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Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

techspot.com

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Re: Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

#21

Post by clobber »

umsm wrote: post #2

It's sad that samsung would do this... Is it commonplace for companies to do this?

Absolutely commonplace. Anything is 'fair' in business and nothing is off the table when it comes to money.

Even the small/local businesses do this. Just check Yelp reviews. Hell, Yelp used to allow businesses to move their best reviews to the top if they paid them enough.

1) http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-...

2) http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/the-yelp-mafia/3116

3) http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/yelp-facing-class...

There was so much fallout from this back in 2009/2010 that Yelp had to turn the tables and pretend to play nice guy finally by outing businesses that buy positive reviews (starting last October).

Re: Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

#22

Post by kailuowang »

Phony endorsements maybe deemed as "misleading advertisement" as long as they remain trueish (They can argue that the paid reviewers did experience the product and did like it. Nothing much different from a celebrity endorsement) . Fake negative reviews on competitors are really despicable and IMO should be penalized heavily by law.

In general, as a consumer, I feel sick when vendors trying to fool me by pretending to be one of us.

Re: Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

#23

Post by [deleted] »

taopao wrote: post #15
hosay123 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You decide.. https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=infoman The domain was registered one day after the HN account was registered, first post wasn't made for 14 days (aka. when the username no longer appears in green). In his defence, if he is a shill, he's not very good at it. Edit: hnsearch picked up a hellbanned post (it should appear on the front page, but it doesn't) at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=55…

Looks like a bot that programmatically shovels trendy topical matter from RSS into HN. The submission and article headlines are identical, down to the curly quotes - smells of automation to me.

[deleted]

Re: Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

#24

Post by andrewljohnson »

homosaur wrote: post #12
lutusp wrote: post #7

The title is a bit misleading -- the story is not that Samsung used devious marketing methods, the story is that they were caught. Any number of companies hire shills to post phony endorsements, the trick is not to get caught. In fairness to companies like Samsung, if everyone is doing it, to stand on principle is to risk being trounced by those who don't.

We are talking about Samsung here, this is the company that has pretty much ripped off every successful design in its history. I'm fairly certain they've never stood on principle for anything but a hearty office chuckle.

This is just xenophobia, unsubstantiated, and unfair to all the hard working employees.

Re: Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

#27

Post by at-fates-hands »

lutusp wrote: post #7

The title is a bit misleading -- the story is not that Samsung used devious marketing methods, the story is that they were caught. Any number of companies hire shills to post phony endorsements, the trick is not to get caught. In fairness to companies like Samsung, if everyone is doing it, to stand on principle is to risk being trounced by those who don't.

To be fair, it didn't seem like they were admitting anything. They basically said the marketing company they hired did and they regret it happened.

More common for big businesses who pay big bucks to get some exposure and then some marketing company pitches them unreal stats to get a sale, then commences to bending the rules and committing outright fraud to keep the paychecks coming in.

Re: Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

#29

Post by MartinCron »

lutusp wrote: post #7

The title is a bit misleading -- the story is not that Samsung used devious marketing methods, the story is that they were caught. Any number of companies hire shills to post phony endorsements, the trick is not to get caught. In fairness to companies like Samsung, if everyone is doing it, to stand on principle is to risk being trounced by those who don't.

Samsung's customer base is more than large enough to let positive reviews emerge from real customers. There is no excuse for this. None. Full stop.

Re: Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web

#30

Post by obviouslygreen »

clobber wrote: post #21
umsm wrote: post #2

It's sad that samsung would do this... Is it commonplace for companies to do this?

Absolutely commonplace. Anything is 'fair' in business and nothing is off the table when it comes to money. Even the small/local businesses do this. Just check Yelp reviews. Hell, Yelp used to allow businesses to move their best reviews to the top if they paid them enough. 1) http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-... 2) http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/the-yelp-mafia/3116 3) http://arstechnica.co…

Anything is 'fair' in business and nothing is off the table when it comes to money.

Many people have this attitude, yes. That doesn't make it universally true or even close, and it's probably less commonplace than you seem to assume, particularly for small/local businesses, which overwhelmingly don't have time to waste on shill reviews.

And while it definitely happens and is widespread, you're not doing your argument any favors by citing exactly one example and suggesting it shows a trend or proves a point.

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