The Daily Background
| Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews
by Arlen Parsa
Update: Belkin’s president responds to The Daily Background’s report here.
(Update: Welcome to Slashdot, Digg, Engadget, Gizmodo readers! The latest is, I’ve heard from Belkin’s public relations department and I am expecting a formal comment to come out from them relatively soon, so stick around as this thing develops.)
I know I usually don’t write about consumer advocacy stuff, but I came across this just recently and it’s pretty beyond the pale and I couldn’t let it go without blogging about it. Here’s the scoop.
Amazon.com runs a side business called Mechanical Turk. It’s a site where people can go, register, and get paid to do little tasks that computers can’t do (like help image filtering software identify graphic search results for example). Users can do any one of thousands of tasks provided by requesters, who pay them a small amount of money in return (usually anywhere between one cent and a couple dollars per task).
I was checking out this website the other day and I made a few bucks by hand-transcribing a few videos. But then I came across this:
(Click image for full size)
That’s a request from somebody named Mike Bayard to review a product and “give [it] a 100% rating (as high as possible).” It doesn’t matter if the reviewer doesn’t own the product or has never tried it– the requester has helpfully written, “Write as if you own the product and are using it.” It even goes a step further, asking the Mechanical Turk user to “Mark any other negative reviews as “not helpful” once you post yours.”
Users are paid 65 cents for every positive review they leave. There are dozens of these requests from this Mike Bayard guy on Mechanical Turk.
Sounds like somebody reallllllllly wants this item to get high ratings. So what is the product? The link is to an Amazon.com listing for a Belkin router which has consistently gotten bad reviews in the past from users who say that the product is “loaded with Bugs, goes on & off whenever it feels like, and comes at a hefty price.”
So, who is this Mike Baynard guy, and why is he willing to pay people to rate up these apparently poor quality Belkin routers? I’ll give you just one guess:
(Click image for full size)
Yep, that’s right, according to his LinkedIn profile, Bayard is the Business Development Representative at Belkin International in charge of “Sales of Belkin products to major .com accounts such as Amazon.com.” In other words, this guy is paying people to post fake good reviews of his own products which, according to most people who actually use them, suck (and ironically, he’s using Amazon’s own service to screw up their own review system).
(Click image for full size)
They shouldn’t get away with this. Bayard has also been paying people to post fake reviews on Buy.com and Newegg. Faking reviews is not only against Amazon.com’s Terms of Service, it’s also highly unethical and misleading. Amazon should reset its ratings for this product, and Belkin should discipline or fire this Mr Bayard, ASAP. This is one of the more scummy, totally awful advertising schemes I’ve seen. Tell Amazon and Belkin to read this blog entry and act accordingly.
Send Belkin the link to this blog entry in a quick email: sales@belkin.com
Send Amazon the link to this blog entry in a quick email here.
If you’re so inclined, you can also give this story some Digg lovins or reddit lovins.
Update: Sorry if my website was acting sluggish for you earlier. After getting some attention from the tech gurus at Gizmodo and Slashdot, my poor little virtual dedicated server just about collapsed so I had to request a power cycle which led to a couple of minutes of complete non-responsiveness. But things should now be back to normal. Good thing it worked too– I hear a certain newspaper columnist with a lot of clout in the tech world just might be mentioning this in a blog post, which could get Belkin or Amazon to respond. Stay tuned…
Update 2: Several other high profile tech blogs have picked up this story (see the comments section for a bunch of big name trackbacks). I just checked out Mr Bayard’s Mechanical Turk requests and, surprise surprise, as of 5:12PM EST they’ve all disappeared. This might be because A) people have already fulfilled all his requests and thus they have vanished, or B) because he heard about our reporting and got scared. Which is it? I honestly have no idea. We’ll see if any more information comes my way…
Update 3: I’m waiting on a reply from Belkin. See the latest on this here.
That is too funny!
Well at least the guy is transparent about it. The whole rating system is rather subjective as it is.
Nice job on catching that!
[…] This kind of fakery is probably far more common than we realize, but it’s awful for the consumer. That wireless USB hub, for example, advertises Mac compatibility, but one of the real reviews suggests that this isn’t true at all. Such user feedback is important to making an informed choice as a consumer, and Bayard’s underhanded tactics screw up the entire system. For shame. [The Daily Background] […]
Good find, what a dick. Not the first time I’ve seen fake reviews, some you can just tell by what they write, such as:
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000220NDK/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_5?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addFiveStar
&
http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Doll-Lessons-Learned-Headlines/dp/158872087X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232205906&sr=1-2
I wish Amazon had readers who would flag obviously fake reviews
[…] Via [The Daily Background] […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] to The Daily Background, a Belkin employee in charge of e-tailer relations (he even left his freakin’ name on the post, […]
When you take screenshots, take them in png format. they will be of higher quality with a smaller size.
That’s a good suggestion, Indy, thanks. If I was at home, those screenshots would have been a lot better quality.
[…] is ?loaded with Bugs, goes on & off whenever it feels like, and comes at a hefty price.? Source __________________ […]
you say ‘Belkin should discipline or fire this Mr Bayard’, but how do you know it’s just one renegade employee, rather than a general policy in the larger company? This one guy might just become the fall guy for the firestorm of criticism that will result from this. And anyway, if Belkin would hire unscrupulous people, and then would have such poor oversight that it wouldn’t know that stuff like this was happening, then the company should be avoided, even if his behavior wasn’t knowingly mandated by Belkin.
[…] couldn’t believe it when I read this article on TechCrunch (referencing this blog post) about a Belkin employee (whom I used to work with when I was in college, very odd) possibly paying […]
[…] Ben Kunz’s “Modest Blogging Proposal” and not recognized it as satire. According to The Daily Background, a Belkin employee used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service to pay people to write positive […]
[…] This kind of fakery is probably far more common than we realize, but it’s awful for the consumer. That wireless USB hub, for example, advertises Mac compatibility, but one of the real reviews suggests that this isn’t true at all. Such user feedback is important to making an informed choice as a consumer, and Bayard’s underhanded tactics screw up the entire system. For shame. [The Daily Background] […]
For years I have consistently had disappointing experiences with Belkin products. I had often wondered how they remained in business.
I guess as long as there is a constant influx of new customers they can shill, and “pump and dump” their shoddy product lines to they will remain in business.
Whenever you stir a corporate bucket long enough, the greasy layer always floats to the surface.
