X has taken legal action in court to retrieve £207,000 from crypto influencers who used fake likes and reposts to scam its payment system.
Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has taken legal action against two cryptocurrency influencers, Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa, along with their group in a High Court in the United Kingdom.
The tech company is asking the court to help them recover more than £207,000. X says the men tricked the platform by creating fake activity on their posts to collect creator reward money they weren’t entitled to. The company is suing them for breaking the agreement, taking money wrongfully, and committing civil fraud.
The social media giant wants the group to pay back the £207,384 they collected, add money for punitive damages, and cover £75,000 spent on private digital police work to trace the scam.
Addressing the issue publicly, the top legal officer for X and xAI, James Burnham, explained why the social network went to court, saying: “We do not tolerate fraudulent behavior on X, and will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators.”
Court papers reveal that the trick started when the men set up 6 different main accounts that talked about Bitcoin news. To normal users, these accounts looked like different people running separate news pages.
But behind the scenes, it was just the same group talking to themselves. One account would post a message, and within seconds, the other accounts would copy and post the same message with identical spelling mistakes and pictures.
Three other accounts were created just to drop short replies like “Bullish,” “Legend,” and “Massive” to make it look like real users were enjoying the posts.
Because X used to pay creators based on how many people clicked, liked, or replied to their posts, this group gathered heavy fake clicks to turn empty views into real money.
The scam broke down when investigators discovered that all six accounts shared the same payment bank accounts and email details.
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Investigators also found private text messages where Sen offered to buy another big X page, telling the seller: “I don’t want us to get in trouble for something X doesn’t allow. If you can understand what I mean.”
X shut down all six accounts in August and filed the lawsuit shortly after. This legal battle shows that tech companies are no longer just closing fake accounts; they are going to court to drag offenders to judge seats.
This decision sends a warning to content creators in Africa and across the world, including Nigeria, where people run group rings to like each other’s posts for money.
Early reports show that when X used its Grok AI tool to check account activities, it flagged almost eight out of ten Nigerian creators who were using these fake boost groups to get paid.
This lawsuit comes as X changes its payment rules completely. On September 7, the platform stopped the old payment system that gave cash for replies and simple clicks.
The platform now pays creators based only on real views from paid Premium subscribers who read original posts, while completely removing reply comment payouts.
Reports show that X also filed a similar lawsuit against click-farm groups operating out of Vietnam for using the same trick to steal revenue.
