We Are Alarmed by This PR Firm Using a Small Army of…
Journalists uncovered that the Movchan Agency utilized a network of at least fifteen AI-generated personas to conduct PR outreach for various tech clients…
- Incident date
- Jul 2026
- Target
- Movchan Agency
Journalists recently discovered a sophisticated campaign of deception involving a public relations firm using a network of fake personas to barrage media outlets with pitches. The investigation revealed that the Movchan Agency, a United Kingdom-based firm, created at least fifteen distinct fabricated identities to represent their clients to the press. These personas, which included names like June Barton, Summer Casey, and Abigail Anderson, sent emails from a variety of domain names that redirected to the Movchan Agency website, effectively masking the firm's central role in the outreach.
What happened
The operation relied on a combination of AI-generated assets and deceptive infrastructure. Several of the fake personas used profile pictures generated by the site this-person-does-not-exist.com, some of which still contained visible watermarks from the generator. While some personas were presented as independent representatives from various firms, others were explicitly identified as employees of the Movchan Agency. When contacted, multiple clients of the agency—including RiseGuide and Joi AI—expressed shock, stating they were entirely unaware of these practices and that such methods violated their brand standards.
Company founder Nadya Movchan admitted to using the fake identities, characterizing the practice as a temporary measure initiated "a few months ago" to bypass domain reputation issues following Gmail deliverability updates. She claimed the firm purchased pre-warmed domains that came with pre-configured names and images. However, evidence suggests the practice was not as recent as claimed, with records of emails from these fake personas dating back to September 2025. While Movchan maintained that the actual communication and pitching were conducted by real human employees, the use of fabricated identities successfully deceived journalists and led to the publication of several stories in major news outlets, including The New York Post, based on information provided by the fake accounts.