It's my job to create fake news/media, posts, votes and reviews about our company- What should I do

a reply to: oneoneone

Your job if you wish to remain being paid I suppose, but at the expense of your integrity i imagine.

originally posted by: myselfaswell
So back to the discussion, and more importantly, what do you think you should do.

I think I should stick to posting on lesser harmful places or old topics where nobody will read / where it's obvious and write suspectable. It's about link building anyway, so Google gives us more rating.
He will also get his connections to post news for him either way without me.

And if the company would grow, I will slow down, just saving the members of the company, telling my boss not to employ more, because Google will make us fall with new mechanics. Perhaps he will even understand the truth and accept that I want to cause lesser damage. He already avoids food and water poisons.
For now I will have to do it more, because many employees work for free or for a low amount of money, because they either go to school 2 days a week or are here for some free working time everyone is forced to go through for "learning" purposes in our country.
If we have to pay them for real or have to find normally paid workers it's over like this.


a reply to: bloodreviara
Alright, I'll stick to that fairness as well and keep that in mind!
Good luck to you.

originally posted by: oneoneone

originally posted by: ImaFungi
a reply to: oneoneone

If I had to guess I would say you have created this fake scenario to try and place a rhetorical quandary of a question, in an attempt to ensure that 'paid shills' exist, and to get us to think about if their existence is good or bad. Or I am wrong. Without giving the company name, can you say what field of business the company is in? This would just be interesting to know what kind of company does such a thing.

I thought of people suspecting that. Well, we sell fashion clothes in online shops, on Ebay and on Amazon under different names, making it look like it would be our self produced brand. But I cannot give away the company, because it's illegal to tell about our ways. Working contract.

Where do you get the fashion clothes from? How do you trick people into think you produce the clothes, do the clothes not have tags on them?

Ok and so you go on, fashion clothing forums, and post "I used this site and bought these clothes and they are great!"? I dont see anything wrong with this, as it is free advertising...but not free, if he pays you. All advertising is the same thing, telling people to buy your product because its good.

Also whats an online portal? Is that just posting links to the sites in fashion forums? Do you get peoples emails and make a mailing list?

a reply to: oneoneone

I thought the first few page results of buisnesses on google pay monthly or even daily bidding for their placement?

a reply to: ImaFungi

China, simply by selling them under our own name with a rights sign and claiming we would use the best materials and we would know they're durable for a long time even tho we don't.

Yea, that is the kind of thing I would have to write.
Though, with those posts around a lot of people are convinced we would really care about junk which we don't need and the world would be ok with no other thoughts around. As customer I never suspected it would be many thousands of these. Perhaps one or two of the reviews being a fake.
We also give gifts to make people remove ratings below the maximum.

originally posted by: ImaFungi
a reply to: oneoneone

I thought the first few page results of buisnesses on google pay monthly or even daily bidding for their placement?

Yes, but they are shown differently, so people see they are advertisements. The same Google advertisements are also shown on websites like ATS. On the left side. Each click of someone costs 0.10-2.00$.
Though, either way an unknown company will rarely be bought from. So people have to be convinced by our news and posts we would be famous.

originally posted by: Snarl
a reply to: oneoneone

Meh. Slip in the truth half the time and bring balance to the Force my young Padawan.

That works or better still, for every place you visit, create two IDs, one for the job and one to cover your feelings of guilt. Hell, you could follow yourself around accusing yourself of working for the company.

Aim for a neutral outcome. Otherwise sing the praises of the product so damn high, everyone knows what you are. To get an idea of how that is done, just look in the political threads here in ATS.

P

a reply to: oneoneone

You alone selling clothes or clogging the digital 'air'waves with ads, will not save or destroy to the planet, it is insignificant, like a minnow worrying if it will taint the ocean with its poop. As long as the actual people that purchase the clothing dont have any complaints, and are to a high percentage satisfied, I see no harm and no foul.

a reply to: oneoneone

You do what is right for you, and sometimes that is to survive.

