[mjr00]

Botted plays are definitely real, but not typically used like this. Typically the scam for botted plays is either someone straight up selling stream purchases i.e. "buy Spotify 10000 plays for $10" or using them to boost perceived legitimacy. You would do the latter with a typical label scam, where you contact someone on Soundcloud, saying you are XXX Record Label and you want to sign their track, linking to XXX Record Label's Spotify account which shows impressive play numbers. You "sign" the track but then request a $50 "mastering fee" from the artist before release.

In either case, Spotify (usually, afaik) doesn't pay out for the actual botted streams, but it doesn't matter. The money is made by the scammer from the artist.