[bobthechef]

No.

From MW:

* intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right

* an act of deceiving or misrepresenting

In other words, yes, fraud, your ticket to the 8th Circle of hell.

[mykoleary]

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...

[DannyBee]

"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.

[AnimalMuppet]

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure I can make fake followers continue to be active, unless "active" is defined very carefully...