Belkin staffer caught paying for Amazon reviews
updated 01:30 pm EST, Mon January 19, 2009
Belkin employee unethical
Belkin's Business Development Representative, Mark Bayard, has reportedly been paying Internet surfers to post fake positive reviews or poorly selling Belkin products on Amazon.com, according to a Friday report. Bayard has posted on Amazon's Mechanical Turk website, which pays users to perform tasks computers cannot, paying them on a per-task basis. At the time, Bayard offered 65 cents for every positive review posted, urging users need not own the product they are reviewing. The practice has both been challenged for its ethics and violates Amazon's Terms of Service.
Since the Friday report, Amazon has issued a statement, apologizing to the public, claiming it was unaware of actions and that they were unsolicited. The online retailer says it will work with Mechanical Turk and the online retailers involved to remove all postings regarding and related to the fake positive reviews. Bayard has also reportedly been paying people to post fake reviews on Buy.com and Newegg, however.
One item Bayard is asking users to post dishonest reviews for is Belkin's CableFree router, which was previously knocked by other users for its high price and intermittent operation.
What???
01/19, 01:44pm (1 reply) reply
Unethical? What ethics books are these people reading?
And who cares about a site's Terms of Service. The Sites themselves don't. They tend to modify them to suit their whims as it is.
Just shows what happens when the democrats get into power. All they want to do is bring businesses to their knees!
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Re: t*** eater fail
01/19, 02:04pm reply
testudo the t*** eater,
this story has ZERO relation to democrats. Remember the last democratic president actually produced a federal budget surplus. In strong contrast to your idol Bush, who spent Trillions of dollars on a war that doesn't make the US any safer and is considered a failure by most people in the US and around the world.
testudo logic fail
dliup
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
Testudo
01/19, 02:31pm (1 reply) reply
Showing us yet again his retarded wisdom! The ethics book would be the dictionary.
Apparently you don't think it's unethical to pay people to give phony positive reviews. I AM NOT SURPRISED YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN!
moofpup
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2007
What??? re: What???
01/19, 02:38pm reply
testudo, were you paid 65 cents by the Republican party for your post?
kw14
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2004
Yes, unethical, duh.
01/19, 02:39pm reply
Testudo's belief that paying folks to write false reviews of products that they have not used is not unethical explains a lot about all kinds of things. If Testudo can think that way apparently other folks can too: e.g. Wall Street, the last 8 years of USA governance, etc.
SierraDragon
Mac Elite
Joined: Mar 2004
Yes, unethical, duh.
01/19, 02:42pm reply
Testudo's belief that paying folks to write false reviews of products that they have not used is not unethical explains a lot about all kinds of things. If Testudo can think that way apparently other folks can too: e.g. Wall Street, the last 8 years of USA governance, etc.
Belkin just permanently lost a customer unless the news report is proven false.
SierraDragon
Mac Elite
Joined: Mar 2004
He got what he wanted...
01/19, 04:21pm reply
...testudo, that is. Please, how long before you realize his only goal is to rile people with posed positions? Take Sam Goldwyn's advice: "Don't pay any attention to them. Don't even ignore them."
The good news? There's likely a job opening in Belkin's Biz Dev Division in L.A.!
jpellino
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
I'm very curious
01/19, 04:44pm reply
at the contorted logic it would take to NOT consider this practice unethical.
ff11
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2004
deleted
01/19, 04:51pm reply
deleted
ff11
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2004
Unethical
01/19, 06:21pm reply
Testudo, I enjoy some of your posts but this one has me scratching my head. Democrats are some how related to Belkin spoofing user reviews? Huh?
What's unethical is that Belkin is attempting to spoof the system so we think the reviews are genuine user reviews when they're not. It's forgery, and it breaks down trust. There's nothing wrong with a company engaging in PR, but they should do it above-board, not under disguise.
eBay has suffered from a breakdown of trust for similar reasons, with genuine user feedback getting squashed by big-seller bullying. Even eBay itself admits that the trust is broken.
Longwalker
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2008