TikTok’s terms of service forbid buying and selling accounts. But that hasn’t stopped online hustlers from creating a bustling marketplace for second-hand handles.
More than 2,000 accounts were offered for sale in a single WhatsApp group in the five months to January 27, according to a new analysis by Indicator.
The accounts being sold were primarily located in Brazil and the United States. But there were also others in Egypt, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Some of these profiles built their followings by posting about sensitive topics like health, news, politics, and religion.
Most sellers promise that their accounts are ready to monetize, which is their main attraction. People purchase these “pre-heated” handles in the hope that they can quickly earn money through the TikTok Shop or its Creator Rewards Program. But the same accounts could be bought and used for influence operations, scams, or other purposes.
This analysis builds on Indicator and Lupa’s previous reporting on the market for American TikTok accounts. It is also inspired by the Cambridge Online Trust and Safety Index that tracks the cost of on-demand SMS verification services around the world. As the authors of that index wrote in December, “substantial progress can be made in our understanding of online influence operations and financial crime by investigating the thriving market that buttresses online manipulation.”
The exact number of individual accounts that were actually sold in this one WhatsApp group is impossible to verify – this is a marketplace for scammers, after all – but the data provides valuable insight into the value of a TikTok account and the market for social media manipulation products and services.
(All the data, the code I used to analyze it, and other reporting notes are available in the Info Box at the end of the article.)
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