how to remove fake followers on Instagram

Having a lot of followers looks good at first glance, but if many of them are fake, bots, or inactive accounts, your profile can actually suffer. Fake followers lower your engagement rate, make your statistics unreliable, and can even hurt your chances of working with brands.

In this guide, you’ll learn the best ways to remove fake followers with a mix of clear explanations (paragraphs) and step-by-step instructions you can follow right away. We’ll also mention how tools like smsonline and options to buy google voice number online can help you keep your accounts safer and cleaner in the long term.

Understand why fake followers are a problem

Before you start deleting anyone, it’s important to know why this cleanup is necessary.

Fake followers usually:

• Do not like, comment, or share your content
• Make your engagement rate look weak
• Create a bad impression for brands and new visitors
• Can trigger platform algorithms to show your content less

If you want long-term growth, real followers are always more valuable than big but fake numbers.

Manually identify fake followers

For many creators and businesses, the first step is a quick manual check. It’s not the fastest method, but it’s very accurate.

How to recognize fake followers

Typical fake or bot accounts often have:

• No real profile picture (or a strange logo/stock image)
• No posts or a very small number of low-quality posts
• Weird usernames full of numbers and random letters
• Thousands of accounts followed, but almost no followers
• Spammy or irrelevant comments on many pages

Manually removing fake followers

• Open your profile and go to your Followers list.
• Scroll slowly and look for suspicious profiles.
• Tap on a profile to check their posts, bio, and followers/following.
• If the account clearly looks fake or inactive, tap the menu (three dots).
• Choose Remove follower or Block, depending on what your platform offers.
• Repeat this process regularly for new followers.

Use the “Remove follower” feature instead of blocking everyone

Most major platforms now allow you to remove a follower without blocking them completely.

Why this matters

• Removing someone is more subtle and doesn’t create drama.
• Real people who are just inactive won’t get a “blocked” notification.
• Your follower list becomes cleaner without starting conflict.

Step-by-step: Using the remove option

• Go to your Followers list.
• Find the account you want to remove.
• Tap on the three dots next to their name.
• Select Remove (or similar option on your platform).
• Confirm the removal when asked.
• Continue this for all obvious fake or bot profiles.

Use audit tools to detect fake followers faster

If your account is bigger, manual cleaning alone can be very slow. That’s when follower audit tools help.

How audit tools help

These tools scan your audience and flag:

• Possible bots
• Inactive accounts
• Ghost followers who never interact

However, you must be careful about security. Never give your main password to shady websites. When you need to sign up or verify, consider using a virtual number so your personal SIM stays protected. Services like smsonline or platforms where you can safely buy google voice number online can help you separate personal use from marketing tools.

Step-by-step: Cleaning with audit tools

• Choose a trusted follower audit or analytics tool.
• Sign up using a secure email and, if possible, a virtual number instead of your main phone.
• Connect your social account via the platform’s official API (not by giving your password directly).
• Run a follower audit to identify fake or low-quality accounts.
• Export or review the list of “suspicious” followers the tool provides.
• Go back to your social app and manually remove or block those accounts.

Adjust your content and hashtag strategy

Your content and hashtags play a big role in who follows you.

Avoid attracting fake followers

• Don’t use spammy hashtags like #follow4follow or #likeforlike.
• Focus on niche-relevant hashtags related to your topic or industry.
• Publish consistent, high-quality content that appeals to real people, not bots.

When your profile speaks clearly to a specific audience, random spam accounts are less likely to target you.

Step-by-step: Making your content “bot-unfriendly”

• Review your last 20–30 posts and list all hashtags you used.
• Remove generic, spammy, and “follow exchange” type hashtags.
• Replace them with specific, niche hashtags related to your topic.
• Create content that invites real engagement (questions, polls, tutorials).
• Track which posts attract real comments and repeat what works.

Stop buying fake followers – choose smart tools instead

Buying fake followers may look like a shortcut, but it almost always backfires.

Why it hurts you

• Your engagement rate drops hard.
• Brands and agencies can easily detect fake growth.
• Algorithms understand that your audience doesn’t care about your content.

Instead of buying fake followers, use secure tools and clean growth methods. For example:

• Use smsonline to manage multiple verified accounts safely.
• If you need more verified profiles for your brand or marketing tests, you can buy google voice number online from trusted providers instead of relying on unsafe, botted accounts.

Step-by-step: Switching from fake to real growth

• Stop using cheap “follower panels” or fake-growth apps immediately.
• Focus your budget on ads or collaborations rather than fake numbers.
• Secure all your accounts with unique emails and strong passwords.
• Use virtual numbers only from trusted platforms for login and verification.
• Start cleaning your current followers list using the steps in this guide.

Schedule regular follower clean-ups

Cleaning fake followers once is not enough. It should become a habit.

Why consistency matters

New bots and spam accounts appear every day. If you never check your followers, your audience quality will slowly drop again. A clean, active audience sends strong signals to the algorithm and to potential partners.

Step-by-step: Creating a clean-up routine

• Weekly: Review new followers and remove obvious bots.
• Monthly: Run a follower audit with a trusted tool.
• Before campaigns: Clean your profile before big collaborations or ad campaigns.
• Track your engagement rate after each clean-up to see improvements.
• Keep notes on what strategies bring more real followers.

Secure your accounts to reduce fake followers in the future

Good security not only protects you from hacking but also reduces spammy activity.

Security best practices

• Use strong, unique passwords for every account.
• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA).
• Avoid logging into your accounts on public devices.
• Separate personal and business accounts using virtual numbers from services like smsonline or by choosing to buy google voice number online for safer verifications.

Step-by-step: Improving your security today

• Change your passwords to strong, unique ones (letters, numbers, symbols).
• Turn on 2FA for all important accounts.
• Remove access for suspicious third-party apps in your settings.
• Use a virtual number instead of your main SIM when registering new accounts.
• Regularly review login activity and sign out of unknown devices.

By combining detailed clean-ups with smart security practices and a content strategy focused on real people, you can remove fake followers effectively and keep them from coming back. In the long run, a smaller but authentic audience will bring you better engagement, stronger trust, and more serious opportunities than any inflated follower count ever could.