Where do bot attacks come from, what do they threaten bloggers and what you can do – in this article. First, let’s understand who the bots are and how to distinguish these fake profiles from the accounts of real people.

A bot is a profile that does not belong to a real person. Such accounts are created for faking or a number of other manipulations.

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HOW DO YOU DISTINGUISH A BOT FROM A REAL PERSON?

1. The profile is not designed, there is no activity in it or it is minimal.

We’re talking about a “dead soul,” so there is either no photo in the account at all or images copied from other people’s pages are used. Photo captions, as a rule, are absent as well. Comments and likes are absent or left by the same bots.

2. The name is strange, looking more like a chaotic collection of letters and numbers.

More “expensive” bots can have a “normal name” and avatar, and a profile more or less similar to the account of a real person. But it is unlikely that scammers will bother spending money on such bots if they can get cheaper ones for the same amount.

3. There are several thousand accounts in subscribers.

With an empty or “no” profile it looks suspicious, and it is clear that the account was created specifically for mass followering (mass subscription for reciprocal “friendship”).

Yes, it is possible that a real person is subscribed to several thousand accounts. He’s not a bot, he just chose this way of promotion for some reason. It’s up to the owner, of course.

The question is, why do you need such a subscriber? He’s unlikely to see your posts in his feed anyway, and he’s only subscribing to you in return. Such an account cannot be called a quality subscriber.

Let’s return to the profile that does not use any questionable promotion methods, but which is suddenly bombarded with bots.

WHERE DO BOTS COME FROM?

• Envious people or competitors decide to do you a disservice and mess up your business.

• Someone is trying to steal your login. You are attacked by bots, counting on you to change your account name to stop the attack and not be able to get it back later.

• Wretched SMM-advertisers have done you a “disservice” by planning to offer “account promotion” with the help of bots, and in this way they arrange a demo of their “work”.

• Unscrupulous advertisers offer “one quick and effective way to grow the number of subscribers and promote your account.” But instead of real, effective and working ways, they just make bots.

• You have contacted either an unscrupulous blogger you approached for advertising, or a marathon or gif organizer promising a “guaranteed arrival” of subscribers. The result – in order to get positive statistics in addition to real subscribers (well, if there are any at all) you get bots.

• Someone is trying to blackmail you. To do this, you were first spun bots, and then offered to stop this attack. For a fee, of course.

WHAT IS THE DANGER OF BOT-LAUNCHING?

It would seem, well, came the bots – let them be. Who but you know if they are really alive or not. Yes, and for the effect of visibility and the number of the audience is not bad. Maybe it’s not so scary?

On the one hand, maybe it is. But on the other hand, Instagram has long since become “smarter” and monitors all of these “botomovements”.

WHAT IS THE THREAT OF SUCH ATTACKS AND MASS SUBSCRIPTIONS?

• The account falls out of the top and out of recommendations. Such a sharp increase in subscribers may be considered by the social network as suspicious activity. As a result, your profile will not only disappear from the recommendations, but it may also get banned.

• If you haven’t been banned, your engagement in your account will still be significantly lower. After all, bots will be hanging in there dead weight. They will never like, comment on, or, of course, buy anything. But the statistics are spoiled, negatively affecting engagement and reach.

• As a result, your Instagram posts will show less to a potential audience, which will have a negative impact on the growth of new subscribers.

• Having bots dilutes your followers. If you set up your targeting on a look-alike basis, i.e. to an audience similar to your followers, it’s harder for Instagram to identify the product’s target audience.

 WHAT TO DO IF A BOT ATTACK HAS STARTED?

1. Close your account and wait a few days.

Sooner or later the pest will get tired of ruining your life, and you’ll be able to open your profile. Crowded bots with a closed profile will accumulate in requests for subscription, and you will have to delete them manually. And be sure to do this before you open your account, or they will immediately fall on you.

During this time, while your profile will be set to closed status, you should remove from your subscribers or simply block those who have already managed to infiltrate. This can be done either manually (if you tracked the attack and managed to close the account in time) or with the help of special services.

When removing bots, it is important to remember Instagram’s limits. Get rid of bots gradually, so as not to get blocked by the social network that suspects you of suspicious activity.

Bots, by the way, are likely to disappear on their own over time. Instagram fights them and gradually removes them. And it’s expensive to make them stay on your profile for a long time, I doubt that anyone will spend too much.

For information: the minimum value of the add-on 1000 cheap bots 200-250 rubles, most of them “fall off” itself for a couple of weeks. If the bots will be more expensive, high-quality, their price is 400-500 rubles or more. But what sense your pest overpay?

2. Leave your account open and gradually remove “uninvited guests.

Yes, you can take a risk by not closing your account. In that case you won’t have to transfer your profile from a business page to a personal one, losing your stats. You’ll also be able to continue posting ads, promoting your profile and your products.

Of course, there is the risk that there will be a lot of bots and they will mess up your stats and litter your account very badly. No one knows who is behind the attack and how much money they are willing to spend on it.

If your account is small and the bots will be twice as numerous as your subscribers, your stats will be greatly affected. The higher the number of subscribers a blogger has, the less scary such attacks are for him. On the other hand – your competitors can play a “big game” and do not skimp on “gifts” in the form of thousands of bots.

3. Change your profile name.

Changing at least one character in your username may stop the bot-attack. After replacing the previous name remains in your reserve for 14 days.

Then you can change it back. During this time, no one can occupy it. But this method won’t work only if the attack is not on the account login, but on its ID.