[…] This kind of fakery is probably far more common than we realize, but it’s awful for the consumer. That wireless USB hub, for example, advertises Mac compatibility, but one of the real reviews suggests that this isn’t true at all. Such user feedback is important to making an informed choice as a consumer, and Bayard’s underhanded tactics screw up the entire system. For shame. [The Daily Background] […]
[…] Patrick Altoft on January 17, 2009 The Daily Background has today uncovered a Belkin employee apparently using Amazons Mechanical Turk system to pay people to write positive […]
[…] Belkin’s PR chief, Melody Chalaban regarding my piece about Belkin’s online sales rep paying people to write false reviews of their products. I hope to find out whether or not it is an official company policy to hire people to write fake […]
I’m amazed anyone could be bought so cheaply!
What does 65c buy over there?
[…] Belkin Paying Folks to Post Fake Reviews on Amazon Published January 17, 2009 Technology Check out this story via The Daily Background. […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] This kind of fakery is probably far more common than we realize, but it’s awful for the consumer. That wireless USB hub, for example, advertises Mac compatibility, but one of the real reviews suggests that this isn’t true at all. Such user feedback is important to making an informed choice as a consumer, and Bayard’s underhanded tactics screw up the entire system. For shame. [The Daily Background] […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
How do you know it was really him? How easy would it be to set up a request with that name on those sites? Maybe this is an ex-employee with a grudge.
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Post tags: Amazon, Bayard, Belkin, Business Development Representative, Impostor, Mechanical Turk, Nbsp, Networking, People, Sat, Uphill Both Ways Posted in: Gad?ety | | […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
Where do I sign to add these bogus reviews? I got a lot fo time on my hands lately. I could flood the place!
How unethical. I go to the college he graduated from, sad to see him tarnish our rep!
[…] ???? ?????? 65 ??????. CrunchGear ?????? (? ??????? Daily Background), ??? ?????? ??????? ?????????? ???????? ?? ???? […]
[…] Read More Category: Uncategorized | Comment (RSS) | Trackback […]
I have had very bad experiences with 3 Belkin products in the past 2 years. A UPS and 2 USB hubs. All simply failed after a few days of use. Stopped buying their products. Too bad. Used to be a great company that made quality products.
Hahahaha. Nice find! I am curious to see how this one goes. And, I totally agree with it being a bit unethical… He could have at least offered $6,50 for the position of liar.
Holy shit, this guy is in some trouble.
He could have better ordered Stompernet Formula Five as this product works for 93% of all businesses.
I am guessing his ass is FIRED.
[…] Turk posting, but the him and his company have yet to comment publicly. Say it ain’t so, Mike!Source Share and […]
[…] is still a story in progress, but it looks just horrible: The Daily Background is reporting that a Belkin employee has been using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk piecework service to pay people to po… for the princely sum of sixty-five cents per review. (From appearances, the gent behind the scheme […]
I swore in 2004 never to buy another Belkin product — no matter what device they attempt to produce, it invariably fails and their customer support is an insult.
This latest behavior is no surprise at all. Nice find!
[…] This is an example of why people don’t trust computer equipment manufacturers anymore.read more | digg story Share This No comments for this entry […]
[…] See the original post: Caught: Belkin Pays 65 Cents For Fake Good Reviews on Amazon […]
LinkedIn can’t find that profile you linked in the article.
If this is not illegal than the US legal system is more broken than I thought. I know of laws that are not being enforced to protect consumers. But I don’t know if one covers this.
When will you web weenies realize you can’t have it both ways? You can’t hide behind your virtual ID’s and phony personas and then expect web-honesty. BTW: This really is me and if you ever read any of my product reviews I always post my cell number. No cell - No sell.
@ Nunuvyer Bizniz:
I wonder why Linkedin is opened in paint… on the picture..
Its a textbook marketing ploy called ’social engineering’ and takes on a few different forms. One of the most famous incidents was a beer company hiring very attractive and sexy people to drink their beer at a bar and keep name dropping it in general conversation etc.
I think there should be mass backlash for trying to deceive the public. If I purchased the product, taking into consideration their fake reviews, and found the product was crap after all then I’d be throwing bricks through Belkin’s office windows.
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] This kind of fakery is probably far more common than we realize, but it’s awful for the consumer. That wireless USB hub, for example, advertises Mac compatibility, but one of the real reviews suggests that this isn’t true at all. Such user feedback is important to making an informed choice as a consumer, and Bayard’s underhanded tactics screw up the entire system. For shame. [The Daily Background] […]
Your site is up and running again because you’re not using any Belkin router, lol
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
@ stompernet:
he has taken a screenshot and used paint to paste it into. then he saved it with the name ‘linkedin’.
you can’t ‘open’ a web site in paint.
as for belkin and this guy: well, he’s just a sales rep. he’s not senior at all, and his last job was just sales rep for some printing company. this level of rep doesn’t do this sort of thing on his own; for a start it’s not going to directly add sales to his monthly figures.
this is a deliberate tactic by belkin management. of course that doesn’t necessarily mean the highest levels of management.
anyway, their products have always been terrible. like some of the commenters above, I’ve bought several things from them over the years and every single one has failed after only a short period of service.
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments ? […]
[…] A Belkin representative has been caught offering money to anybody who posts a 100% positive review of certain Belkin products on Amazon.com and other e-retailers. The bozo even used his own name. The Daily Background found an ad on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, which pays small fees for menial internet tasks like rewriting and converting media files, asking for users to write false positive reviews for a few Belkin products that have otherwise poor reviews, like this wireless USB hub. The request was filed by one Mike Bayard, and a quick Google search and perusal of his LinkedIn profile reveals him to be a Belkin representative in charge of sales to e-retailers. Apparently he’s posted similar ads for fake reviews on Newegg and Buy.com in addition to Amazon. This kind of fakery is probably far more common than we realize, but it’s awful for the consumer. That wireless USB hub, for example, advertises Mac compatibility, but one of the real reviews suggests that this isn’t true at all. Such user feedback is important to making an informed choice as a consumer, and Bayard’s underhanded tactics screw up the entire system. For shame. [The Daily Background] […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Go to Source […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] LOTD for January 18 Filed under: Uncategorized — gokamoto @ 1:05 am Is Belkin paying people to write positive reviews on Amazon? Either this is a fake or they have been caught red-handed! http://www.thedailybackground.com/2009/01/16/exclusive-belkins-development-rep-is-hiring-people-to-w… […]
@ Neil, thanks man. I was always wondering why Google and so on did not open in my paint program. Gee, how could I have been so silly. I even went to the company selling the pc telling them they are such bad internet site opening browser providers and that paint did not work opening sites.
They looked at me as if I was standing naked and have a fish in my left hand and a pig’s head in the other.
With other words, thank you for your real kind way of explaining to me that you do not ‘open sites’ in paint.
That is why I mentioned screenshot. That is a term used to do just that, isn’t it?
But, since someone suggested the linked in profile did not exist I was thinking, what if this person used the professional image editing software, the piece of software called paint, to not just copy but also edit the screenshot of the linked in profile.
That was all.
[…] Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews ist eine interessante Story. Belkin hat scheinbar ein Problem mit schlechten Reviews auf Amazon und ein Mitarbeiter hat zur Lösung des Problems bei Mechanical Turk, einem Dienst von Amazon, einen Job ausgeschrieben: Man bekommt 65 Cent für einen positiven Review von Belkin Produkten auf Amazon. Eigentlich ist Mechanical Turk entwickelt worden, um kleinste Aufgaben von einer großen Masse von Leuten schnell abarbeiten zu lassen. Allerdings stand eher das Erkennen von Personen auf Bildern oder ähnliches im Fokus bisher, nicht aber das Erstellen von positiven Reviews für den Auftraggeber. Nennt sich das dann crowd-enabled Astroturfing? Wie bräsig kann Belkin eigentlich sein, eine derartige Idee in aller Öffentlichkeit auszuschreiben? Die Idee alleine ist schon bescheuert, aber dann auch noch bei Mechanical Turk nach Leuten zu suchen, zeigt wie wenig dort über das Verhältnis von Belkin zu seinen Kunden nachgedacht wurde. Mal sehen, wie sich das PR-Desaster entwickelt und wie lange Belkin braucht, um überzeugend gegenzusteuern und den Kunden klarzumachen, daß man an wirklichen Kundenmeinungen interessiert ist. Share: […]
F@&K!!! Now how am I supposed to make a living?
Seriosly though. Someone would have to leave 100 reviews of Belkin products to make $65???
That’s hardly worth the time, is it?
I’m sure this has been going on with many companies for a long time, Belkin is just the first big name to have an employee sloppy enough to make it obvious.
Unless this episode is a actually the result of competitor looking to make Belkin seem like a bad company that needs to pay for its good reviews. Hmm.
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] hyperweb_adcount =1; Arlen Parsa / The Daily Background: Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews — (Update: Welcome to Slashdot, Digg, Engadget, Gizmodo readers! The latest […]
[…] Un ejecutivo de Belkin paga comentarios positivos de sus productos en los portales de compra online … www.thedailybackground.com/2009/01/16/exclusive-belkins-deve… por kamandula hace pocos segundos […]
[…] Unfassbar, wie bescheuert die Firma Belkin sein muss — schreiben die laut Daily Background doch auf dem Amazon-Dienst Mechanical Turk offen den Job aus, positive Reviews für Belkin-Produkte […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
Belkin Rep Hiring People to Write Fake Amazon Review | nerdd.net…
\r\nA Belkin Development Rep posted to Amazon.com\’s Mechanical Turk site, where people can register…
[…] Bugs, goes on & off whenever it feels like, and comes at a hefty price.The full story is here:http://www.thedailybackground.com/2009/01/16/exclusive-belkins-development-rep-is-hiring-people-to-w… Posted by Makin at […]
Quote about a particular Belkin router: “loaded with Bugs, goes on & off whenever it feels like”.
We have a Belkin router at home (probably another model) but we have this problem of the connection disappearing time and time again. So can someone confirm this is because it’s probably a crap (Belkin) router?
[…] This kind of fakery is probably far more common than we realize, but it’s awful for the consumer. That wireless USB hub, for example, advertises Mac compatibility, but one of the real reviews suggests that this isn’t true at all. Such user feedback is important to making an informed choice as a consumer, and Bayard’s underhanded tactics screw up the entire system. For shame. [The Daily Background] […]
I have a hard time believing that this is really Mike Bayard. Surely he’s not dopey enough to use his real name.
[…] The Daily Background, […]
[…] an astute blogger poking around Amazon’s Mechanical Turk “crowd-sourcing” engine discovered that someone from Belkin — a company that makes computer and electronic peripherals like mice, USB […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
I never buy belkin crap. Every piece of it I’ve ever had broke quickly and annoyingly.
[…] be. On Friday night, Arlen Parsa, the author of “The Daily Background” blog has put up a very interesting posting. According to him, Belkin is actively & publicly (!?) looking for people who are willing to […]
[…] reddit.com Jan17 Back in our day, if you weren’t busy walking up uphill both ways, you’d write your own dang fake reviews on Amazon, but apparently Belkin’s Michael Bayard — or a clever impostor looking to smear the man’s good name — decided it’d be easier and totally non-obvious to hire people on Mechanical Turk to do it for him. For a whopping $0.65 cents you can write a 5 out of 5 review of a Belkin product, and downrank negative reviews while you’re at it. Michael Bayard is a Business Development Representative at Belkin, and seems to have pulled the Mechanical Turk posting, but the him and his company have yet to comment publicly. Say it ain’t so, Mike!Read […]
[…] how to respond to charges that Belkin has been paying for positive customer reviews on Amazon.com. Daily Background’s Arlen Parsa uncovered this week an Mechanical Turk offer (what’s Amazon’s Mechanical Turk?) to review the certified […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] Daily Background alleges that a Belkin Business Development Representative paid people to post 5 star product review ratings on Amazon.com when it was receiving poor reviews. The report appears to do a good job tracking Belkin’s […]
[…] Bayard, un des représentant des ventes sur internet de chez Belkin, s’est fait choppé par The Daily BackGround sur le site The Mechanical Turk d’Amazon à proposer d’acheter des avis positifs de […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] just contacted Belkin to confirm but this doesn’t look good. A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] Source: Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews […]
[…] do tasks best suited to humans. I’ve even made a few bucks off it myself. Well, a site called The Daily Background discovered that someone named Mike Bayard was offering $0.65 per positive (5/5) review for a poorly […]
Purdy (The paintbrush company) has their own marketing company post fake customer testimonials. Details:
http://www.ownrecognizance.com/purdy.html
[…] Vir: http://www.thedailybackground.com […]
[…] people quite Google, their hiring process and benefits. - Peter Svensson Mark - delicious The Daily Background » Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positiv… 1 hour ago - thedailybackground.com - Comment - Like - More Angie Haggstrom - Twitter […]
Belkin: privately held. Dang! I was going to make some Good Money off of this. Nothing like buying puts on a company that deserves to crash and burn, and making 100% return when they do. Guess I’ll have to wait for their IPO…
This is a nice piece of cyber-reporting! Congrats!
