Posting Bad Reviews?

14 years ago

It seems wrong because it is wrong. There are always people who want to "use the system" for negative purposes. Great to hear you have the character to do the right thing and say no to a fake bad review.

There should be a penalty or fine for such things. I think it would be very hard to prove who actually did the fake review.

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AmandaT 14 years ago

The specific request was to say I ordered something from a site and was unhappy. It seems like with something like that the company would be able to prove it is a false review. Are there actions they can take besides simply trying to have it removed?
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David Lamb

14 years ago

So it's Ok to write fake good reviews but it's not OK to write fake bad ones?

What kind of twisted morality is that? Aren't they lies either way?

The only reviews I write are truthful ones. I just choose the ratio of positive to negative "truths" that best serves my purpose.

I am perfectly fine with writing a bad review whenever the need arises -- as long as the information I base it on is truthful.

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David Lamb

14 years ago

In response to the OP's second post, if your comment is anonymous then it's umlikely they would do anything other than remove the post.

In this case, I think you were morally correct in turning down the request since it was a blatant request to lie. But would you have been as quick to turn it down if you'd have been asked to write fake good reviews?

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edakehurst 14 years ago

1) It's immoral. You are right to turn it down.

2) It is potentially illegal. Under section 255.1 (Consumer endorsements) of the new FCC advertising rules, it states in paragraph (d): "Advertisers are subject to liability for false or unsubstantiated statements made through endorsements..." It is against the law for them to use false testimonials, and if you knowingly assist them in doing that, then I would think you are aiding and abetting them in the commission of that crime. I am not a lawyer, so just take that as a layman's opinion.

If it were me, I'd inform them that they have asked you to violate FCC regulations and that I am not about to help them break the law. I'd cc the communication with the AG's office in my State and the State where they operate out of. It is this kind of activity that makes all of us look bad and we need to be diligent in keeping our industry clean.
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AmandaT

14 years ago

Originally Posted by David Lamb

In response to the OP's second post, if your comment is anonymous then it's umlikely they would do anything other than remove the post.

In this case, I think you were morally correct in turning down the request since it was a blatant request to lie. But would you have been as quick to turn it down if you'd have been asked to write fake good reviews?

They had offered to pay me to do both positive reviews for their company and negative reviews for their rival company. I turned down both.

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David Lamb 14 years ago

Originally Posted by AmandaT

They had offered to pay me to do both positive reviews for their company and negative reviews for their rival company. I turned down both.

Good job, Amanda!
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Dennis Gaskill 14 years ago

Originally Posted by AmandaT

They had offered to pay me to do both positive reviews for their company and negative reviews for their rival company. I turned down both.

I salute you for not dirtying your reputation by associating with a seedy company.
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Linda_C 14 years ago

Originally Posted by AmandaT

They had offered to pay me to do both positive reviews for their company and negative reviews for their rival company. I turned down both.

Two thumbs up!!
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Steven Carl Kelly

14 years ago

If the reviews you write are based on facts and highlight specific, legitimate problems with the rival site, then I see no problem with writing negative reviews. As a positive person who generally tries to avoid negativity, I probably wouldn't be interested in such an assignment, but technically and morally I know that I could fulfill the request.

I'd spend a lot of time examining the rival site in great detail and find the things about the site that I felt were negative, and then write about those. If it loads slowly, I'd write a review talking about how slow the site is. If it had spelling errors, I'd point those out in another review. If the information on the site was out-dated, that would be the subject of another review, and so on...

So there's a way that you could do so ethically, but the question really is: do you feel comfortable doing it, even if your reviews are legit?

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mach12324

14 years ago

yeah right i agree with you posting fake bad reviews are definitely intolerable.

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theimdude

14 years ago

Originally Posted by AmandaT

Lately I've been having people asking me to write bad reviews for certain sites. Personally I won't do it... I can only imagine how much I would hate it if I had fake bad reviews showing up on my website, but I was wondering... are there penalties for posting false negative reviews online? I got an email earlier asking for 30 negative reviews on a rival company and 15 positive on their website. I declined and started thinking... that just seems wrong.

All FAKE reviews BAD or GOOD is fake and wrong and if you write fake 'good' reviews for people you might as well write 'bad' reviews for people

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GaryBurke

14 years ago

It seems to me that the company asking you to write these fake reviews is worried about the competition.
personally If I was to review a site or product it would be an honest review whether good or bad

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bigorange

14 years ago

Wow- I can't believe they even asked you to do this in the first place. Couldn't they just do it themselves? (not saying I agree its an ethical mission in any way- kind of like hiring a hit man...)
Stay away from it.

