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A local influencer has responded to allegations by a business owner of procuring "fake" followers and likes to "request for free food in the name of Covid-19".

Venie Lin, the co-founder of fresh and frozen food supplier "Frozendozen", took to Facebook to share her experience with a "dubious influencer".

Lin claims that the influencer been approaching local small businesses to "reap freebies" with "fake" likes and followers.

Influencer approached business owner for three-month sponsorship

According to Lin, Instagram influencer Xue Wei of @anaffairwithfood (AAWF) had first sought a collaboration with her as she had claimed to want to "support local businesses" during the Covid-19 pandemic:

After discussions between the two parties, exchange terms for a collaboration were agreed upon.

Xue Wei had allegedly asked for S$300 worth of sponsored food items over three months, but refused to sign an exclusive contract with Lin's company.

This was apparently because there was no payout from Lin's company.

Lin told Mothership that she empathised with Xue Wei's plight, but had to reduce the three month sponsorship to one month because her company could not approve the three-month collaboration without a signed contract.

Business owner noticed discrepancies in influencer's Instagram posts, hired third party to do background check

After proceeding with the collaboration, Lin claimed to have noticed some discrepancies in AAWF's Instagram posts.

According to Lin, AAWF's 'like' count had dropped drastically from around 300+ to below 100 in the same week, hovering at around 50 to 90 likes based on her recent uploads.

She had found this strange as AAWF had a follower count of more than 22,000.

After looking at these "alarming figures", Lin grew concerned about AAWF's engagement rate on the platform and got her management to engage a third party agent to do a background check on AAWF's profile.

According to Lin, AAWF had an engagement rate of 0.95 per cent on her Instagram posts, and witnessed a spike in follower count between January 20 to March 20, 2020:

After doing a manual check on AAWF's account, Lin claimed that all her "advertising" posts had zero comments, save for one or two comments from bots.

Lin also claimed that many of AAWF's followers were bots.

Lin then approached Xue Wei with her findings, and requested a refund on the products that were sent to her.

According to Lin, this was because AAWF's followers and likes were "evidently fake":

However, Lin claimed that Xue Wei replied by insisting that "she is not fake", refused to refund her, and even threatened to take legal action against her:

She apparently even accused Lin of "coercion and intimidation":

Eventually, Lin gave up on the S$93 refund.

Other business owners come forward with their own stories

Following this, Lin shared Instagram screenshots of messages she had received from other business owners who had negative experiences with Xue Wei:

An Affair with Food responds to allegations

In response to these allegations, Xue Wei put up a series of Instagram stories on AAWF, explaining her side of the story.

Xue Wei said that she did not sign the three month contract with Frozendozen because she only signs off on paid engagements.

According to Xue Wei, Lin was agreeable to this and proceeded with their collaboration:

According to Xue Wei, Lin should have advised her management against the collaboration if she was concerned about AAWF's engagement rate.

She added that AAWF's statistics have always been available on SocialBlade for public viewing, and that she is keen to share their statistics with anyone who wants to view it.

Xue Wei also attributed any increase in AAWF's growth and engagement to various sources such as articles on their website to the hosting of giveaways:

And said that she had considered legal consult as Lin's statement in her email "had come with a threatening intent":

Xue Wei then stated that AAWF had never presented false or misleading statistics and information to businesses, and defended herself against accusations that she had been "demanding" in collaborations:

Finally, Xue Wei clarified that AAWF's Instagram posts "do not immediately draw a large traction since (they) have a small following" and that their post engagement will "take time" to reach their audience:

She went on to end her series of explanations by saying that businesses have the right to decline working with influencers if they do not think that they will be able to achieve their "expected reach or performance":

Welp.

Top image via Venie Lin on Facebook and anaffairwithfood on Instagram