How much would you pay for more Twitter followers?

by Stephen Hui on February 13th, 2013 at 1:13 PM

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Meeting the cast of The Real Housewives of Vancouver can, unsurprisingly, involve some drama. Prior to our group interview late last month, one housewife told us that another housewife had bought some of her many Twitter followers. That led the latter housewife to later deny that suggestion through a Twitter DM, and accuse a third housewife of being the true follower-buyer.

In any case, the whole exchange made me wonder just how much it costs to make yourself look popular on Twitter. One of many such websites purporting to offer this service is BuyYoutubViews.com. According to the sketchy-looking site, you can buy 5,000 followers for $15. One-hundred thousand followers will cost you $300.

In order to find out more about the service, I took advantage of the site’s online chat feature. The following silly conversation ensued:

Now online: Leave a question or comment and our agents will try to attend to you shortly =)
SH: How long does it take for Twitter to figure out the followers are spammers?
Customer Service: We apologize for keeping you waiting. Our operators are busy at the moment, please leave us a message with your email address and we’ll get back to you shortly.
You are currently being served by Support Tom
SH: Not falling for that one!
Support Tom: sorry ?
SH: How long does it take for Twitter to figure out the followers are spammers?
Support Tom: we are not figure the followers for spam
SH: How do you make the bought Twitter accounts look real?
Support Tom: well if you want to buy twitter followers then please place your order , we are not tell all details to everyone
SH: How do I know you won’t steal my credit card info and charge a 3-D TV to my account?
Support Tom: we are accepting only paypal payment
paypal is secure for buyer and seller
you are not need to write your credit card info with paypal
Support Tom has left the chat, but don't worry. We will still be able to retrieve any messages you leave behind.

Needless to say, I would never give my credit-card info to a site like this. But I wonder how many pseudo-celebrities, online marketers, and others with thousands of followers do pony up for a fake follower surge.