The sad thing is, I actually own a Belkin router (not the model the has the bugs, an older 802.11g one) and it is very good. The machine even has a lifetime warranty attached!
And generally, I do have a good impression about Belkin products. That is, until now!
[…] peinlich! Wie der Blog The Daily Background eher zufällig aufgedeckt hat, wollte der Hardware Hersteller Belkin (Computer, Eletronik, mobiler […]
[…] The News: The Daily Background blog outlines possible integrity attacks by Belkin. In a related posting, The Reputation Advisor Blog […]
I do not trust ratings or listings on the NY Times best seller list, etc. anyway because I know how things work and authors ask all their friends and networks to buy a book on a certain day, write nice things about it, etc. I also know of authors who bought 500,000 copies of their own book to make it go up the rankings. The whole system is corrupt because our system is.
[…] sitio The Daily Background publicó una entrada que de ser cierta va a levantar bastante polvo. En Mechanical Turk apareció […]
[…] an employee at Belkin was caught using Amazon’s crowd-sourcing tool Mechanical Turk to spam positive reviews of their routers on Amazon and other sites. The evidence was pretty damning, and Belkin’s […]
[…] Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews [The Daily Background] […]
[…] that’s different. I found this on CrunchGear. Here’s what happened: A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good […]
[…] the whole deal here. Really do. The Daily Background provides screen caps and updates on the […]
[…] to The Daily Background, a Belkin employee in charge of e-tailer relations (he even left his freakin’ name on the post, […]
[…] Daily Background blog came across some rather unethical business practices that has been going on Belkin for quite a while, paying people to write…. This practice makes you wonder if other companies are doing this, and if so – how long […]
[…] original findings appear to have been posted on The Daily Background where you can also see some recent updates and […]
[…] president Mark Reynoso just released this statement to The Daily Background, in response to my previous report about their Amazon sales rep paying people to write fake positive reviews online for their […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] Parsa (The individual who broke this story) - I salute you. This online ecosystem only works if people fight to preserve some level of honesty […]
[…] Yet, user-generated reviews suffer from informational problems. Firstly, why would you trust the product recommendations from an online stranger any more than you might somebody else? Secondly, user reviews are often tediously long, contain huge volumes of inconsistent information, and sometimes even degenerate into personal mudslinging matches. This imposes search costs upon the person trying to make sense of reviews. For example I was recently searching for a new lens for my SLR camera (a little hobby on the side), and it took a bit more time than I had expected to visit various photography forums to sort out which products were really good, versus other lenses that suffered quality control problems. Thirdly, there is a growing phenomenon of companies manipulating online information for their own benefit. For instance, last week Seagate was found to be deleting user postings from their website about high defect rates, while a Belkin official was caught out offering cash for good reviews. […]
Sounds like something MoveOn.org does but no one seems to care.
[…] Friday night, I published a blog entry exposing how Belkin employee Mike Bayard had been paying people $0.65 for each positive review they wrote of his company’s products on sites like Amazon.com. The item caused a firestorm, […]
[…] Daily Background, Crunchgear, Amazon Mechanical Turk […]
[…] dirigente di Belkin avrebbe infatti usato Mechanical Turk per pagare recensioni dei prodotti della Belkin stessa: questo accade da tempo su MT, ma il buon Michael Bayard è andato un attimo fuori dal seminato, […]
[…] addthis_pub = ‘Regeneration’; Posted by Regeneration on January 19th, 2009, 10:38 AM Amazon.com runs a side business called Mechanical Turk. It?s a site where people can go, register, and get paid to do little tasks that computers can?t do (like help image filtering software identify graphic search results for example). Users can do any one of thousands of tasks provided by requesters, who pay them a small amount of money in return (usually anywhere between one cent and a couple dollars per task). I was checking out this website the other day and I made a few bucks by hand-transcribing a few videos. But then I came across this. That?s a request from somebody named Mike Bayard to review a product and ?give [it] a 100% rating (as high as possible).? It doesn?t matter if the reviewer doesn?t own the product or has never tried it? the requester has helpfully written, ?Write as if you own the product and are using it.? It even goes a step further, asking the Mechanical Turk user to ?Mark any other negative reviews as ?not helpful? once you post yours.? You can read the entire article at The Daily Background. […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] [Za: The Daily Background] […]
[…] [Za: The Daily Background] […]
[…] Uiteraard wordt via LinkedIn snel genoeg de persoon in kwestie gevonden: (halverwege artikel) […]
[…] weekend. Arlen Parsa at The Daily Background took a short break from political analysis to expose a Belkin development rep who appeared to be hiring people to write fake positive Amazon reviews. Parsa broke the story on Friday; by Sunday, Belkin’s president Mike Reynoso responded with […]
[…] Ob mit Kenntnis des Arbeitgebers oder nicht: Es entsteht dem Unternehmen fast immer ein Reputationsschaden, der nur schwerlich wett zu machen ist. Wie jetzt geschehen beim US-amerikanischen Unternehmen Belkin, ein Hersteller von Computerzubehör, sog. Connectivity-Produkten (aufgedeckt von). […]
[…] Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews [The Daily Background] […]
[…] #1 (permalink) Belkin rep pays people to write good reviews This is pretty crazy. The Daily Background Exclusive: Belkin?s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Ama… __________________ WIP: […]
[…] The Belkin company has been busted by The Daily Background for paying $.65 per fake consumer review via the Amazon service Mechanical […]
[…] The Daily Background […]
[…] Daily Background exposes a fraud in which a Belkin representative has been paying for 5-star reviews of their products on Amazon. The representative, Michael Bayard, is a Business Development Representative that has been paying […]
[…] Belkin?s Development Rep is Hiring People to ……. Exclusive: Belkin?s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews […]
[…] embarrassing bit of business for networking hardware vendor Belkin, the company has been busted by The Daily Background for paying people to post positive reviews on Amazon. According to the report, Belkin Business […]
[…] tactic I absolutely did not endorse was the one a Belkin employee was discovered using over at Amazon.com. That’s a request from somebody named Mike Bayard to review a product and […]
[…] dice ser un representante de la empresa en Amazon. ¿Por qué digo esto? Porque en la web de ventas ofrecía US$0,65 si un usuario calificaba positivamente a los productos de […]
[…] wireless routers and various other gizmos you’ll find flooding off the shelves at PC World. The Daily Background discovered a post by Bayard on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a site where you can perform tech […]
[…] up, royally January 19, 2009 So, this idiot wanted to pay for fake enthusiastic products’ reviews. Not enough: to review clearly BAD products without even using them and to mark the real, bad […]
[…] dice ser un representante de la empresa en Amazon. ¿Por qué digo esto? Porque en la web de ventas ofrecía US$0,65 si un usuario calificaba positivamente a los productos de […]
[…] avis positifs dont rêvent toutes les entreprises… Cette nouvelle affaire révélée par le blog Daily Background est une illustration des dérives auxquelles on peut assister aujourd’hui. En fait, un […]
[…] Kaikkihan tietävät, että firmat maksavat siitä, että ihmiset kirjoittavat ylistäviä lausuntoja heidän tuotteistaan webin keskustelupalstoille, arvosteluihin jne. No ei siinä mitään muuten, mutta ei kannattaisi tehdä rekrytointia omalla nimellään kuten Belkinin työntekijä teki. […]
[…] Der Peripherie- und Netzwerkzubehör Hersteller Belkin hat nun offiziell zugegeben, positive Bewertungen für das Online-Portal Amazon gekauft zu haben. Demnach dürften willigen Usern bis zu 68 US-Cent für eine positive Beruteilung geboten worden sein. Belkin-Präsident jedenfalls verurteilt diese Vorgehensweise seitens seiner Mitarbeiter. Mies, mies, mies. So traurig es kling, dürfte diese Vorgehensweise aber doch weit verbreitet sein. (via) […]
[…] approached them with some amount of suspicion because I’ve always wondered how real they are. Thanks to The Daily Background, I have come to the conclusion that these reviews can’t be […]
[…] Amazon reviews as "unhelpful." Belkin has since posted an apology to their website… The Daily Background ? Exclusive: Belkin?s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive A… Belkin Press Room __________________ ASUS Maximus Formula (X38) ***** EVGA 8800GT Superclocked […]
[…] Belkin hiring people to write fake reviews on Amazon I just found out about this, but it looks like some major ownage to Belkin. http://www.thedailybackground.com/20…mazon-reviews/ […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
Very interesting job.
