Steps for Identifying a Scamming Bot Account on TikTok

TikTok is one of the most popular social media sites, and that, unfortunately, makes it a prime place for scammers to operate. Various TikTok scams proliferate across the platform, and many of them involve the use of bot accounts.

This guide explores how to spot TikTok bot accounts, step-by-step.

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How Do TikTok Bot Scams Work?

Before we get to how to identify TikTok bot accounts, let’s first look at how they are used maliciously to trick real users, beginning with a quick definition: a bot account is, in simple terms, a fake account. There isn’t a real person behind it. Instead, the account is programmed to carry out certain tasks or respond in certain ways, usually with some end goal in mind.

TikTok bot scams generally focus on using bots to trick users into doing something, like giving up their info, clicking a link or visiting a website, buying or investing in something, or even inciting them to share personal photos or videos that could then be used to blackmail them. Some of these bots are highly advanced, making them very tricky to catch or tell apart from a real person.

Steps to Spot Scamming TikTok Bot Accounts

Step 1. Check the Username and Bio

The first thing to do with suspected bot accounts is to look at their username and profile or bio. Since scammers make a large number of bot accounts, they don’t usually bother to give each one a unique, realistic name. Many bots therefore have vague, meaningless, and generic names with numbers at the end. They also usually have incomplete or empty bios.

Step 2. Look at the Activity

Bot accounts aren’t like real people with varied interests and activities. They’re programmed with a set purpose and only exist to fulfill that. So, their activity will almost if not entirely be centered around whatever they were programmed for. They might have many likes and shares of particular videos, and very little (or zero) original content of their own, for example.

Bot accounts also tend to have activity spikes – they’ll be really active at certain periods and then seem to go dormant for days or weeks at a time.

Step 3. Read Comments Posted by the Account

Scammers sometimes program bots to leave comments on videos, to make them appear more real or to help promote content they want to draw attention to. But the comments are often generic phrases or just random emojis and don’t have much or anything specific to do with the video in question, like “Incredible video” or “I could watch this all day.”

Step 4. Check the Follower/Following Ratio

Since they don’t usually post much or any content of their own, bot accounts don’t tend to have many followers, but will usually follow many other accounts. Check how many followers they have compared to how many accounts they follow. If they’re following many users but have almost no audience of their own, they may be a bot.

Step 5. Watch for Weird Conversation Habits

If you ever end up in direct message (DM) discussions with another user you suspect to be a bot, look at the language they use and see how the conversation flows. Often, even with advanced bots, you can tell when they’re not responding the way a real person would or just keep turning the conversation back to one subject or in one particular direction to suit their objective.

How to Protect Yourself From TikTok Bot Scams

Be cautious about who you choose to engage with on TikTok.
Check the accounts and activity of any users who message you.
Don’t click any random links that other users send you.
Avoid giving up personal information to other TikTok users you don’t know in person.

Report the Scam

You can report suspected bot accounts directly on the TikTok app, though this may not always lead to any action being taken. If you were a victim of a TikTok scam that involved someone taking money or personal data, you can also: