>>>To be fair, I've seen plenty of spammer accounts that have thousands of followers.
Lots of accounts are set up just to Follow back anyone who Follows them. I've understood for a long time that Follower counts on Twitter are meaningless.
Not entirely meaningless - I think the important number is the ratio of followers to followees. If somebody's got 1000 followers, but they also follow 1000 people, most likely those are all followbacks, and not indicative of genuine interest. But if somebody's got 1000 followers and and only follow 100 people, they're more likely to be worth your time.
Lots of accounts are set up just to Follow back anyone who Follows them. I've understood for a long time that Follower counts on Twitter are meaningless.