

WeTab boss caught posting fake 5-star Amazon reviews, resigns - lotusleaf1987
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/05/wetab-boss-helmut-hoffer-caught-posting-five-star-amazon-reviews/

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powrtoch
I'd be interesting in knowing how this was caught. I was under the impression
that this sort of thing goes on pretty often. I certainly don't assign a
particularly high credibility to anonymous online rave reviews.

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binbasti
He used his own Amazon account and his real name was visible on the Amazon
Wishlist. And, even more funny, his wife did the same thing. Here's the
original blog entry (in German, scroll down for some screenshots):

<http://gutjahr.biz/blog/2010/10/wedepp/>

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darwinGod
Reminded me of this thread- about unethical things people did to get their
startup off the ground. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1589257> Going
through some of the things people confessed doing, this almost seems mild!
Spamming(quite a lot),Free Porn(Bit Torrent), Crashing competitors server..
you name it!

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Sukotto
Always keep in mind the following general rule:

If having it headline a news article would damage your reputation or your
business, _don't do it_.

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kno
Given the fact that reviews make or breaks products, companies now have great
incentives in playing the reviews game. I have seen so many crappy products
being praise by crazy reviews with generic theme like "I bought it for my son,
my husband and he loves it". High profile catch like this will make it harder
for companies to just spin their way trough crappy products.

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lsc
I am pretty surprised that he resigned. I mean, isn't this exactly what hired
PR companies do, only with a little bit more denyability?

I mean, it's certainly unethical... but I thought this sort of "push the line"
thing was the intent behind hiring bizdev and sales types.

