EXCLUSIVE: Love Triangle star accused of buying 130,000 Instagram followers to boost his profile – as his social media numbers skyrocket after show wraps with no explanation
A participant on Stan dating series Love Triangle has been accused of buying over 130,000 Instagram followers in an attempt to boost their online profile.
Fitness instructor Patrick Hong has raised eyebrows after his followers mysteriously skyrocketed without explanation.
Hong’s follower count has grown by 131,500 in the past 30 days, which is unusual growth compared to his co-stars, who only had several hundred people follow them.
Love Triangle star Patrick Hong (pictured) has been accused of buying over 130,000 Instagram followers following his stint on the Stan original dating series
Social Blade stats show his followers have jumped by several thousand at once without explanation, which often indicates bot activity.
False profiles often have usernames with strange combinations of numbers and letters. Many of Liam’s followers have usernames of this kind.
‘Two days before the last episode he had only 4,000Â followers… two days later his account starts climbing by 10,000 and 20,000 yet nobody was commenting or liking his videos,’ a co-star, who wished to remain anonymous told Daily Mail Australia.
Social Blade data shows that Hong’s follower count has grown by 131,500 in the past 30 days, which is unusual growth compared to his co-stars, who had several thousand people follow them
‘If they were real followers his new girlfriend would have also gained followers, yet she’s still only around 1500.’
‘The sad reason why Patrick’s buying follower is because he needs constant validation from people because he was really insecure about himself,’ they added.
According to one of Hong’s co-stars the wannabe fitness influencer filmed himself buying the followers and then bragged about having the largest following from the show.
‘Two days before the last episode he had only 4,000 followers… two days later his account starts climbing by 10,000 and 20,000 yet nobody was commenting or liking his videos,’ a co-star, who wished to remain anonymous told Daily Mail Australia
‘He was quick to boost about having a blue tick. He was desperate to make it as an influencer after seeing how quick people on other shows like MAFS were able to make a living after going on a show and it just didn’t happen.’
‘He only wants to pretend and prove that he’s some hot shot online coach because he’s got a blue tick now. He had a personal Instagram account that he was going to use for the show but then ”deleted” it and used the only one he had which was his business account…How convenient.’
Being verified on Instagram comes with a host of algorithmic benefits, as also makes an account more attractive to potential advertisers.
When approached for comment, Patrick laughed off the claims and said: ‘Thank you for the green updates. Tell them it’s about $100 a follower if anyone is interested’.
100,000 instant Instagram followers can usually be purchased for about $742 AUD.
‘He only wants to pretend and prove that he’s some hot shot online coach because he’s got a blue tick now. He had a personal Instagram account that he was going to use for the show but then ”deleted” it and used the only one he had which was his business account,’ they added
