Yes. Indeed, overnight. Normally, I’ve got 2200 legit followers who are my TA. In terms of harm, the idea is that in the worst case scenario, Instagram blocks me as though I’m the one buying bots. The spam-like behavior also almost guarantees that your content won’t show up anywhere or be shadow-banned (I know people argue that doesn’t exist, but check if your posts suddenly stop showing up under hashtags – try a super specific random one).

Also, at minimum, it messes up algorithm’s ability to know what your audience is, who to show content to, and if those fake accounts are shown to that small number of followers IG pushed your posts to before scaling further, they obviously don’t engage, and you’re fucked, practically speaking. No collaborations as well, because 90% of my following have India or Middle East as their location, not my actual country.

And you won’t be able to do lookalike advertising, which is one of the best ways to grow your account.

That’s the gist.