The Daily Background
| Fresh evidence suggests Belkin’s Amazon sales Rep was engaged in more unethical activities
by Arlen Parsa
Late 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, with users from Slashdot, Digg, Crunch Gear, Engadget, Gizmodo and dozens of other sites decrying the obviously unethical behavior. My web server even temporarily went down, it got so much attention.
Less than 48 hours later, Belkin’s president Mark Reynoso responded to my report, saying that “this is an isolated incident” and that “Belkin does not participate in, nor does it endorse, unethical practices like this.” I can add that I’ve independently verified that Amazon has taken action to remove what it believes were fake comments on product listing pages for a specific Belkin router.
Now, thanks to an anonymous tip left in the comments section of one of my posts, there is fresh evidence of potential wrongdoing on the part of Mr Bayard, Belkin’s Amazon.com sales rep. The commenter suggested that Mr Bayard could be using multiple pseudonyms of his own to post positive reviews of Belkin products.
I’ve now looked into it, and it appears that this may indeed have been occurring. Around the exact same time that Mr Bayard started paying people to write fake reviews using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, it appears that Mr Bayard used an Amazon.com account called “B. Ekim” (whose nickname was listed, subtly, as “mikebayard”) to give Belkin products five star ratings and review them– without acknowledging that he was in fact in charge of Belkin’s dealings with the mega e-tailer.
Above: A list of reviews which appear to be written by Mr Bayard under two pseudonyms. All of them were for Belkin products; all of them were 5 out of 5 stars.
One of the reviews he posted under this pseudonym was for a Belkin TuneCast, an FM receiver for iPods. The product has gotten 23 one-star reviews from customers who said it was “a very poor product” and “very disappointing.” Mr Bayard’s review, one of only two five star reviews for the product, said it “it exceeded my expectations, and was a lot of fun for us to use.” 3 out of 7 users said they found his input helpful when making their purchasing decision. Click here to see a screenshot of this review (note especially the rankings the product has received from other users, as show in the far right side of the screen).
On another product’s page, he wrote, “I think this thing is really cool and worth every penny.”
Another account with the name “R. Wood” (nickname “rudomag”) was found to have done little other than rate Belkin’s products the highest rating possible. The same user also uploaded to Amazon dozens of the same promotional product images also found on Belkin’s website, and the nickname “rudomag” can be traced to positive reviews of Belkin products elsewhere online, at sites like PriceGrabber.
So it appears that Mr Bayard’s wrong-doing was more extensive than the company has acknowledged, although I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they don’t know about these additional apparent cases of his astroturfing (although they do now, as I just shared with them these fresh findings in an email). As the anonymous blog commenter who pointed this out to me wrote, it “looks like Belkin and Amazon still have more clean up to do.”
Update: As noted by someone in the comments section, one of the Amazon.com profiles has been scrubbed. Not surprising.
And the damage goes farther than just the Amazon main site. Amazon’s Associate-O-Matic allows Amazon associates to set up their own web stores under their own domains that have **Amazon** reviews–without notining the reviews come from Amazon.
You can see the Belkin device with Amazon reviews at sites like these, but without the $150 discount Amazon has on the much reviled device:
http://macsaregreat.com/reviews-OSX-172504-B000LP9RQC-2-Belkin_F5U301_CableFree_4_Port_USB_20_Hub_with_Dongle
http://1stopipodstore.com/1stopipodstore.php?c=1&n=281413&i=B000LP9RQC&x=Belkin_F5U301_CableFree_4_Port_USB_20_Hub_with_Dongle
http://ipodbooks.com/accessories-541966-B000LP9RQC-Belkin_F5U301_CableFree_4_Port_USB_20_Hub_with_Dongle.html
Fortunately, the *purging* of the most blatantly fraudulent reviews from Amazon also cascades down to these sites…
B. Ekim’s nickname is now “iowntheseproducts”.
Just logging your activity, Bayard.
Edit: Everything’s disappeared from the B. Ekim profile. Will the R.Wood one be next?
[…] a link to Mike Bayard’s LinkedIn profile, identifying him as a Belkin online sales rep. Later, our hero also discovered that the same guy had been posting five-star Amazon reviews for Belkin products under […]
who gives a shit.. who gives a fuck..
[…] set up by a Belkin employee. The Daily Background, which broke the story in the first place, has found evidence that the Belkin staffer who was apparently behind the scam was also publishing favora…. And Gizmodo has published an incendiary e-mail, supposedly from an ex-Belkin employee, that […]
I rate this investigation 5 out of 5 stars. Also, I rate anything from Belkin 1 star, and the imbecile Mike Bayard 0 stars.
Typical for all marketing/advertising criminals.
All of Madison Avenue should be put up against the wall IMHO.
All they do is lie like this cretin, and drive up prices.
Belkin just made my shitelist.
Choose carefully when parting with your hard earned dollars, we need NOT support these sleaze.
Mikey H, a man after my own heart. Gotta love Stern.
