2025-10-24 –, Europe
Fake Likes, Real Risks: Mapping Fake Social Activity Shops in Europe
We looked into the world of fake social activity shops - those websites selling likes, followers, and other engagement metrics - specifically targeting the EU market. By analyzing 881 webshops and speaking with social media experts, we uncovered how these services operate, the gaps between what they promise and deliver, and the risks they pose for disinformation, fraud, and financial crime.
We explore the hidden world of fake social activity shops - the websites that sell likes, followers, and other engagement metrics. These services are widely available online and often operate in legal grey zones, despite efforts by social media platforms to curb inauthentic engagement. We analyzed 881 such webshops targeting the EU market and conducted interviews with 15 social media marketing experts. Our findings reveal major gaps between what these shops promise and what they deliver, along with recurring business patterns. We also highlight how these services can be exploited for disinformation, cyberfraud, and financial crime.
I earned my PhD in Computer Science from the University of Luxembourg in 2016, specializing in chatbots. Currently, I’m a postdoctoral researcher at SnT, where I develop conversational AI solutions to strengthen security on social networks and messaging platforms. My work spans international and national projects analyzing the fake social activity market and designing AI-powered cybersecurity trainings. Previously, I collaborated with a social robotics company to create ethical AI applications for social robots supporting autistic children. Beyond that, I’ve led projects on explainable AI, digital health, and disinformation detection, and co-supervised research on neural networks for sentiment analysis.
Anastasia “Asya” Sergeeva is a postdoctoral researcher in the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Socio-technical Cybersecurity at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg. With a background in human factors, Asya’s research sits at the intersection of psychology, usable security, and adversarial threat analysis. Her work investigates how cognitive biases, mental models, and social dynamics shape users’ susceptibility to social-engineering and AI-mediated attacks.