Twitter has been the perfect platform for celebrities who want themselves to be known by millions of people. For celebrities, squeezing in their name in the top trending topics on Twitter is equal to winning a Grammy or an Oscar. This thirst for fame has been equally lucrative for people accoutred with ways for bypassing Twitter’s spam-proof security systems.

Jim Vidmar is a man who owns as many as 10,000 Twitter robots which, with fake profiles, post hash tags and use keywords that push not-so-famous celebrities to Twitter’s hot trending topics. Philly Chase, a rapper from Philadelphia, labels his coming across Jim Vidmar as “the best decision I ever made.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, earlier this month Jim Vidmar bought 1,000 Twitter robots for $58, which he uses to earn a handsome amount by giving aspiring celebrities what they want. He has been in this business for six years and has built his army to 10,000. In case our readers don’t know what we mean by robots, they are just fake Twitter accounts programmed in a way to post, reply and send messages on Twitter. When the programmed accounts/robots post large number of messages or if so and so accounts follow a particular person, the popularity of the person skyrockets.

Jim Vidmar does not happen to be the lone person in this business, such shady dealings are rampant in both Facebook and Twitter. It is estimated one out of ten Twitter accounts are fake, meaning they are likely bots used for commercial purposes.

I wonder if Ashraf is a bot. Post your comments and let us know what you think.

[via WSJ, theverge]