The shocking thing is anyone actually believes online reviews. I always ignore the positive ones, no real person that isn’t a fan boy or employee will think something is perfect so why waste your time with 5 star reviews. Look for 1 to 3 star reviews, just make sure you don’t get suckered into believing the bad reviews are all honest either.
[…] There appears to be evidence that this practise is more widespread than previously thought. If I wasn’t going to avoid Belkin products before, I will now. Possibly related posts: […]
Wow i’ve seen some idiots in my time but this guy takes the entire cookie jar!
If it wasn’t Bayard why would the B.Ekim account suddenly change it’s profile info and especially change the nickname to ‘iowntheseproducts’
Bayard, if you read this then take the following quote from the late Hunter S Thompson to heart:
“If something’s worth doing, its worth doing right”
you sir, deserve a slap for being such a moron
I love Belkin cables and connectors and such, but I know everything above that to be crap. I remember seeing these freak positive reviews and thinking something smelled funny. Just like the Flash CS3 Classroom in a Book reviews—several reviewers give it 1 star because it’s full of errors and it’s basically incomplete, but one or two give it 5 saying it’s practically solely responsible for launching their careers? Come on, if something looks that ridiculous it probably is.
Count me as someone who will NEVER EVER buy a Belkin product for as long as I live. There are LOTS of alternatives, it’s not like they’re the only ones who make routers, hubs, etc etc. Kiss my money goodbye, Belkin.
Umm.. Why would Mike Bayard be that stupid that he would use his own name or a similar nickname to review? Imho this looks like someone is doing this on purpose to make it look even more worse that it is right now.
I have seen several Mechanical Turk requests for posting positive reviews and favorable comments about products … it’s not just Belkin.
Typically the requester gives a specific review site or blog post to reply to, and the turn around time on these is VERY short.
They’re so full of crap! It’s funny how Belkin has “isolated incidents” seemingly several times a year. They obviously have a corporate environment that breeds this sort of thing. I put them on my “evil company, do not buy” permanent list when the news of the spam router came out back in 2003, and haven’t bought so much as a cable from them since.
“I rate this investigation 5 out of 5 stars. Also, I rate anything from Belkin 1 star, and the imbecile Mike Bayard 0 stars.”
I award you zero stars, and may God have mercy on your soul.
(Sorry, it had to be said.)
I have been buying Belkin products for years, both large and small orders, corporate and personal and never had a failure on those products.
I would like to hear the entire story from Belkin on what has been going on to prompt such an error.
I have no plans to stop buying from Belkin, but I will be a little wary from now on.
Norm
Wow, I always wondered whether some of those reviews on Amazon (and other sites) were tainted. This goes beyond unethical in my opinion. I normally use some the opinions when I am considering a purchase. Who are we supposed to trust now? Even if Amazon (and other review sites) were to clear this up (and I doubt they will), I will no longer bother reading the reviews again. They might as well fill in the review space with Lorem Ipsum text.
God, this really annoys the hell out of me.
I’ve worked with Mike Bayard and he is a really nice guy. He is also very smrt and handsome. He would never lie. And he gets all of the ladies. He is the coolest.
Belkin made my “permanent blacklist of unethical vendors” quite some time ago over their router’s hijacking of every n-th HTTP request causing a Belkin advertizement to be displayed instead of the page you requested from some other site. That was 2003. Here’s a reference:
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-4_102-0.html?threadID=2474
That kind of unethical behavior comes with the company and does not go away because they issue an apology and say they won’t do it again. IMHO, it takes a complete purge of the leadership of the company, including, or especially the board of directors and all the officers and policy makers at the company. … I don’t recall any news about blood letting at Belkin since the 2003 incident. So, there’s no reason to let them out of the “permanent blacklist”.
You have been warned.
[…] Mike Bayard, also created false profiles on Amazon to leave his own reviews. The comments at Arlen Parsa’s blog speak volumes about why I don’t leave reviews on other sites, and why I don’t believe […]
Absolutely outrageous. My last Belkin was actually a turd, and I will never buy one again.
I noticed the apology is waaayyy off in the Press Room - it should be on Belkin’s front page if they are truly sorry about the incident.
[…] rss We found out yesterday that there is something amiss with the ratings that Belkin products have been receiving on Amazon — and while the […]
No, no, you have to give a story about how you **used the product** (in this case, Mike Bayard) to get your 65 cents. Please fix this and resubmit
[…] evidence turns up, the company keeps mum January 20th, 2009 We found out yesterday that there is something amiss with the ratings that Belkin products have been receiving on Amazon — and while the […]
[…] - as new evidence turns up, the company keeps mum20/01/09 We found out yesterday that there is something amiss with the ratings that Belkin products have been receiving on Amazon — and while the […]
B. Ekim
Ekim = Mike in reverse
B = Bayard
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Lets take a measured approach to this. They have some products which are just hardware like connectors and cables and adapters. I don’t like Radio Shack either but I also call them, “Patchcord City”, and sometimes they have what you need. Belkin probably OEMs lots of these hardware only products from elsewhere and you should use your judgement. If the quality is good, the price is right, and it works, buy the product. If it is a complicated product and you really need to know whether they have a real handle on the technology, pass and go somewhere else. You will know quickly if the hardware products work or not. The first time a thirty dollar cable fails, you never buy from them again. This guy is just one employee of a large company and should not be the sole criteria for judging a corporation. If we had proof the board of directors condoned this behanvior, I guess that would be different.
