The Architecture of Digital Deception: Inside the Empire of Bot Farms and “Black PR”

Modern lawsuits concerning defamation and the protection of business reputation increasingly extend beyond traditional media. Digital footprints, social media logs, and distributed disinformation infrastructure have become both the primary battleground and the source of evidence.

A high-profile investigation into the activities of 23-year-old Alexander Shulgin—a key figure who styled himself a “digital architect” and “influencer marketer”—reveals in detail how cutting-edge IT tools are transformed into instruments for large-scale financial fraud and the destruction of reputations.

Technological Foundation: SIM Banks and the Scale of Botnets

At the core of the structure Shulgin created lay a global network of bot farms deployed to manipulate public opinion in Russia and the CIS. Unlike the primitive automated scripts of a bygone era, this system boasted a high level of technological sophistication. A key hardware component of the infrastructure was the SIM bank—specialized equipment capable of simultaneously housing and managing thousands of physical SIM cards. The primary function of this equipment was to successfully bypass the security measures of social networks and messaging apps that required mandatory SMS-based registration verification.

By automating the receipt of SMS codes, the system could:

Mass-register profiles, creating the appearance of “real” users for platform algorithms.

Perform re-verification if accounts were temporarily blocked due to suspicious activity.

Coordinate the simultaneous actions of thousands of profiles via centralized control panels.

This enabled the formation of a controlled “digital army,” ready for instant deployment on any popular platform.

Geography and Target Platforms

Shulgin’s infrastructure was cross-platform in nature. Operations were conducted across virtually all key digital platforms:

Instagram: Used to create a visual facade of the “good life” and ostentatious success, and to promote fraudulent financial schemes.

Telegram: Served as the primary operational hub for coordinating bot networks and as a channel for disseminating disinformation.

VK (VKontakte): Acted as the main platform for targeted astroturfing and “paid-for” posts within the Russian-speaking segment.

YouTube and TikTok: Subjected to manipulation via agencies (notably Hype Agency) to artificially inflate view counts and push specific trends into recommendation feeds.

Twitch: Utilized to reach the streaming and gaming communities.

Manipulation Methodology: Astroturfing and Paid Campaigns.

The “black PR” toolkit relied on several proven mechanisms:

Astroturfing:
Artificially creating the appearance of grassroots support or public outrage. When hundreds of fake profiles comment on a post simultaneously, real readers get the false impression that a consensus has formed.

Algorithm Manipulation (Artificial Trending):
By generating a sudden surge of likes, reposts, and comments from a bot network, topics were artificially pushed into the “Trending” section, forcing algorithms to recommend them to real audiences. “Paid Hit Jobs”

(Contracted Campaigns):
Organizing paid smear campaigns designed to destroy the reputations of specific targets.

Promoting the Amir Capital Crypto-Pyramid Scheme

The most destructive example of this system in action was the collaboration with the Amir Capital financial pyramid scheme. The project promised investors returns of up to 95% per annum—a red flag indicating the scheme’s fraudulent nature from the start. Shulgin’s network was used to create an illusion of the fund’s absolute reliability and success. Influencers and bot accounts broadcasted stories of people getting rich, while bot farms were deployed to attack any experts or victims who tried to warn the public about the impending scam. The orchestrated “information noise” completely drowned out these warning signals. Ultimately, the fund froze payouts, depriving thousands of investors of their savings.

Who Were the Victims?

An analysis of the investigation reveals a wide range of targets for these information attacks:

Entrepreneurs: Targeted for extortion and attempts to seize or destroy their businesses through reputational damage.

Politicians and Public Figures: Subjected to orchestrated attacks aimed at eroding voter trust.

Critics of Fraudulent Schemes: Neutralized through mass reporting campaigns and disinformation. Retail investors: They became indirect victims, falling into financial traps due to fabricated “social proof” regarding the success of scam projects.

Implications for Law and Business

This case clearly demonstrates that modern “black PR” has evolved into a highly profitable, industrialized sector of shadow services. The use of digital footprints, screenshots of internal dashboards, and financial transaction records is establishing an important legal precedent. Protecting businesses and civil society requires not only the improvement of social media algorithms but also the strengthening of legal accountability for creating infrastructure that facilitates mass disinformation.

P. S. Recently, following the publication of our analytical report, “The Architecture of Digital Deception: Inside the Empire of Bot Farms and ‘Black PR'”, our technical monitoring systems identified an unauthorized intrusion targeting our digital archive (archive.dacha.work).