[…] Parsa schreef vrijdagavond op zijn weblog ‘The Daily Background’ een artikel over de praktijken van ene Michael Bayard, ‘Business Development […]
[…] 65-Cent-Angebot für’s mechanische Türken sah zufällig auch Arlan Parsa von The Daily Background. Der fand das doch ein bisschen daneben und machte die Praxis öffentlich. Entrüstung wie […]
[…] berichtet und zumindest den Blog, der’s aufgedeckt hat verlinkt, nämlich “The Daily Background” (engl.). Ihr wisst ja alle nur zu gut, dass ein möglichst breites Echo manchen Zampano […]
[…] morning, Belkin addressed the fraudulent review shilling that The Daily Background discovered last week. As you probably know by now, Belkin employee Mike Bayard was caught offering […]
[…] sera, quando Arlen Parsa ha pubblicato sul blog The Daily Background un post dal titolo eloquente: “Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep Is Hiring People To Write Fake Positive Amazon Revi… (“Esclusiva: rappresentante dello sviluppo dei prodotti Belkin sta assumendo persone per […]
[…] 19, 2009 · No Comments Some companies will do anything to get favorable reviews for their products. The good news is that these scams are usually easy […]
On easy fix for this problem is to do what Apple’s App Store did: allow reviews only from people who purchased the product.
[…] Friday, The Daily Background Web site revealed how someone, apparently Belkin business development representative Mark Bayard, […]
[…] has citizen journalism been quite as sharp as a recent post on The Daily Background - an unassuming blog written by a documentary film student in New […]
[…] Belkin gets caught paying for good reviews. […]
[…] embarrassing bit of business for networking hardware vendor Belkin, the company has been busted by The Daily Background for paying people to post positive reviews on Amazon. According to the report, Belkin Business […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
Simply amazing. While I am sure they are probably not the first to do something like this they are certainly the most brazen that i have heard of.
Online retailers offer the user reviews as a selling tool that helps inform their potential customers and makes for an easy way to end up with more satisfied customers. I’m sure the companies affected will not be too happy about this.
As for me, most of things I have purchased in the last 2 or 3 years with the Belkin name haven’t been very good. It seems like almost every store carries a wide variety of their merchandise. I have a feeling I will not be buying anymore.
Vote with your wallet.
[…] http://www.thedailybackground.com/2009/01/16/exclusive-belkins-development-rep-is-hiring-people-to-w… […]
[…] The Daily Background ? Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Posi… With pictures of how it was found. __________________ Quote: […]
[…] The Daily Background ? Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Posi… With pictures of how it was found. __________________ Quote: […]
[…] positive reviews for their product on Amazon using Amazon’s side business, Mechanical Turk. (Daily Background via […]
[…] tactic I absolutely did not endorse was the one a Belkin employee was discovered using over at Amazon.com. That’s a request from somebody named Mike Bayard to review a product and […]
[…] The Daily Background?????????????16??????????Belkin?????????????????Mark […]
[…] Friday, The Daily Background Blog revealed that a Belkin employee was doing just that: Paying 65 cents for perfect reviews on […]
[…] article “Belkin paying 65 cents for good reviews on New Egg and Amazon“. And so did the Daily Background. It’s enough to make me remove my Linked In profile […]
[…] the positive ones. One tactic I absolutely did not endorse was the one a Belkin employee was discovered using over at Amazon.com. That’s a request from somebody named Mike Bayard to review a product and […]
[…] I can’t say I’m totally surprised by yet another reasonnot to buy anything from Belkin. Yes, Belkin was caught paying people to write good reviews, and […]
[…] Realität Für Belkin hat sich ein echter PR-Gau zugetragen: Erst gab es Anschuldigungen, die Firma beauftrage über Amazons Mechanical Turk gute Bewertungen für ihre Produkte bei Amazon abzugeben. Jetzt, nachdem sich Mark Reynoso, […]
[…] history was first published by The Daily Background and then reported on TechCrunch. Looks like it was all the action of a Business Development […]
[…] the extended Holiday weekend (here in the ‘States, anyhow), I read up on how a Belkin employee - Mike Bayard - was unashamedly advertising the fact that he would pay for positiv…, a highly unethical (if not illegal) practice that has come to be known as […]
[…] looks like a Belkin employee has been doing just that to products that previously only had poor reviews at Amazon. If you follow the links through you […]
[…] As first noted by Arlen Parsa, Belkin used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to enlist users to write positive reviews, suggesting, helpfully, that the offer was open anyone willing to “write as if you own the product and are using it,” and provide a product the highest possible rating. […]
[…] last Friday by The Daily Background blog, author Arlen Parsa detailed stumbling onto a query in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk system […]
Innocent until proven guilty? Could be a competitor?
