How do you tell if an influencer followers are genuine or bought?

Time is the giveaway. Genuine audiences build in a messy upward line, while bought ones show a flat patch then a sudden wall of new followers.

Genuine and bought audiences behave differently over time and that behaviour is what separates them. A real following grows in a gradual, slightly uneven line as content lands and the engagement rises roughly in step. A bought following shows a flat stretch and then a sharp jump on the day the followers were purchased, with engagement that never catches up.

Quality is the other half. Real followers comment with context and sit in markets that match the creator. Purchased ones leave hollow praise and cluster in regions that have nothing to do with the audience the creator claims.

Comparing two creators by hand on all of that is tedious. A fake-follower score does the comparison for you, so two accounts with the same headline number can be told apart in seconds.

Read ten comments. Real ones reference the actual post. Bought engagement is vague praise that could sit under any photo.

Check the follower-to-following ratio alongside engagement. A massive following next to dead comments is rarely organic.