Great research. Thanks for bringing it to light!
From PR disaster management 101, effectively responding to an gaffe incident isn’t just about being swift, it’s about being as accurate as poss in your response. Especially in cases involving suspicious practices, to erroneously address the incident can just look like a further cover up. And that don’t help ‘restore the trust’, as claimed by Belkin Pres Reynoso - Gerry
Anonymoose strikes again! =^ )
Hi Arlen. Here’s some more detective work. The plot thickens!
At first I dismissed the R. Wood account as a sock puppet for Bayard. But digging deeper, I found that R. Wood is a real person, and he’s not Mike Bayard. R. Wood’s real name is Rudy Magna. He’s a National Account Manager for Belkin.
My first suspicion was the fact that the B. Ekim Amazon account had his location correctly defined as California. The R. Wood account location was Denver.
The more compelling evidence is the wish lists that were associated with these accounts. The wish lists for B. Ekim and R. Wood appeared to be actual personal wish lists, and they were distinctly different. Mr. Bayard already wiped his wish list. But Google cache didn’t:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:amkRP7Q27REJ:www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AC5CHSQTK8O9Z
It’s a long list of kid toys.
The wish list for R. Wood is 3 very different items, also from Google cache:
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:pvx-pvzUk5sJ:72.21.203.1/gp/pdp/profile/A3U7TFAPHTIHZM
A woman’s cap, a book about football, and a DVD of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (ouch.) Also note that the cached page includes 1 of the 3 reviews that this user submitted.
When I was looking at Mike Bayard’s cached wish list page, I happened to click on the “see all 25 items” link. It goes to the Amazon wish list page, which displays the person’s full name. (!!)
As soon as I noticed this, I went back to the R. Wood account, clicked on his wish list, and it went straight to the Amazon wish list for someone named Rudolph Magna.
So then I did a Google search for Rudolph Magna Belkin, and I get this site:
http://www.spoke.com/info/index-person/ma-ma-478
Which includes a link for Rudy Magna, National Account Manager of Belkin Logistics:
http://www.spoke.com/info/p5msepL/RudyMagna
This suggests there may be a pattern of Belkin sales reps tampering with the reviews of their products.
[…] found out yesterday that there is something amiss with the ratings that Belkin products have been receiving on Amazon — and while the […]
One more important note from my post yesterday:
“R.Wood and B. Ekim both did 5 star reviews of a Belkin Cooling Pad on the same day.”
The reason I became suspicious of the R. Wood account in the first place was because of this product’s reviews:
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:AtAofeoU2FIJ:www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5L001-BLK-Laptop-Cooling-Black/dp/B001GNC9IQ
Scroll down to the Google cached reviews, and you’ll see that both B. Ekim and R. Wood posted 5 star reviews of this product on the same day, January 14th 2009.
Mike Bayard and Rudy Magna coordinated their review posting. It was not just one “rogue” employee.
If this really is Belkingate, maybe I should’ve called myself Deep Quote instead. =P
I am fairly convinced that this scandal was part of Belkin policy. I drew a nice cartoon about it on my blog http://tinyurl.com/belchkin
Just noticed something else. The nickname on the R. Wood profile was rudomag.
Rudolph Magna.
[…] a post Monday, I revealed, thanks to Anonymoose’s help, that Belkin employee Mike Bayard had been manufacturing his own fraudulent reviews on Amazon.com, in addition to paying others to write them for him. In that post, I suggested that […]
[…] - as new evidence turns up, the company keeps mum We found out yesterday that there is something amiss with the ratings that Belkin products have been receiving on Amazon — and while the […]
[…] a post Monday, I revealed, thanks to Anonymoose’s help, that Belkin employee Mike Bayard had been manufacturing his own fraudulent reviews on Amazon.com, in addition to paying others to write them for him. In that post, I suggested that […]
Thanks Arlen!
I find it hard to believe that the employee would go to such lengths without somebody at Belkin (especially his direct manager) knowing about it.
It’s disappointing that Belkin’s ratings may have been “inflated” and we will all have to adjust our perception of them accordingly.
Unfortunately this is probably more common than this one instance…
Tips:
1) Look not just at the average overall score
2) Find lengthy balanced reviews (both pros and cons - with specifics)
3) and when in doubt see how many other products (and which products) have been reviewed by that user (and in what detail)
Thanks again Arlen!!!! Now maybe some of the shady guys will think twice ….
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