[…] Belkin company has been busted by The Daily Background for paying $.65 per fake consumer review via the Amazon service Mechanical […]
[…] The Daily Background broke the Belkin story, the post was submitted to Digg, where it eventually made the front page and was read by tens of […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] business representative at Belkin was caught paying people (through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk) to write product reviews with 100% ratings […]
[…] on Belkin products payed for by Belkin employee! Wow… Check out this blog entry: The Daily Background Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positi… Some tech blogs picked it up like here on engadget Belkingate - as new evidence turns up, the […]
[…] scam by the Belkin employee was discovered and then uncovered online by political blogger Arlen Parsa on his Dailybackground.com Web site late Friday Jan. […]
[…] ????????Daily Background???????????Belkin??????????????????????????0.69????????????????? […]
It seems clear that Belkin isn’t the only one doing this. Check out this Amazon user and notice that they wrote multiple laptop battery reviews from the same vendor on Sept 15, 2008. The only negative review was to trash a competitor. Amazon reviews are worthless, subscribe to consumer reports instead.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3KU7XML7S2S72/ref=cm_aya_bb_pdp
[…] Belkin company has been busted by The Daily Background for paying $.65 per fake consumer review via the Amazon service Mechanical […]
[…] techster and mate o’ mine Leigh Mannes, flags a techy PR disaster where Belkin was caught ‘incentivising’ favourable blog comment ($0.65 a go). After being outed, the PR response was swift with a Belkin honcho insisting it was an […]
[…] ????????Daily Background???????????Belkin??????????????????????????0.69????????????????? […]
[…] take the example of Belkin which was revealed by The Daily Background last week. The story on how a Belkin manager incentives people to write reviews on products sounds […]
[…] Belkin payola for reviews via Amazon’s Mechanical turk and is busted. […]
[…] couple of days ago, one of Belkin’s reps got caught trying to hire people to write good reviews of their products. Given the spate of fake reviews and other games (see my earlier post about Eidos manipulating […]
[…] http://www.thedailybackground.com/2009/01/1… […]
[…] per geschreven review een vergoeding van 65 Dollarcent. Het verhaal is verder uitgezocht door thedailybackground en het blijkt dat er ook op andere platformen ongeldige reviews waren geplaatst. Vanuit Belkin […]
[…] a spontaneous upwelling of public opinion (Wiktionary), so when Belkin offered $0.65 per review for positive 5/5 write-ups of its products on, among other sites, Buy.com, it was kindly providing us with a handy textbook […]
[…] is today able to corroborate reports from an anonymous Belkin employee who claimed that the review fraud first reported by The Daily Background last Friday “only scratches the […]
[…] Daily Background’un haberine göre, Belkin yöneticisi Mike Bayard, ürünleri için yaz?lan olumlu yorumlara yorum ba??na 65 […]
[…] time on Amazon.com. The Daily Background stumbled across on online offer from a Belkin sales rep to pay 65¢ to anyone who was willing to write a five-star review of a Belkin product in the product review section of the online […]
[…] The full amazing story is here […]
[…] bekannt wurde, dass bei Amazon Bewertungen für eines seiner Produkte manipuliert wurden, hat sich der Computerzubehör-Hersteller Belkin jetzt offiziell […]
[…] in this case, I can’t help myself from showing three examples of media coverage of the story I broke last week right here on The Daily […]
[…] blog has created quite a stir for pointing out that a Belkin buisness devleopment rep was offering money for positive product reviews on Amazon.com. The product, a wireless USB hub, was getting terrible reviews on Amazon, so […]
[…] stuff this week you’ll have to listen twice to take it all in. Clint a permanent cast member? Belkin buying reviews? Waxman the Anti-Christ? Who knows? Are USA made amps better? Are they even made in the USA? Stupid […]
[…] Belkin’s Development Rep Caught While Trying to Hire Fake Reviewers to Write Positive Comments at Amazon [PIC] Caught By The Daily Background […]
[…] history was first published by The Daily Background and then reported on TechCrunch. Looks like it was all the action of a Business Development […]
[…] Read on at: http://www.thedailybackground.com/2009/01/16/exclusive-belkins-development-rep-is-hiring-people-to-w… […]
Upsets me when people try to abuse the lovely social media tools that we have. Spamming on messagboards, editing wikis and posting fake reviews.
Did they really think they could get away with it? The internet is largely a savvy place where it is hard to hide your secrets.
Belkin bow your head in shame!
[…] or products in good standing and looking good to your prospective customers. In the last week, Belkin were found to have paid people to put fake reviews on a variety of sites for their products, and this discovery has harmed their image. Even though it was just one employee […]
[…] Newegg. As you can imagine, once the cat was out of the bag and a screenshot of the actual task (see it here) began circulating across the Internet, the Belkin president, Mark Reynoso, had to respond and […]
Lol, what a retard, people will check more then just amazon reviews
I use www.discount-hunt.com to search for discount items on amazon but always check reviews on various other sites.