But I will say some of what you are dealing with is some of what my boss and I butt heads over occasionally. A real business takes time to develop. You build a good business one sale at a time, and in the beginning they will be few and far between, but with each sale, and each real customer who you never once lied to and provided exceptional service to and a great price and product... you get THEM to say something nice about you.

Not all of them will... seriously. But 1 in 20 usually will if you say hey will you do this? Let it all be real customers and their word of mouth. That is time consuming, but you do get there eventually and the business you take in will be much more consistent than if you had not done it like that.

Because everything I do is based in excellent customer service and honesty in advertising, I have taken my bosses business online from about 1 percent of his business being online sales to now half of all the business we take in comes from online sales - and its still growing...

That took a year and a half to get it to the volume it is now, but we got it through nothing but absolute honesty. My boss is a Christian man and this has been a help toward him working with my own set of moral values, but still I had to stand my own ground - including telling him if he didn't like how I worked to find someone else, many times. (you have to be VERY willing to take the consequences of that before ever saying it though, many bosses will just give you the boot if you don't do it their way)

But I have increased online sales exponentially using one method. Honesty. People appreciate it more than you can imagine, because its rare these days, yet... its what everyone wants when buying something online.

In the end you will do what you believe is right or what you have to do to survive... but this person who you work might rather need a solid repeat customer base who spreads word of your company to everyone they know, than to get one customer only once and have them not say anything about you to anyone at best, and bad about you to everyone at worst.

PS. Your boss is lying to you too, just like he lies to his own customers. Just wanted to give you a heads up on that.

a reply to: oneoneone

Do it whole-hardheartedly or quit. If you do something that disagrees with your beliefs or internal-compass, it will haunt you.

You could take on the role of a character. Create a name and little backstory for your online posting persona if that helps you.

So either make peace with the idea or move on.

Depending on the country in which you live, there could very well be laws against such practices. Generally, there are media and consumer bodies which oversee the standards of journalism, marketing and public relations, and will hold companies to account if there are any discoveries of wrong doing. You seem to be engaged in a form of PR which involves the manipulation of unbeknownst consumers, and that could get yourself, your boss, and your company into some deep trouble.

I can't make the decision for you, but i would suggest you look at the media and consumer regulatory bodies in your country. At least then, you can come to a solid conclusion on whether or not you are breaking the law.

originally posted by: pheonix358

originally posted by: Snarl
a reply to: oneoneone

Meh. Slip in the truth half the time and bring balance to the Force my young Padawan.

Otherwise sing the praises of the product so damn high, everyone knows what you are. To get an idea of how that is done, just look in the political threads here in ATS.

P

You know, a customer once asked me if I would pay that much for the product that he was looking at and I looked him dead square in the eye and said "No." Then after a pause I said, "but I'm not the one needing it either....It's going to be worth more to you, who needs it, than it would be to me, who could care less"

I made the sale... he didn't even haggle price in the end.

You are at a low and maybe even harmless level in comparison to what comes over the TV and Radio as pure bulls*it.

For example the now dying down gold craziness. Sterilized images of all sorts about all manner of industry, entertainment, history, justice even.

Lets take justice. Look how its bought and sold, depending on bent and angle, political expedience, wind direction, goal orientation that has zero to do with what is purported, ect.

Since ethical approaches don't seem like they'd have much traction with your boss, maybe you should try and convince your boss that promoting his business in this manner is risky . . . risky to the point of not being worth it. First, In the states at least, writing fraudulent reviews is illegal and can carry some serious fines. Enforcement is on the uptick. Second, even if it wasn't illegal, It would only take one disgruntled former employee or one knowledgeable competitor to sink his ship.

Fake reviews make a company very vulnerable, if I was his competitor I'd be all over it.

