encrypted apps, Business Insider has learned.
One botnet operator, who asked not to be named, has already received orders from about 80 people who watch 11 million times on Reels.
The manager declined to say how much money they received for those views, although they said their overall business sales engagement on Instagram was “enough for a good car and a decent home.”
He costs $ 5 per 1,000 views on Reels, up to a maximum of 500,000 views, and $ 15 per 1,000 likes on Reels, both paid in Bitcoin (unless you are a loyal customer, in which case he will use Cash App, PayPal and Credit Card ).
He has a network of 500,000 Instagram accounts, and works with external partners as more accounts are needed to support views. He advertises his stuff on secure messaging app Telegram, and counts influencers with huge followers among his clientele.
The biggest influencer to date with Instagram Reels has 1.5 million followers on the app, he claims.
The administrator said it was easy to generate false views about Reels, claiming it took “a few hours”.
“I use my bots for Stories ‘Stories’ Likes, and now for Reels,” he said.
He claimed there was “no protection” against displaying bones on Reels. “I think Instagram is happy when we print her TikTok copy.”
Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, wrote back on this in a statement, saying it continued on to inauthentic behavior.
The False Involvement Advertising is not just a bluster: a Reel of a Black Screen with a sticker posted by Date Insider by Business Insider, offering false engagement sellers free incentives to show how effective their product is, got 3,000 views within minutes.
We got some false views from Reels.
Chris Stokel-Walker / Business Insider
Reels is Instagram’s alternative to TikTok, where makers post videos for up to 15 seconds and have the chance to add background music and filters to the video. In addition, creators can also use Spark AR filters – which transmit augmented reality graphics on faces – within the app.
It is Facebook’s second attempt to try and capitalize on the short-form video market, following the closure last month of its service Lasso, an app that became unpopular after launch and gained some traction.
However, Instagram is envious of making Reels a success and launches on August 5 with a star-studded video full of some of TikTok’s most popular names.
The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that Instagram top TikTok makers are offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to participate in their app.
Selling False Involvement is not unique to Reels: the same site with audience-oriented likes for Reels also sells views and involvement on TikTok videos – 1,000 views on a video will cost you $ 1.10. (The Telegram-based viewer for Reels only works on Instagram, saying TikTok is harder to hack.)
The speed at which the shadow economy moved around social media engagement to adopt Reels was surprising.
“I and my team did not have time to study Reels from this point of view, because it is a really new feature, [but] I am not at all surprised: the issue of bots on Instagram is known, “said independent cybersecurity researcher Andrea Stroppa, who has been monitoring the volume of false involvement on social networks.
“Instagram has improved against bots over the years, but they are not winning,” he added. “The problem is related to the security of the app and its AI detection systems.
“While Instagram is improving and we need to give credit to its new chief Adam Mosseri, on the other hand, botnet administrators are improving the use of new techniques and technologies such as 4G proxies to execute fake accounts. It does not mean much to Instagram, but it must be disturbing in my opinion. “
A Facebook company spokesman said: “Inauthentic activity is bad for the community and since the early days of Instagram we have been investing in ways to identify and remove millions of fake or spammy accounts.
“We will continue to build on these technologies, in order to maintain the best possible experience across our platforms.”
While it’s early days for Reels, the manager of the 500,000-strong network of Instagram accounts is not hopeful for his future – at least not without his help.
“It’s not popular,” he said. “Instagram and people like me will make it popular.”
