A recent report on Mashable looks into the world of black market social media verification.
Kerry Flynn’s article covers the black market for Instagram verification, where the fee can be anything from “a bottle of wine to $15,000”.
What makes Instagram’s verification system different from Facebook or Twitter’s is that there is no application process, instead the tech company simply dishes out blue ticks on a case-by-case basis.
The main source for the article says they have heard of several Instagram employees getting fired for selling verification or accounts.
Other non-Instagram employees have contacts at the firm, and run services charging $5-$8k for a blue tick “depending on how easy it is to verify”, of which the Instagram employee takes 60-80%.
Read the story here.