Fake followers: how to check a Moroccan influencer before you pay
Before you pay a Moroccan influencer, work out their engagement rate (average likes and comments per post ÷ followers × 100), look at their follower growth and read their comments. Ask for screenshots of their insights to see how much of the audience is in Morocco and in your city, compare Reel views with followers, then pay a deposit and the balance after the post.
Kreators editorial team · Updated 29 Oct 2026
Why check an influencer before paying?
You pay a creator for their audience. If part of it is bought or lives far from you, your ad reaches fewer potential customers than planned, for the same price.
Platforms ban fake engagement. Meta's Community Standards, which cover Instagram and Facebook, ban buying, selling or exchanging likes, shares, views or follows. TikTok bans the trade of services that artificially boost engagement.
What that means for you: the numbers of an account that bought engagement can drop when the platform cleans up, and its content can be shown to fewer people.
The 6-point checklist before you pay
- Engagement rate. Average the likes and comments on the last ten posts, divide by followers and multiply by 100. Example: 600 likes and comments on average for 20,000 followers gives 3%. The engagement rate calculator does it for you and compares with Moroccan accounts of the same size.
- Follower growth. Ask for a screenshot of follower growth (gained and lost) in Instagram insights. Steady growth is normal; thousands of followers gained in one day with no viral content is a red flag.
- Comment quality. Look for real reactions in Darija, French or Arabic that talk about the content, and questions about price or address. Rows of emojis, "Nice pic" or the same accounts under every post should make you cautious.
- Audience in Morocco and in your city. Ask for recent screenshots of Instagram or TikTok insights: country, cities, age. For a local business, most of the audience should be in Morocco, and a good share in your city.
- Reel and TikTok views. Compare the views on the last ten videos with the follower count. Low, flat views against a big follower count point to an audience that no longer watches, or does not exist.
- Past partnerships. Look at their sponsored content: are the comments as lively as elsewhere? Do the same clients come back? Ask for the results of a recent collaboration.
Example: an account with 50,000 followers whose Reels get 800 to 1,500 views, with mostly emoji comments from foreign accounts, deserves questions before any payment, even if its engagement rate looks fine.
What is a good engagement rate?
There is no official threshold. Published studies give very different figures depending on their method, but they agree on one trend: the median engagement rate falls as follower counts rise, on Instagram as on TikTok (HypeAuditor 2026 report, as covered by Net Influencer in February 2026).
So compare a creator with accounts of the same size, the same niche and on the same platform. An unusually low rate points to a missing audience; an unusually high rate with generic comments can hide bought likes.
How do I read the Instagram and TikTok insights I am sent?
| What you ask for | Where the creator finds it | What you check |
|---|---|---|
| Top locations of followers | Instagram: account insights, total followers (from 100 followers) | The share in Morocco and in your city |
| Follower growth | Instagram: total followers, followers gained and lost | No sudden jump without a reason |
| Viewers of a Reel or post | Instagram: post insights (countries, cities, age, gender) | Who actually saw the content |
| TikTok followers | TikTok Studio, Analytics, Followers tab (gender, age, top locations) | The share in Morocco and the age range |
Ask for screenshots over 30 or 90 days: Instagram shows insights for a period chosen within the past 90 days. A short screen recording in which the creator opens their own insights is harder to fake than an image.
These numbers are still estimates: Instagram says some metrics are estimated, and TikTok says its viewer statistics are based on predictive models.
What are the red flags?
- Lots of followers but very few likes, comments or views.
- A jump of several thousand followers in a day or two, with no viral content.
- Generic comments, often from the same accounts with no photo or posts.
- An audience mostly outside Morocco for a business that sells in Morocco.
- A refusal to show insights, or old or cropped screenshots.
- An offer to "boost" your post with likes or followers: that is exactly what Meta and TikTok ban.
What should I ask for before paying?
- Recent insight screenshots (country, cities, age, growth), or a screen recording.
- A written agreement: content, posting dates, price, revisions and usage rights. Start from our contract template.
- A 30 to 50% deposit on signing, then the balance after the post, once the content is live and as agreed.
- Instagram's "Paid partnership" label: once the content is live, you get a notification and access to its insights.
- The post's insights seven days later, and a promo code unique to the creator to measure sales.
On Kreators, you pay the creator directly and Kreators does not guarantee the work: use this checklist and read our trust rules. Find local creators in the directory, compare their prices with market rates and follow our guide to finding, contacting and paying an influencer.
What do Instagram and TikTok say about fake engagement?
In its "Spam" standard, Meta bans buying, selling or exchanging engagement (likes, shares, views, follows, clicks) and offering anything of monetary value in exchange for engagement.
Instagram announced on 19 November 2018 that it was removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity. Those apps break its Community Guidelines and Terms of Use, and accounts that keep using them may see their Instagram experience affected.
TikTok, under its rules in force on 24 September 2026, removes fake likes and followers it detects and can ban deceptive accounts. Content that tries to inflate likes or follows is not eligible for the For You feed.