Influencer fraud costs sponsors £1bn a year

Influencer fraud, in which celebrities acquire fake followers on platforms such as Instagram to inflate their fanbase, is costing brands more than £1 billion a year, experts have said.

Manipulating follower counts and “engagement” on social media misleads brands by suggesting that sponsored posts advertising their products will reach more fans. An economist at the University of Baltimore investigated the scale of the problem amid allegations that more than half of the accounts following this year’s Love Island entrants were fake.

Read the full article on The Times.