Photographer is suing agency that promised her 100,000 Instagram followers for $50,000

(Image: Julianlphoto via Unsplash)

A photographer hired an agency to organize her 100,000 followers on Instagram and a feature on Forbes or USA Today magazine.

The agency also promised her “exponential” growth for her Instagram account. It actually grew – with over 100,000 bot accounts. Now the lady is suing the company (via Petapixel).

$50,000 for 100,000 Instagram bots

Aliyah Dastour is a photographer at Alimond Photography. With her company, she has set herself the task of creating business portraits for other companies.

As a niche photographer, it can be difficult to stand out and promote yourself, which is why many turn to social media. Dastour therefore runs an Instagram account at the same time and publishes video tutorials on YouTube to promote their company and themselves.

At a conference for budding entrepreneurs, she met the co-founder of Monopolize – a marketing company specializing in websites.

The Lord sold her a business plan that included a range of services including a full-day workshop, strategy consulting, monetization systems, and an article in Forbes or USA Today.

In addition, he promised Dastour 100,000 more followers on their Instagram account. All for a price of $50,000.

She accepted the offer and a year later sued Monopolize.

Not only is she not supposed to have received any help, all the new Instagram followers are absolutely useless to her. The accounts were all fake or bots and had no impact on their business.

Dastour is now demanding the money and $25,000 in damages. Monopolize itself has not contacted the photographer for months.

Unfortunately, social media pressures coupled with the desire for growth is driving many people to buy followers and views.

In this case, unfortunately, the story is particularly tongue-in-cheek, as Dastour has video tutorials on her YouTube channel on how to grow your social media presence organically.

Have you ever heard of a similar story or do you know someone close to you who has experienced something similar? Write us your stories in the comments!