They weren’t just trying to give each other an ego boost: There was money on the line. 

In recent years, Meta has started paying creators for engagement on Facebook. That’s prompted a flood of spam and illicit account trading as users attempt to inflate their engagement numbers by any means necessary.

The Baltimore creator’s group,  “META MONEY MAKERS Official,” is just one of dozens of Facebook Groups that Business Insider identified, many with tens of thousands of members, dedicated to artificially inflating creators’ reach. 

Other large groups focus on openly buying and selling accounts eligible for Facebook’s monetization programs, despite a purported ban by the company on trading accounts.

The problem with all this is that it’s fake. Facebook originally thrived by being a place where humans got online to connect with other real people. And Wall Street rewarded the company for that engagement because advertisers would pay to reach this authentic audience.

Now, there’s a big question mark over activity on the world’s biggest social network. Some creators’ Facebook pages look vibrant, with thousands of followers and every photo and post they share accruing numerous comments, affirmations, and reactions. But the engagement is mostly coming from other creators seeking reciprocity, rather than actual users legitimately engaged by the content.

As Baltimore influencer recently quipped: “Let’s get those numbers up and make some META money 🤪💵🤑”

A Meta spokesperson said the company prohibits “inauthentic engagement” and it is reviewing the Groups identified by BI.

Paying creators to stay competitive

In March 2023, when Facebook hit two billion daily active users, executive Tom Alison emphasized the importance of content creators to the app.

In practice, that meant paying them.

Funding creators is now par for the course for any social media company. YouTube has long offered ad revenue splits. TikTok’s payment programs for creators helped power the short-form video app’s meteoric rise.

Facebook has tried several of these programs in recent years. The Performance Bonus offering, first launched as a test in 2021, has stuck around. It rewards creators whose posts are widely seen or engaged with, up to a predetermined cap. This was initially capped at $30,000 a month, then later rose to $55,000. In February, Meta removed the cap entirely.

While creators must be invited by Meta to join this program, it has steadily expanded and has become a prime target for manipulation. Users in their tens of thousands are searching for ways to drive up engagement artificially — and they’re turning to another Facebook product, Groups, to achieve it.

Horse-trading lingo on Facebook Groups

There are dozens of groups on Facebook dedicated to inflating creator audiences. 

“Facebook 30K Performance Bonus Tips & Engagement” has 59,000 members. “$30k Performance Bonus” has almost 23,0000. Creators use these Groups to ask people to mutually engage with their content on Facebook: Visit my page, like and comment on five of my posts, then I’ll do the same for you. 

There’s an entire lingo to support this horse-trading: 

• “F4F” stands for follow-for-follow: Follow me and I’ll follow back. 

• R4R is reel-for-reel: Watch and engage with my reels, and I’ll do likewise.

• “10/10” is a request for someone to engage with ten of your posts in return for the same. 

As one one creator from Georgia put it in January: “Lets engage !! I want the free bag from Meta 20/20”

Some Performance Bonus-chasers offer advice to others. “If youre not in 10 new groups a day minimum you may want to reevaluate your financial goals to a more realistic number,” wrote one user in September 2023, urging people to post relentlessly on Facebook. 

Another recommended using AI to create pictures, like the wave of AI-generated spam that has gone viral on Facebook: “USE THAT CONTENT WHICH PEOPLE LIKE THE MOSTS . FOR EXAMPLE , ANIMALS , EMOTIONAL PICS , PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES, AI GENERATED IMAGES.”

Avoiding Facebook bans

Facebook officially bans this kind of inauthentic behavior, and users take rudimentary steps to try to avoid detection. 

“When you make post for engagement. PLEASE refrain from using the normal words,” wrote an administrator for “Maniifesting 55k (META}🤑”, a Facebook Group with 6,500 members. “PLEASE use let’s work- let’s run – get me and I’ll get you back – let’s clock in – let’s show love to each other things of that Nature so it doesn’t hurt the group you or anyone else.”

Meta has grappled with varying flavors of engagement manipulation for years. People buying bot followers on Instagram was a perennial problem, and in 2018 it cracked down on a wave of Instagram-focused “engagement pod” groups on Facebook after a BuzzFeed News report on the practice.

But the scale and enduring popularity of the Groups in 2024 indicates that Facebook’s efforts to moderate them on an ongoing basis are falling short — especially now there’s a direct financial incentive to misbehave. 

Trading Facebook accounts

For the most enterprising and time-pressed users looking to make a quick buck off Facebook, there’s another option: Just buy a Performance Bonus-eligible account outright. 

Buying and selling Facebook accounts is prohibited, but a bustling trade in Performance Bonus accounts is thriving in some of the Groups. 

The 22,000-member “$30k Performance Bonus” Group hosts a mix of posts begging for engagement and people openly selling Facebook accounts.

“Performance Bonus Tricks and Filling,” with 17,000 members, has little else but people asking to buy or sell accounts. And there are region-specific Groups, such as “Học Viện Facebook Adbreak – Reels & Performance Bonus” and its 10,000 members. 

Performance Bonus eligibility isn’t the only trait that makes an account attractive. Ones that have qualified for ads on Reels, Meta’s short-form video platform, or that can receive Stars (digital tokens) are also valuable. Accounts are sometimes advertised as “all green” — a reference to a Facebook user dashboard that shows criteria for monetization that the user qualifies for in green. 

Other apps

Facebook scammers aren’t only interested in Facebook, though. The social network is home to a wide variety of engagement-gaming groups focused on other apps, too. 

“Youtube sub4sub” and its 156,000 members is just one of numerous Facebook Groups for YouTube creators trying to grow their subscriber count. The 154,000-member “Youtube watch time group” helps users drive up total watch-time counts on their accounts.

TikTok also attracts attention, with the 164,000-member Group “tiktok followers” frequently used for buying and selling TikTok accounts. The 29,000-member “TikTok Monitization Free Tips&Tricks + (Buying & Selling)” Group is explicitly focused on the sale of accounts eligible for monetization.

Facebook bans “inauthentic” behavior

Facebook’s policies around monetization stipulate that creators can’t engage in any behavior to artificially grow or amplify their audience, a spokesperson told BI.

“Inauthentic engagement is a violation of our Partner Monetization Policies, and when we find anyone actually violating these policies, we take action,” they said in a statement.

The company is currently reviewing the dozens of groups identified, the spokesperson added.

As of press time, the “META MONEY MAKERS Official 💰💙💰” group was still active.