How our link check works and why we do it

Why check a link before taking payment?

Most failed orders in this market start with a small input mistake, not a delivery problem. A handle typed with one letter off. A profile that was switched to private last week. A profile link pasted where a single post was needed. If a seller takes payment first, every one of those becomes a refund request, a support thread or a lost order.

So we check first. It is the step in how ordering works that we are most stubborn about, and the reason an item cannot go to checkout until the lookup has found a target, or, when the lookup is down, until you have ticked that the spelling is right.

What happens when you type a username or paste a link?

1. We clean the input. An @handle, a plain name, a full profile link, a post or Reel link, a short link from the share menu: all are turned into the same standard form. Tracking tails such as share codes are stripped. The same rule runs in your browser and on our server, so what you see is what we store.
2. We look it up. We ask a third-party data provider for the public details of that account or post. Platforms do not offer stores like ours an official lookup for this, so we use a paid provider that reads public pages.
3. We show it back. For a profile, you see the display name, picture and current follower count. For a post or video, the thumbnail, its owner and its current counts.
4. You check the card. The target you see is where the order goes. If it is the wrong one, change the input before paying; a near-identical handle with an extra letter or underscore is the classic mistake.

What can the check tell you?

The private case is the most common, and it usually has a simple cause. Instagram, for example, lets personal accounts go private, while business profiles cannot be set to private at all. On YouTube, a video set to unlisted or private does not appear on your channel or in search, and delivery to it will not work the way you expect. You can switch back to private after delivery ends, although on follower orders with a refill window, the target must be public for a refill to be checked.

What does the check accept on each platform?

Each platform shares links differently, so the cleaning step knows a few habits per app.

Instagram. Profile links, @handles, and post or Reel links copied from the share menu, which often carry a tracking tail that we remove. A Reel and a photo post are both “a post” to the check; the service decides which one fits.

TikTok. Profile links and @handles for follower orders, video links for likes, views, shares and saves. The app’s short share links, the ones on vm.tiktok.com or vt.tiktok.com, are followed to the full video address first. For live viewers and live likes you enter the username, and the check looks for a running stream on that account.

YouTube. Channel links in their different forms, including @handles, for subscriber orders, and links to single videos or Shorts for views, likes and comments.

X. Profile links and @handles for followers, post links for likes, reposts, views and replies. Trend campaigns are the exception: you enter a hashtag and choose a country, and a person reviews it before the campaign starts.

If a link points at the wrong kind of thing, or at a different platform from the service you picked, the check says so before anything is added to your cart. For single-post services it can also offer the recent posts of the account you entered, so you can pick one.

Is there a second check after you pay?

Yes, two in fact.

When the order is created, our server repeats the lookup rather than trusting what your browser sent. It records the account’s identity on the platform, which stays the same even if the handle changes, and the starting count.

Right before delivery starts, we look once more. Payments can take a while to confirm, especially crypto payments waiting on the network, and accounts change in the meantime. If the target has gone private, disappeared, or now belongs to a different account than the one you saw at checkout, the order is paused and nothing is sent. We email you with what changed and how to fix it. Our refund policy covers what happens if it cannot be fixed.

This second look matters more than it sounds. A handle you entered on Monday can be released and claimed by someone else by Thursday. Sending your order there would be a loss for you and a gift for a stranger.

What else does the check catch?

• A record for refills. The counts the lookup returns are stored with the order. Refills compare today’s public count with the count when your order completed, as our refill explainer describes.
• Targets we do not deliver to. Orders for targets that break our acceptable use policy can be refused or canceled. Trend campaigns take a hashtag rather than a link, so each one is reviewed by a person before it starts.
• Orders from other sellers on the same target. The check cannot see them, but you should avoid overlapping orders: they make delivery harder to follow and refills harder to match.

What can the check not see?

Being clear about limits is part of the job.

• Who runs the account. The lookup can show an account exists and is public. It cannot prove you own it, which is why our terms limit orders to accounts you own or manage.
• Settings inside the account. A post can be public with comments turned off. On YouTube, videos marked made for kids have comments switched off entirely. Check those settings before ordering comments.
• What the platform will do later. The check confirms a target. It does not predict how Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or X will treat engagement after delivery. Our Quality vs Premium guide explains how refill windows deal with drops.
• Anything private. We see what any logged-out visitor could see, through the data provider. Nothing more.

Why don’t we just ask you to log in instead?

Because nothing about delivery needs it, and handing over access is the biggest risk in buying growth services. Instagram’s own Terms of Use forbid soliciting or collecting other users’ login credentials. A public lookup gives us everything an order requires and leaves your account entirely in your hands.

If a site you are considering asks for more than a public username or link, read our list of provider red flags before you go further. The rest of our buying guides cover refills, tiers and what each platform’s rules say.