Fraudulent Sydney Entertainment Providers Social Media Scam

An entertainment provider with a large social media presence may be appealing to pubs, clubs and venues because of the promotional value. However there are a growing number of unethical operators that have fraudulently boosted their number of Likes and Followers. They do this by purchasing fake Followers and Likes from Click Farms in Turkey and Russia. This practice has become rife amongst entertainment providers to Sydney’s Pubs and Clubs. If Licensees and Entertainment Managers are to avoid wasting time and money as a result of this fraud they’ll need to know what to look for. Fortunately it’s easy to spot.

A Facebook Page or Twitter Account with a large number Fans is the first Red Flag. Any Facebook Page over 1,000 Likes is worthy of investigation. Double that number for Twitter. I’ve seen one karaoke and trivia operator’s Facebook Page increase by 5,000 Likes overnight. And again, not long after, by 8,000 on another night. Thats over 13,000 fake Likes. These were not incremental increases over time, they appeared within 24 hours.

You can find this data in the graphic above by clicking on the Likes Tab under the Page’s Cover Picture. See graphic below. Only the data for the last month is shown.

The above Graphic is for demonstrative purposes only.
Pubs Sydney does not engage in fraud. Of course.

What is a Click Farm?
It’s where sweatshop workers in Third World conditions are hired to click on the Facebook Page Like button or Twitter Follow button of the clients account using multiple fake accounts. These Likes and Follows have no other purpose than making the Fraudsters Page look more popular than it is in reality. These crooked operators advertise this to potential clients fraudulently claiming powerful Social Media exposure. And therefore the ability to promote the entertainment to, and drawn in, large numbers of patrons. It also makes the fraudsters business seem more substantial than it is in actuality.

How do you know if an Entertainment Provider is committing this kind of fraud?
That’s simple when you know where to look.  Check where their Fans and Followers come from. The majority should be located in Australia, specifically in Sydney, if it is to have promotional value. Sydney based followers are far more likely to be real as it is hard to amass a significant number of fake accounts.

How To Determine Follower Authenticity On Twitter

It’s particularly easy with Twitter as you can click on their Followers Tab, see graphic below, and check the location of Followers by clicking on their avatars. While not all Twitter accounts disclose their home city there are plenty that do. And if most of the followers are from places like Russia or Turkey it’s a good sign they are fake followers. I’d recommend checking 20 or so profiles out of the first 200. If the majority of followers are still using the default Twitter Egg profile picture it’s another sign that these Followers are suspect.

Now you can check their Followers profile information by clicking on their Avatars.

See the graphic below to find a Twitter Users location on their Feed Page.

See the graphic below to find a Twitter Users location on their Profile Summary.

How To Determine Fan Authenticity On Facebook

Uncovering a Facebook Page with fraudulent Likes requires the Entertainment Provider to give you access to their Facebook Page Insights. If they don’t know how to do this forward this article to them. It’s a straight-forward process out lined in the following 6 steps:

Step 1: The Administrator of the Page clicks on the Settings Tab in the top left hand of the page.

*They must be logged into their Facebook account first.

Step 2: Then select Page Roles From the options on the left. See graphic below.

Here is where new Page Admins can be added. The new Administrators Facebook name, or e-mail that they have registered with their Facebook account, is added where indicated.

The type of access the new Administrator will have can also be set. If it is set to Analyst the new Administrator can look but can’t change the Pages setting. So with this kind of access the Page Owner can not argue the new Administrator is a security risk.

Step 3: You will then get a notification, pictured below, inviting you to be an Administrator for that page. By clicking on this Notification you will be given the option to accept the invite. See below.

Step 4: By selecting Accept you will have access to the Insights where you can see where the Facebook Pages Likes have come from.

Step 5: Now when you go to your Entertainment Providers Facebook Page you will see the option to view the Insights in the top left hand Tabs.

 Step 6: Once you have accessed and are looking at the Insights Page select the People Tab. Here you can see where the Likes come from. Logically, the closer they are to your venue the better the Page will serve as a promotional tool. If a large number come from Turkey or Russia it’s likely they are fake accounts, bought in bulk. The most likely reason that a Sydney business, servicing Sydney clients, Facebook Page has Like’s from these countries is to fraudulently claim a strong social media following.

You probably won’t have to follow these steps if your entertainment supplier has bought fraudulent Page Likes. They are unlikely to give you access to the Page Insights. You’ll get some excuse about privacy, or that they don’t manage it themself. Or they don’t know how to give you access. Or they’ll just keep forgetting. You can always send them a link to this page. I’m confident you’ll know when you’re being given the Run Around. And you’ll know what to do next.