TECH Shill reviews starting to be penalized by FTC

[Falconer]

So there's a company called "Metal Method" that offers guitar lessons online and via DVD. They're a pretty good company, and they have some good guitarists on their payroll.

At least one of their competitors use shill reviews and now they're being fined a quarter million dollars.

This is awesome. I know I lose a lot of business to assholes using shill reviews, and I'm sure some other people here do, too.

Bogus Review Sites Cost Company $250,000
[FONT=Calibri,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]Yes folks, it looks like the jigs up for Learn and Master Guitar and their bogus guitar lesson review scam. I've been complaining about this scam for five years. Finally the FTC listened. The following appeared in today's issue of the Los Angeles Times newspaper:[/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]Fake Reviews[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]A company that sold guitar-instruction DVDs has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine to resolve civil charges that it paid marketers to pose as ordinary customers and give its products positive online reviews. The FTC had filed a suit accusing Legacy Learning Systems Inc. and its owner, Lester Gabriel Smith, of deceptive advertising. In addition to the fine, the Nashville, Tenn., company agreed to set up a system to monitor its marketers' actions.[/FONT]
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[JesterFX]

Unfortunately it won't change much. Pretty sure $250k is small change to how much they made. Same goes for many of those that end up getting fined...they already made a fortune so not as big of a deal.

That and there will likely never be enough enforcement anyway so only a few of the "big guys" will ever be investigated/prosecuted while every other punk kid just getting into affiliate marketing will have a fake news site lol.

 

[Falconer]

^ true, but it's still nice to hear about people getting fined every once in a while.

 

[2ofdem]

reviews are pretty much worthless now unfortunately.