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hashif16 14 years ago

Stay away from these types of craps..
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sbucciarel

Banned 14 years ago

Unbelievable. What a crap way to do business. Good for you for not doing business with this scumbag.

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Kay King 14 years ago

This is the result, in my opinion, of the huge proliferation in "review" sites that occurred a couple years ago. It's become rather common and is another good reason not to trust reviews either bad or good.

If the reviews you write are based on facts and highlight specific, legitimate problems

That was the point - they asked her to make up stories about having a bad experience. If you write a "story" about buying an item and then having problems with the site/company - and it didn't happen - it's lying.

I think the practice can backfire. If I visit a site and what I see is comment after comment putting down a competitor - I go to the competitor's site to see what's up. I may also look for other sources of information. Putting down the competition doesn't necessary make you look good - sometimes just makes customers look elsewhere:rolleyes:

If you find a writer who is will to take on this work, good to remember that someone who will lie for you may also lie to you.

kay
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micromike

14 years ago

yeah, I especially liked the part where they put "creative writing needed" in the ad... and I think you were right to turn it down.
Granted, money has no conscience... but if you feel like you are breaking down your self image to make a buck, then its not worth it. Worse, imagine if it turned out you were good at it, and got lots of work offered for it? Yuck.
In the end, someone will do it, and never look back... but it won't be you, and you've learned a bit more about yourself in the process.. and its positive (yay)
Good luck, and you did what was right for you - that's always a good call for more restful sleep

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Laurie49

14 years ago

What a disgusting request! Congratulations on turning down the job offer. It's this type of request that gives online business a bad name.

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Leonsroarteam

14 years ago

I hate it when people post fake "good" reviews, as much as any body else would hate fake "bad" reviews. I think you should totally report them, if they ask you to do that it means that the company/person isn't honest to begin with.

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Bradley J Anderson

14 years ago

You did exactly the right thing, imo. In fact, I would think about writing an actual bad review for the company that asked, and tell everyone exactly why.

Kudos to you for listening to your conscience. That's what it's there for.

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cyong

14 years ago

this is what happen nowadays. you will have good ways of marketing and the "black hat" ways of doing marketing..

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VanessaB 14 years ago

Welcome to the wonderful world of "Public Relations."

You're probably mostly aware of it during elections when you see the mud slinging campaigns, but I can assure you it's used in business all the time, even in Internet Marketing.

I just recently watched as someone slung a PR smear campaign at a fellow marketer. It was masterfully crafted, with the perfect mix of ingratiating itself, humility warm fuzzy stories, and a very quick, but very obvious stab, and then back to the business of the warm and sincere... a perfect example to an untrained eye who doesn't know to see through the smoke and mirrors.

It's dirty pool, I don't agree with it, but it does happen. A good PR course might help some people learn how to spot tells...

-Dani
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Jake Gray

14 years ago

Well, this is interesting.

Usually when someone wants to insult someone or something, they certainly
don't hire someone to write it for them.

LOL 2011 for you...

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jiantastic

14 years ago

that is just highly unethical. if a site deserves the bad reviews it will get them automatically.
I would ignore that email.
I mean just thinking about it makes me sick.
I now have this picture stuck in my head.
"A guy who works extremely hard, feeds his family through the business and someone intentionally gives his business a bad rating, he is now at risk of loosing his house"

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Paul Myers

14 years ago

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KristofVanoverbeek

14 years ago

IM is a hard world with a lot of money involved but don't go that route.

Kristof

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TBInternetMarketing

14 years ago

Originally Posted by AmandaT

I got an email earlier asking for 30 negative reviews on a rival company and 15 positive on their website.

Wow, talk about bush league tactics.
I hope you told them to get lost!

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DR's Fynest

14 years ago

Good on you Amanda!

I'm glad to see you turned them down. Goes to show there ARE still some people with a conscience

Paul, I don't know why that cartoon strip immediately made me think of Amazon :| lol (I love Amazon btw!)

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Berkinb

14 years ago

Kudos to you Amanda for turning such a lowlife offer down.
You did the right thing. And not only ethically but also logically. An employer who asks their employees to lie and cheat would easily lie to and cheat them too, if you know what I mean

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NIKONI 14 years ago

you're right , so nice to hear you have the character to do the right thing
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allenjohn

14 years ago

Beware of karmic return. What you give out, you get back...all the best, Allen

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Posting Bad Reviews?

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