A man in China has been jailed for using thousands of phones to fake viewers and traffic on live streams and making $415,000 (approximately Rs 3.4 crore) in less than four months. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), the man surnamed Wang, was sentenced to one year and three months in prison and fined $7,000 for the "crime of illegal business operations". He reportedly operated 4,600 phones to inflate live-stream viewer counts and managed to earn over $400,00 in less than four months.
The outlet reported that Mr Wang began operating the business in late 2022 when a friend told him about a "lucrative" practice known as "brushing". This term refers to faking real-time activities such as viewer counts, likes, comments and shares in live-streaming to simulate genuine viewer interactions and mislead consumers.
For his scam, the Chinese man bought 4,600 mobile phones controlled by specialised cloud software. He also bought VPN services and network equipment, such as routers and switches, from a tech company.
Then, with just a few clicks, Mr Wang was able to operate all the 4,600 mobile phones to simultaneously flood into a live-streaming target to inflate viewer counts and interactions. "The cost of using one of the mobile phones is 6.65 yuan (less than US$1) per day," he said. He also explained that the final fee for his "service" would depend on the amount of time each phone stayed connected to a live-streaming event and the number of mobile phones activated.
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According to the Post, Mr Wang was able to make about $415,000 in less than four months by selling the service to live-streamer seeking to boost their online performance.
It is not known where Mr Wang bought the mobile phones from, but the prosecutor in charge of the case said that there was a "possibility of illegal activities in the mobile phone recycling market".
Now, Mr Wang along with 17 other suspects are under investigation for "breaking national regulations, knowingly spreading fake information online through publishing services for profit, and disrupting the market order", according to local prosecuting authorities.
