How ‘insiders’ at Facebook & Instagram make $$$ via illegal Account Verification

So basically, just like in real life, there are two ways to get verified on Facebook or Instagram.

The first method is the authentic one, the one that is given by the officials.

You can check how to get your page verified on Facebook? Or How to get yourself verified on Instagram?

The above methods are the ones suggested by the social media platforms themselves. But then there are those people who can take you to the easy route and get your account verified. The only condition is that you need to pay a little to get yourself verified.

Isn’t that illegal you may ask?

Well to answer that let us look at one of the tweets from Twitter:

“I mean if Mashable wants to pay for it, I can get you a blue check over night,”

How does the verification work?

There is a guy who knows some guy (the middle man of Instagram verification). Now with this method, there is no restriction of age or popularity. Whether you are a fresh drop out from college or you’re a marketer that is willing to leave an impression on their clients, you can get your account verified just with a price tag.

What is the price tag? The fee to verify your account varies from a branded energy drink to around $10,000, which depends upon a number of sources that are in the process or the direct purchase from the middleman.

For the Facebook price tag, a bit low. Maximum value to verify a page is around $2,000.

This benefit both the middleman and the user. To a middleman. Selling one to two verified accounts a month is sufficient for their whole month.

The sold service is not a good or a service that is sold separately on the internet. It can only be purchased via links and middleman.

Oh and yes Instagram is aware of this. As mentioned in their terms:

“You are responsible for any activity that occurs through your account and you agree you will not sell, transfer, license or assign your account, followers, username, or any account rights,”

What are the benefits of verified account on Facebook/Instagram?

The blue tick account is mainly a status symbol. It gives credibility to your account. Gives prime spot on search results pages and your influence reaches up to 700 million monthly active users.

On the grand scale, Instagram knows and supports this black market well. While anyone can apply for the account via the links mentioned above. The only problem is that the normal process takes so much time, so people go for this underground black-market tactic to get themselves verified.

Related Read: How to Write Instagram Captions That Drive Sales?

Who buys the verified accounts?

Even though some of the professional digital design agency owners don’t prefer this type of verification, there are some who goes the extra mile and take this approach.

For example, John (pseudo name of my friend) shared with me that he got the verified account from some reference guy, now after three years, he is fully immersed in this business.

He sells accounts to everyone. From individuals to corporations with some price tag.

Here is how the verification usually takes place in the black market:

Step1: There is usually an employee from Instagram/Facebook who is willing to take a bribe or he is just a friend. He is first contacted.

Step2: The middleman receives cash from the person who wants to get their account verified. The split is done among the employee and the middleman.

Step3: The employee at Facebook/Instagram submits a verification request which is obviously treated as high priority.

Step4: Verification gets done and the user can avail all the features of a premium verified account.

For a celebrity, they can easily get the verified account just by applying via the forms mentioned above.

But for every other user, you need to have a lot of patience to get your account verified. One friend of mine, who owns a digital design agency purchased and dumped his verified account just because he thought it was all illegal to get the account and use in this manner.

After that, he applied for the verification of another account in the normal way and got verified within twenty days.

Related Read: Humanizing Your Brand Will Engage and Retain More Customers

To conclude it all

Getting verified is surely important when it comes to the Facebook page or Instagram account. Whether you do it legally or illegally, in both cases you get to use the features of a premium verified account.

But as a marketer and a digital media strategist, I would never suggest going for the paid verification. Although you might get it all right. But there will always be that guilt in you. The bribe you paid to accelerate the process.