And they can tell? I'm not on Twitter but I can see just following everyone that passes in front of my mouse, and so be it. If that's banned, I'd egg people on to do it more and more and help tear down the idea that follower counts mean f** all.

There used to be services that let you sign up to follow and be followed back. I don't think anyone serious about quickly gaining followers will sit and click manually. They definitely can tell people automatically doing this (at least the naive ones)