Hello and welcome, dear reader, to a very special Covid-19 edition of Instagram Drama with yo Mama.
In today’s episode, an influencer is accused of buying fake likes for her Instagram account by a small business owner.
The melodrama begins with a Facebook post by co-founder of Frozendozen Venie Lim.
In her post, Venie says she was approached by Instagram influencer An Affair With Food (AAWF) for a collaboration.
AAWF, who describes her account as an “online publication that brings food & travel content” to their readers, seemed legitimate because she had over 22k followers.
But after a quick scroll through her posts, Venie noticed something odd.
Despite having so many followers, AAWF only garnered 50 to 60 likes on her latest posts.
But Venie ended up going through with the collaboration because AAWF’s older posts had 200 to 300 likes.
AAWF asked for $300 worth of deliverables for 3 months. Venie agreed and asked AAWF to sign a contract, but AAWF declined, so Venie only sent over $100 worth of products for 1 month.
Used Bots To Get Followers?
Still, Venie was a little suspicious and felt like something was off, so she checked AAWF’s account on the social media statistics and analytics site Social Blade.
There, Venie discovered that despite having over 22k followers, AAWF only had an engagement rate of 0.95%.
The Frozendozen co-founder also suspected AAWF of using bots to get her followers, because of a huge spike within a short span of time.
Venie then asked AAWF if she would be interested in hosting a giveaway, and AAWF said yes, but had to charge $300 because she had a “high reach”.
Venie declined, saying that she had hosted three giveaways with other collaborators without paying them, including a woman with 10k followers.
So, AAWF changed her mind, saying she would do the giveaway free of charge.
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Asked For a Refund, Received a Legal Threat Instead
After deciding not to work with AAWF anymore, the Frozendozen co-founder asked AAWF for a refund in an email.
In it, Venie says her management decided not to go through with the collaboration because AAWF refused to sign an agreement with them. They also believed that AAWF’s likes and followers were “dubious”.
She asked AAWF for a refund of $93.05 and said she had no intention of “blowing up” the matter further because AAWF had collaborations with many other companies.
However, AAWF refused to give Venie a refund and threatened her with legal action instead.
That’s When Things Got Interesting
Venie observed that the AAWF had “pumped up” her likes after she asked AAWF for a refund and made her accusations against the influencer.
And then several other business owners got in touch with Venie and complained that they too had unpleasant experiences with the influencer.
In her post, Venie slammed AAWF for “misleading” her and other merchants.
“This is a difficult time for everyone and all local businesses are working hard, especially the essential services company fighting on the front line to provide for the community.”
“We do not appreciate a profile that uses the name of COVID-19 to mislead merchants for massive freebies.”
Influencer’s Response
It’s not a proper drama without a response post, right?
In a series of Instagram posts, AAWF explained that she chose not to sign the 3-month contract because they only sign off on paid engagements, according to Stomp.
AAWF added that if Venie was concerned about her number of likes and followers, she should have brought it up with her management at the start before going through with the collaboration.
In regard to the accusation that she “bought” her followers, AAWF said that they have slowly built their following over 6 years, after putting in “a lot of time and effort”.
As for the spike in followers, she says that they also have a website where they post articles, which has helped to “grow” their following.
She also addressed allegations from other business owners who complained about working with her.
“We would like to make it a point that in all our collaborations, we have asked if they have any budget constraints — if they do, we are happy to do it FOC or even throw [in] more posts for the good of it all.”
As for Venie’s email, AAWF believes that it had “threatening intent” and shows “coercion” and “intimidation” when she asked AAWF for a refund.
So, who do we believe here? There’s no way to know for sure without more concrete evidence.
One thing’s for sure though; this episode will have a part two.
Would you be jailed for being half-naked in public? Well, the answer will shock you. Seriously. Watch this to the end and you'll understand:
