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#BBCtrending: Meet the man who sells fake Twitter followers

1 January 2014 Last updated at 11:50 GMT

These days many people measure their prestige and social standing not just by their real-world influence, but their online one too.

Journalists, politicians and celebrities in particular are known to be competitive about who has the most followers and friends on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. And those with a lot of influence, can even leverage this with advertisers to make money.

But what if you could simply buy your friends and followers online?

Mukul Devichand of #BBCTrending tracked down a man who has made this his line of business. Although not a criminal offence, using and selling fake followers is a violation of most social network's terms of service.

Produced by Dougal Shaw

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