Here's the basic black's law dictionary definition:
An intentional misrepresentation of material existing fact made by one person to another with knowledge of its falsity and for the purpose of inducing the other person to act, and upon which the other person relies with resulting injury or damage.
> Why would someone's number of followers be a "material fact"?
People buying followers are often competing for commercial opportunities for which social media influence is a key factor in what they are selling to the prospective buyer.
It could be considered criminal if you were stating your following or reach was immense, such as in the tens-of-thousands when really it was merely in the dozens, so as to arrange inflated endorsement dollars.
If it results in a competing startup's product losing funding, and the fraudulent startup's product gaining funding based on fake followers, I could see the term "fraud" applying.
Saying I have 10K followers is not a lie or misrepresentation of any facts, even if you bought half of them. Saying you have 10K ACTIVE followers when you bought half of them IS.
Companies need to do their research and ask the right questions before they part with their money...
"Saying I have 10K followers is not a lie or misrepresentation of any facts, even if you bought half of them. "
Sure it is, it's omission of a material fact. You know the person is trying to get through to real people. You know the number of actual people who are followers is smaller than the real number (through your intentional act of buying them), and you know this is material to the person you are talking to. If they suffer legal injury, congrats, you committed fraud.
This is pretty basic stuff. The kind of logic parsing you are attempting is not how the law works.
"Companies need to do their research and ask the right
questions before they part with their money..."
While generally true, it's irrelevant here. This is a thing you would definitely have a duty to disclose (for a ton of reasons). This would make it ripe for a misrepresentation-type fraud claim.
Here's the basic black's law dictionary definition:
An intentional misrepresentation of material existing fact made by one person to another with knowledge of its falsity and for the purpose of inducing the other person to act, and upon which the other person relies with resulting injury or damage.