[…] systems get better, this kind of spam is happening more and more. We’ve all heard about the Belkin embarrassment. This jerk has gotten his crappy youtube vid half a million views by posting on any and all forums […]
[…] [UPDATE] I received a note from my PR rep at Belkin indicating her disappointment at my post (which follows this added paragraph). The disappointment stems from the fact that I stated that the rep was from Belkin PR. The individual by the name of Michael Bayard is actually not in PR but is a Business Development Representative whose job it is to sell Belkin products to buyers. I understand her want to defend her department, but I still cannot defend the unethical choices made by Mr. Bayard, regardless of how common it is in the industry. You can find additional details here. […]
[…] embarrassing bit of business for networking hardware vendor Belkin, the company has been busted by The Daily Background for paying people to post positive reviews on Amazon. According to the report, Belkin Business […]
[…] story was broken by blogger Arlen Parsa of The Daily Record and has spread from there arcross the web, putting the credibility of user reviews under scrutiny […]
its funny how he is using amazon’s own system to basically game their own system. I mean I really doubt they intended that. lol
[…] do tasks best suited to humans. I’ve even made a few bucks off it myself. Well, a site called The Daily Background discovered that someone named Mike Bayard was offering $0.65 per positive (5/5) review for a poorly […]
[…] Belkin User bezahlt hat, positive Bewertungen auf Plattformen zu verfassen (Hintergrund hier). Dies ist sicher kein Einzelfall und in Summe können Aktionen wie diese dazu führen, […]
[…] seriously deciding to leverage employees or a 3rd party vendor to write fake customer reviews (hi Belkin), I would rethink your decision. There’s really no substitute for real, authentic customer […]
[…] happened to have a blog. Even though he’s not a reporter, he broken the story like a pro in Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews. Other bloggers saw this post, picked up the story and carried it as well. Suddenly, Belkin has […]
[…] why the headline? Well, because, it is true. The Daily Background broke a story a couple of weeks ago about precisely this type of behaviour. In brief, they discovered that an […]
[…] review writers to write positive things about their products and get those reviews up online. The Daily Background blog broke the story that someone had gone on Mechanical Turk, a Web site that crowdsources many […]
[…] Adams. In a Sunday strip, no less! This one, apparently parodying the Belkin fake reviews story I broke on this blog, appeared in about 2,000 newspapers worldwide on February 1st. […]
[…] this episode of The New Mediology, we talked about social media ethics. The recent story about Belkin paying people to give them good product reviews on Amazon.com was our basis for this […]
[…] of The New Mediology, Nathan and I talked about social media ethics. We used the recent story about Belkin paying people for positive reviews on Amazon.com as the basis for the discussion. This is a classic case of someone trying to use social media […]
[…] splash out some Cash4Silence. This comes a few weeks after a Belkin employee got busted trying to pay people to write positive reviews about its products on Amazon. It’s hardly surprising that companies do this sort of thing, […]
[…] splash out some Cash4Silence. This comes a few weeks after a Belkin employee got busted trying to pay people to write positive reviews about its products on Amazon. It’s hardly surprising that companies do this sort of thing, […]
[…] may remember the Belkin scandle from about 3 weeks ago. In a nutshell, they got caught offering 65 cents for every favorable review […]
[…] Companies that realize Google likes reviews have been hard at work encouraging reviews - with Belkin paying 65 cents per fake review. […]
[…] Companies that realize Google likes reviews have been hard at work encouraging reviews - with Belkin paying 65 cents per fake review. […]
[…] Companies that realize Google likes reviews have been hard at work encouraging reviews - with Belkin paying 65 cents per fake review. […]
Looks like Belkin has deleted some of the posts on the press room homepage.
What is up? Anyone know?
[…] Companies that realize Google likes reviews have been hard at work encouraging reviews - with Belkin paying 65 cents per fake review. […]
[…] a comment » I was unpleasantly surprised when I had to learn from The Daily Background that companies (in this case Belkin) use services like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to improve […]
[…] Here’s the link to the person who actually caught Mr. Bayard’s not-so-smart marketing tactics. […]
[…] January 2009, another controversy arose as it was revealed that someone in the electronics accessory giant Belkin company had been using Amazon’s […]
[…] and blog postings has been mounting in response to Belkin’s “fraudulent reviews” posting and, most recently, Yelp.com’s “business of extortion” coverage. These cases, […]
[…] all came to light when a blogger found a listing on Amazon’s ‘mechanical turk’ system, where users list simple […]
[…] last month, The Daily Background caught computer hardware manufacturer Belkin in the act of hiring people to write flattering […]
[…] had the idea for this post in my mind for awhile, but after reading an article over on The Daily Background about Belkin paying $0.65 for each 5/5 review on Amazon from people that had never used/owned the […]
Dont throw the baby out with the bathwater folks!! The one marketing guy with the bad decision does not a company make. I have known the 2 men who STARTED this company for over 30 years. They are ethical, honest, moral, caring and realistic men. They have taken care of the situation, and their staff knows it is NOT how they do business. They stand behind their products. Period.
[…] is “loaded with Bugs, goes on & off whenever it feels like, and comes at a hefty price.”read more | digg […]
[…] ?Belkin???????The Daily Background ???????????Belkin???????????????Mechanical Turk?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????——????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? –Loeyh […]
[…] Belkin router, even if they had never owned or used the product. Last week Arlen Parsa broke the story on his blog The Daily Background. Last night Belkin’s president, Mark Reynoso, confirmed […]
[…] review sites have been getting so much heat in the news. From the allegations against Yelp, to the Belkin scandal, to the most recent Amazon debacle, the media is looking to find the next shady review site. But […]
And our birth certificates do not just “wear out”; I have real copies of my grandparents birth certificates that can be read just fine. I even have some older belonging to my great grandparents. This information doesn’t “get lost” in the system; it’s how they keep track of you. Besides, in the 1960s there was a huge effort to copy all that paper onto files called “microfiche”; you can find them at any local library if you want to know what they look like
[…] seriously deciding to leverage employees or a 3rd party vendor to write fake customer reviews (hi Belkin), I would rethink your decision. There’s really no substitute for real, authentic customer […]
[…] been months since I broke the Belkin fake review scandal, but I still get emails from other ordinary people who discover that something similar is happening […]
[…] guarantee of being caught out doesn’t seem to occur to some people. Belkin were caught red-handed in January, something I wrote about at the […]
Gee, how could I have been so silly. I even went to the company selling the pc telling them they are such bad internet site opening browser providers and that paint did not work opening sites.
They looked at me as if I was standing naked and have a fish in my left hand and a pig’s head in the other.
With other words, thank you for your real kind way of explaining to me that you do not ‘open sites’ in paint.
That is why I mentioned screenshot. That is a term used to do just that, isn’t it?
But, since someone suggested the linked in profile did not exist I was thinking
[…] since I broke the Belkin astroturfing scandal earlier this year, people periodically send me emails about other companies who are also trying to […]
I have seen this a lot, are you going to release any other brand that use this practise?
Richard, you can read about some other similar situations that I’ve written about (always referring back to this Belkin situation) here:
http://www.thedailybackground.com/?s=belkin
[…] readers will remember that I broke the Belkin fraudulent review scandal and have written several times about astroturfed reviews […]
[…] unethical, sleazy, and they got caught. Read about it here: 1 2 3 and all over the […]
[…] the HITs, occasionally there are things that pop-up that aren’t the most ethical of requests. In January, The Daily Background exposed a Belkin representative who was paying for positive Amazon …. Personally, I do not participate in those kinds of HITs, and I do not endorse anyone else doing […]
[…] employee was busted after The Daily Background found an ad on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, offering users monetary incentives to write […]
[…] on an Amazon website called Mechanical Turk asking users to read about a Belkin product and write a positive product review in exchange for payment of $0.65 per product review. He provided his name on the posting. He, too, was found on […]
[…] who happened to have a blog. Even though he’s not a reporter, he broken the story like a pro in Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews. Other bloggers saw this post, picked up the story and carried it as well. Suddenly, Belkin has […]
I know that this is quite an old article now but I am still seeing, not only on Amazon, what appear to be writing their own ‘ghost’ reviews. I think that it’s becoming less of a problem though as people begin to research the product they are after across multiple websites.
