Imagine, you’re scrolling through Instagram and you suddenly get a one-off comment from a random account. 

The comment seems real but something about it feels fishy. Well, one reason for that could be that you have been hit by an Instagram bot. 

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IG bots are created to perform activities such as liking, commenting, and sharing for you through automation. 

@mr_fresh/ Unsplash

The bots target accounts and interact with them to gain more followers, reach and engagement for companies/people who employ such services. 

@plann_images/ Unsplash

As per sources, time and timezones don’t matter for bots because they are constantly on the go to keep the account active. A user can define the categories for bots to follow while targeting accounts.

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Although bots do everything for us, there’s also a dark side to them. At first, it may seem like you’re getting more followers and an increased reach but the growth is actually inflated. People can spot a bot from a mile away. 

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Reportedly, these bots are in violation of Instagram’s terms of use and might even mess up your entire feed. Not just that, since they are automated and not actually real, they might leave an insenstive comment, making the situation all the more tricky. 

All that glitters is not really gold, after all.