Belkin's Amazon Rep Paying For Fake Online Reviews

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 17, 2009 @05:19AM from the fake-them-yourself-like-everybody-else dept.

remove office writes "I recently discovered that Belkin's lead online sales rep, Michael Bayard, has been secretly paying internet users to review his company's products favorably on Amazon.com and other websites like Newegg, whether or not they've ever used the devices. Bayard instructed the people he was paying to 'Write as if you own the product and are using it... Mark any other negative reviews as "not helpful" once you post yours.' Ironically, he was using Amazon's own Mechanical Turk service to hire his fraudsters. Did he honestly think he wouldn't get caught? Are Slashdotters aware of other examples of other such blatant astroturfing on behalf of a large tech company like Belkin?"

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Re:Yes, Linux by HermMunster · 2009-01-17 15:38 · Score: 0, Offtopic

This isn't about Linux. This is about companies using others to artificially alter reviews and to jury rig rating systems.

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You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Re:Yes, Linux by HermMunster · 2009-01-17 15:39 · Score: 0, Offtopic

This isn't about Linux. Stay on point.

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You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.