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Paid followers are a real thing.

Check out these people's website/youtube on Alexa(or similar). They are dead.

Or check out the comments and see how fake/active the posts are.

FWIW @travel_inhershoes actually does have fairly good engagement rates for the follower count.

But given that she probably only runs the one account, that's pretty small time.

Sure, but any company paying an influencer does background research to verify follower counts and activity. Fake influencers may lure unsophisticated companies, but it's much harder to scam the big ones.

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