Did Alexis Bellino buy Twitter followers?
Alexis Bellino has been accused of buying Twitter followers after Rumorfix noticed that she had gained over 30,000 followers in just two days. The jump seemed to point to that one thing, however, she now has a new explanation and even insinuates that one of her Real Housewives of Orange County co-stars could be behind the scandal.
Alexis tells Fox News, “I have waited to respond regarding the recent ‘bought Twitter fans’ accusations because like many of you, I thought it was odd that my twitter account jumped 30,000 in a day.” Ironically, she had already responded several days ago claiming, “I wouldn’t know the 1st thing about this & would never want fake fans following me.”
What did she do about it? “I immediately hired a team of specialists to help determine what was happening. I did not understand the meaning of buying fans, so it has taken me a few days to grasp exactly what occurred.”
Many people, including Slade Smiley, had though that Alexis’s PR team may have purchased fans for her as a marketing strategy for business reasons. For example, an extra 30,000 followers may help Alexis land a job more quickly than she would have otherwise because her popularity would appear to be greater, but according to Alexis, that’s not the case. “Let me be very clear on this issue, neither myself nor members of my team have ever purchased a Twitter fan,” she says.
Alexis adds, “What I have learned is that someone else can do this to my account, and it’s very interesting how this chain of events has unfolded, and how certain people seem so knowledgeable and opinionated about what is happening to my account.” Could Alexis have been referring to Tamra Barney and Gretchen Rossi who have both been open in discussing the accusations that Alexis’ followers have been bought, even re-tweeting links to articles about the whole ordeal?
Is Alexis suggesting that Tamra or Gretchen could have hired someone to hack into her account and add followers? It seems like quite a stretch. How would they have even known that something like that was possible? Even she claims she had to hire someone to find out what was going on.
“It appears that she may have been targeted by ‘bots,’ i.e. fake accounts for spamming purposes,” explained expert Michael Gregg, COO of Superior Solutions. “This could be done to try to discredit Alexis or have her account blocked by Twitter.”
Alexis Bellino isn’t the only housewife that’s been accused of buying followers. Joanna Krupa, Adrienne Maloof, and Taylor Armstrong have all shown irregular activity in their Twitter stats. With this new development, we may never know for sure if their followers have appeared because of a purchase or a bot.