The 'Fake Wealth' Industry Helping Social Media Influencers Get Ahead

 'Fake it til you make it' is an adage that a certain type of social media influencer adores. It's everywhere in influencer culture. Once upon a time it was an innocent saying - more of a suggestion of 'work hard and all your dreams will come true', rather than a literal suggestion to be dishonest in your pursuits. Today, it seems to have taken a more sinister tune - 'lie, cheat, fool those around you until you get what you want - or it would seem, until you are exposed'.

Anna Sorokin in court 2017

At the extreme end you have millennials like Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey, the Russian-born German fraudster who pretended to be a wealthy German heiress and socialite ended up scamming banks, hotels and wealthy friends out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to live out her fantasy lifestyle. 

Billy McFarland is another - the fantasist/con-artist promoter of Fyre Festival, who was so convincing in setting up his VIP festival he got Ja Rule in on the act as well as a gaggle of celebrity friends to promote his disastrous brainchild.

in April 2017, roughly 5,000 people spent hundreds to thousands of dollars for tickets to what they thought would be the experience of a lifetime: a luxury music festival in an idyllic tropical setting on a private island in the Bahamas. In fact, the Fyre Festival went down in a flames - mass disorganisation and McFarland's barrage of lies to investors saw him jailed for 6 years owing $26 million. Ironically, those who bought tickets to the festival, were themselves portrayed by the media and mocked on social media for wanting to be a part of the celebrity aspirational culture that McFarland was selling the Fyre island experience as. As if they somehow deserved to be conned for being 'wannabe celebrities'.

JaRule and Billy McFarland 

On a lesser scale, but no less delusional, teenage Gen Z 'influencer' Lillee Jean Truman, who presented herself as a model, entrepreneur, make-up artist and lifestyle guru from New York, but in reality faked most of her followers and exploits - in fact it would seem she faked her entire life online and was outed as an imposter, much to her embarrassment.  

In truth, there's a whole host of young people who are so desperate to live out the lifestyle they wish they had, that 'faking it' has become a cultural phenomenon.

While Anna Sorokin and Billy McFarland focused their scamming out in the real world, others choose to carry out their fraudulent activities online - more specifically, in the world of 'social media influencer' culture. 

Over the last decade, we have seen social media grow rapidly in importance. More than 3.4 billion people actively use social media - that's 45% of the world’s population.

Inevitably these people look up to influencers in social media to guide them with their decision making.

Influencers in social media are people who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic. They make regular posts about that topic on their preferred social media channels and generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views. Brands love social media influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote.

While celebrities such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grand reign supreme on social media, other personalities such as Tiktoker Charli D'Ameio and Youtubers 'PewDiePie' and Whinderson Nunes Batista also have huge followings.

Charli D'Amelio is Tiktok's most successful star

Becoming a successful influencer can amass ridiculous wealth for what seems like not very much work, so it's no surprise that people will do anything to jump on the bandwagon. A report earlier this year found that simply having 42,575 followers is enough to earn the average UK salary in #sponcon deals and ad revenue. They influencer industry as a whole is projected to be worth over £11 billion by 2022.

The problem is, not everyone has the charisma, good looks or discernible talent it takes to become a successful influencer. Not everyone is lucky enough to get that massive stroke of luck or reality tv gig to give you that shove up the ladder. As a result, some have turned to the 'fake wealth' industry.

I've discussed previously the trend of vloggers editing themselves onto sandy beaches, photographing themselves next to, or in private jets or supercars they've rented, whilst wearing fake or borrowed Rolexes, in order to dupe viewers into thinking they're super-wealthy and therefore worth following. Instagram has similar content creators who people follow for what they see as their aspirational content. Some content creators have figured out that you don't actually have to be wealthy, but as long as you project wealth, the followers will follow and ultimately the fake wealth will become a reality. 

In the UK, the latest 'false wealth' trend involves empty designer boxes or shopping bags. Buying a Gucci carrier bag on eBay to cart your gym kit around is nothing new, but these days they are specifically being used by wannabe Molly Maes for aspirational Instagram photo shoots. 

An anonymous designer reseller with a mostly influencer clientele disclosed a recent spike in demand for empty boxes from designer labels – especially Hermes, Pandora, and Tiffany – in an interview with Input Mag. “At first, I thought it was maybe to store some stuff at home, or to recycle it as a gift box for someone,” she told Input. “I didn’t know they used it for Instagram shoots.”

Empty designer box selling has become a lucrative business

A quick search on Depop and you'll find Dior shoe boxes going for £30 and Gucci hat boxes for £35. And apparently fake wealth flexing does work - the reseller from the Input Mag interview claims one of the influencers who bought Pandora boxes from her now has genuine sponsorship deals with luxury brands. 

However, the flaunting of fake wealth can come at a cost - a very embarrassing one at that. Get caught out and your whole image is kaput. 

Popular influencer Kayla Massa went one step further. Massa, who goes by the online handle @Kayg0ldi, has been charged with fraud after allegedly defrauding her Instagram followers of over $1 million (£766,505). Massa, who hails from New Jersey and has over 330,000 followers, is accused of duping over 45 individuals into revealing their bank account information with her.  

As exposed in n in-depth Quartz report, Massa is accused of luring individuals into her fraudulent plan using Instagram Stories, where she'd post aspirational photos of money with statements like, "If you got a bank account and are interested in making legal money, (hit me up) ASAP," . Many of the respondents were under the age of eighteen.

Kayla Massa scammed her teenage followers out of over $1million

Flaunting fake wealth is embarrassing for the individual involved, and in extreme cases can lead to jail time if you break the law. Creators posing as brand advocates can also taint rather than enhance that specific brand, destroying any chances of working with them in the future.

Unless you're Anna Sorokin of course, who despite her 4 year jail sentence seems to have come out on top - now that she is free she has a writing career and a Netflix series to boot. Her lawyer even managed to put a positive spin on her con-artistry. 

During his opening statement, Sorokin’s lawyer Todd Spodek said there’s a bit of Anna in everyone. “Through her sheer ingenuity, she created the life that she wanted for herself,” he said. “Anna was not content with being a spectator, but wanted to be a participant. Anna didn’t wait for opportunities, Anna created opportunities. Now we can all relate to that.”

Not that I am in any way promoting criminality. Pretending to be rich is obviously much cheaper than chartering a private jet or going on a Gucci shopping spree, but that doesn't mean you should do it. And the chances of ending up like Kayla Massa or Billy McFarland rather than Anna Sorokin - that is, career tatters/in jail and without a Netflix deal, is much more likely.

Indeed, Scott Guthrie who works as an independent influencer marketing consultant, recently told Vice magazine, that if it's luxury brand deals you're after. “A better way to catapult yourself into becoming an influencer who works with a luxury brand is to tap into the values supporting that brand’s positioning,” he says. “So it’s more important to be creative and innovative with your content.”