Well at least the guy is transparent about it. The whole rating system is rather subjective as it is.
[…] Ratings and recommendations are also a key decision influencer, I always check out the reviews on Amazon, because they are from people (well, mostly from real people anyway). […]
[…] about the Belkin employee who was offering to pay Mechanical Turks for fake, positive reviews on Amazon.com? He obviously missed the lesson on […]
I have noticed on Amazon, Newegg, Tigerdirect that there is a networking product which I know first hand is a really bad product. Every time a real person leaves a bad review two or more new ones(5 star ratings) pop up to get the customer ratings back up. Saying things like “great product” or “I am really happy with this” when I know there is no way this can be. Because of my recent experience with this I no longer trust the reviews from these sites. But I still try to write reviews whether good or bad.
[…] you can’t control the conversations, you can only join them. Negative Ex: Belkin – Hired people to write fake positive reviews on Amazon and other sites that sold their products. You can imagine what this did to their image when the […]
[…] do tasks best suited to humans. I’ve even made a few bucks off it myself. Well, a site called The Daily Background discovered that someone named Mike Bayard was offering $0.65 per positive (5/5) review for a poorly […]
[…] Belkin?2009?1?? ????????????????????????????????????? Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews […]
[…] posts about the Belkin “fraudulent reviews” situation. If you haven’t read, here’s the original article. In short, a Belkin business development rep (Mark Bayard) posted a Mechanical Turk request to pay […]
[…] per geschreven review een vergoeding van 65 Dollarcent. Het verhaal is verder uitgezocht door thedailybackground en het blijkt dat er ook op andere platformen ongeldige reviews waren geplaatst. Vanuit Belkin […]
[…] Thema: [ Pfui: Belkin bezahlt gefälschte Amazon-Rezensionen ] [ Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews ] [ Yes, there ARE fake reviews on Amazon! ] [ 30 Ways You Can Spot Fake Online Reviews ] [ A Fake […]
[…] Newegg. As you can imagine, once the cat was out of the bag and a screenshot of the actual task (see it here) began circulating across the Internet, the Belkin president, Mark Reynoso, had to respond and […]
[…] scoperta The Daily Background che ha trovato in Amazon Mechanical Turk (un sito che ospita inserzioni di lavoro, con le quali si […]
[…] recently discovered that Belkin’s lead online sales rep, Michael Bayard, has been secretly paying internet users to review his company’s products favourably on Amazon.com and other websites like Newegg, whether or not they’ve ever used the devices. […]
[…] Exclusief: Belkin’s Development Rep huurt mensen in om valse positieve Amazon beoordelingen te… […]
[…] Exclusief: Belkin’s Development Rep huurt mensen in om valse positieve Amazon beoordelingen te… […]
[…] “business development representative” of Belkin, the router (and other stuff) maker has been caught soliciting fake positive reviews on Amazon for one of its routers which had a stinking reputation from real […]
I conceive other website proprietors should take this internet site as an model, very clean and superb user friendly style and design .
[…] http://www.thedailybackground.com/2009/01/16/exclusive-belkins-development-rep-is-hiring-people-to-w… […]
[…] guarantee of being caught out doesn’t seem to occur to some people. Belkin were caught red-handed in January, something I wrote about at the […]
[…] Companies have been embarrassed when their own employees compose raves for their products and have used the aforementioned Mechanical Turk to generate fake positive reviews. David Friedman, the photographer/blogger, recently noted a new strategy in this great game: the […]
I’ve worked at companies before and been encouraged to write positive reviews. It doesn’t surprise me at all. Everyone wants to buy something that’s been recommended.
[…] SMM thrives on Honesty So you make a product and now you want to sell it. Go on and build your community. Try giving away your products for trial and let the community talk about it. If your stuff is real good, it will reflect in the sales, but if it is bad, then good luck to you as the community will rip it off! Take it as a scope for improvement and let the community know, you will be respected. Instead, you get done a ‘paid’ review of your product and your decline in sales has only just begun. It is unfortunate when some marketers misunderstand ‘user reviews’ to be just another medium for advertising. Consumers will eventually boycott ‘reviews’ or worst still get you busted. […]
[…] Yet, user-generated reviews suffer from informational problems. Firstly, why would you trust the product recommendations from an online stranger any more than you might somebody else? Secondly, user reviews are often tediously long, contain huge volumes of inconsistent information, and sometimes even degenerate into personal mudslinging matches. This imposes search costs upon the person trying to make sense of reviews. For example I was recently searching for a new lens for my SLR camera (a little hobby on the side), and it took a bit more time than I had expected to visit various photography forums to sort out which products were really good, versus other lenses that suffered quality control problems. Thirdly, there is a growing phenomenon of companies manipulating online information for their own benefit. For instance, last week Seagate was found to be deleting user postings from their website about high defect rates, while a Belkin official was caught out offering cash for good reviews. […]
[…] I want to feel motivated to write about you, not like I’m being paid off. There are sites where you can pay people for reviews (see below) but please don’t ask for only good reviews unless you want to get stung like Belkin. […]
[…] I want to feel motivated to write about you, not like I’m being paid off. There are sites where you can pay people for reviews (see below) but please don’t ask for only good reviews unless you want to get stung like Belkin. […]
[…] I want to feel motivated to write about you, not like I’m being paid off. There are sites where you can pay people for reviews (see below) but please don’t ask for only good reviews unless you want to get stung like Belkin. […]
[…] Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews The Daily Background discovered and reported that that one of Belkin’s employees attempted to use Amazon’s crowdsourcing service, Mechanical Turk, to generate positive online reviews for its routers. […]
[…] you can’t control the conversations, you can only join them. Negative Ex: Belkin – Hired people to write fake positive reviews on Amazon and other sites that sold their products. You can imagine what this did to their image when the […]
[…] Google and self diagnosing themselves. But what happens when health product reviews are written by people who are paid to write positive feedback? Or their self diagnoses is incorrect and they are in fact in need of a […]
[…] WOW – it’s more than 2 weeks old, but I still want to talk about it. In brief Amazon runs a site called mechanical turk, which is a side where people can go and get paid to do stuff that computers can’t do. They get a small ammount of money for each task they do. He finds out that an employee at Belkin has posted a task that is called “write a positive 5/5 review for product on website” – for a belkin router that has consistently gotten bad reviews. wow. I really hope this is not going to be a standard way of doing business. […]
[…] medium for advertising. Consumers will eventually boycott ‘reviews’ or worst still get you busted.SMM is about human beings, not demographic sectors All the statistics and all the number crunching […]