Where do bot cheat services get so many bots from?

Question

Social media

I mean fake social media accounts, not chatbots. I also don’t ask about mutual subscription services with offers.
If they buy them, then from whom, where does it happen and how? And those people who sell them, how are they "produced"? Are they buying thousands of sim cards? Or is it thousands of hacked pages?
In general, how does this market work from the inside?

Answer 1

I often see wholesale sales of SIM-cards of Ukrainian operators on any bulletin boards, which are sold after they are used for registration in popular messaging systems (Telegram, Viber) and social networks. In Ukraine, SIM-cards are sold freely.
Also now on the Internet there are services for the sale of virtual SIM cards, many of which are also used for temporary registration of bots, especially for services that allow you to register several accounts for 1 phone number.
But these will all be clean accounts that have not been used anywhere after registration.
Perhaps someone will create a legend for each account and fabricate personal data + photos using some algorithms, but many do not do this.
Sometimes such accounts are bought by companies for their own marketing promotions or internal needs. But often not quite honest people use it.
Clean accounts without a damaged reputation will cost a lot.
And so there will always be viruses, keyloggers, weak passwords, merged databases, thanks to which many users lose their accounts in this way. Then this information will be put up for sale somewhere.

Answer 2

I'll add another point to the other answers.
Browser extensions that get likes in the background from your accounts (you don’t even need to hack anything while you remain logged in).

Answer 3

They don't have to be bots. A certain person is added to my friends here. I do not mind, I accept the application. After that, he instantly adds me to a certain public. Again, I don't mind. That's all, and many do not bother accepting all incoming applications. The process can be automated, I do not think it is difficult.

Answer 4

Are they buying thousands of sim cards? Or is it thousands of hacked pages?

1) it is possible through SMS services, including those specially tailored for social networks. On the forums, you can find people who will sell ready-made accs in bulk, sometimes they can even send sims.
2) hacks are a very common option, if this is critical, you should check with the service in advance the source of the bots.

Answer 5

from the inside it’s like this - you have bots, you spin ads with them (AdSense, of course, is unlikely, although it works for non-English-speaking countries at the very least), along the way you spin whoever you get - from YouTube to Instagram - you need to beat back
your $ 0.85 per number + $1.2 per address (not always) the bot manages to work out with a profit, of
course, there are also scrap schemes, but this is already much more punishable, and there are no less overheads

Answer 6

If you take insta, then there is no need for a number
If VK, then a text message through the site costs two rubles and yes, they buy hundreds of thousands of SIM cards