Comment by imiric

GitHub stars are not a reliable metric[1]. Neither is engagement on social media, which is ridden with bots. It would be safe to assume that a project promoting bots is also using them to appear popular.

This whole thing is a classic pump and dump scheme, which this technology has made easier and more accessible than ever. I wouldn't be surprised if the malware authors are the same people behind these projects.

[1]: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/over-31-milli...