Let him know that the potential damage to his brand just isn't worth the risk. Then maybe you can solve your problem without losing your job.

a reply to: oneoneone
Impossible!
The mods here @ ATS have told us that your kind do not exist, and if you did they would get rid of you quick.

a reply to: imwilliam

If he is doing this on places like eBay and Amazon, they have specific rules against it. If eBay or Amazon found out they would shut him down in a heartbeat and ban him from ever selling either place again.

That would put an end to his livelihood, but he apparently is willing to take that risk - although it sounds as if they have a very malleable name, ie: they would just change names and set up shop again. Someone with an actual business cannot do those kinds of scams, because they cannot afford to ruin their name.

I think a good solution for the whole planet would be a website / program network for everyone where you could put your needs while the program intelligently connects them with the needs of others.

E.g we need money -> it tells us we can offer that and that to get enough profit or join somewhere.
And when you need a parter to play with, a product etc the network would give the best fitting products to your needs for the fairest price or the person you need.
So you don't have to choose a random product or service to offer, neither search for them, nor advertise or fake something.

Of course the site would have to be willing to offer interfaces to any program and fuse with any similar site. Even logistics websites without kicking people off their jobs, even if it means they get good alternative.

I had that plan for a long time, perhaps I will finish it some day. Though, again, it would require users to be usable before it has users.
The richer you are, the richer you become, while the others fall.

Another approach is to fuse all companies, one after one in the world!
Work force will be saved, so instead of firing them the head has to have fair rules not to fire anyone, but instead lowering their working time.
Back to the 3 mins working time / day before we were conquered!

--

Well, there are different laws you can pick here - our "company" is not related to its workers. And I would not be allowed to give away the truth / sue it, because I work/worked for it. For these special laws you need money to found it

a reply to: OpinionatedB

If he is doing this on places like eBay and Amazon, they have specific rules against it. If eBay or Amazon found out they would shut him down in a heartbeat and ban him from every selling either place again.

Yes, and Google takes a very dim view of these sorts of things as well.

That would put an end to his livelihood, but he apparently is willing to take that risk

I think the risk was less in times gone by, it's much riskier now and If I was going to approach him, I'd probably start with that . . "A business used to be able to get away with this with little or no risk but now a days . . . "

although it sounds as if they have a very malleable name, ie: they would just change names and set up shop again

Yep, that can be a problem, still happens all too often, but it's not as easy as it used to be, and it sounds like he's got more than a little bit invested in this name/brand.

Consumers that use online reviews are getting smarter too, it's not all that hard to spot most fake reviews or a inflated/iffy review profile. In addition, sites that host online reviews are aware that consumers are concerned about fake online reviews and they're making a greater effort and becoming better at weeding them out. (Particularly positive fake reviews, they're a little less adept at picking out negative fake reviews)

All ethical considerations aside, it's just bad business in this day and age.

If a business can't stay afloat without dishonesty toward the customer, then it doesn't deserve to be a business. Let it die. Just like these corporations that get propped up with our tax dollars through subsidies. Instead of money you are subsidizing a company with lies. Well money is a lie anyway, but thats another topic

Its you who has to live with it, is that worth it? Does it matter? These are your questions to answer. I personally couldn't, though in the past I can't say that I wouldn't have.

originally posted by: TheLegend

originally posted by: oneoneone
So I got a new job to create huge onlineshop portals and getting them customers.
The previous employee has already created over 10,000 fake reviews / posts in forums and so on and I am supposed to continue adding more.
To be honest, it is not possible to get customers without this kind of manipulation.

I just hired a new employee to create huge onlineshop portals and get them to customers.
My last employee made over 10,000 fake reviews / posts in forums and so on and this new employee was told to continue adding more.
To be honest, It's not possible to get customers without this kind of manipulation.

Watch yo back. I got my eyes on you slick.

Huh? What just happened here? Did oneoneone just get busted by his boss who is also an ATS member? Is your boss into doing shrooms and also other people's wives? Is he down wit OPP?

a reply to: 3n19m470

Nice joke, but it was another view to help people judge!
Those posts after that should've made it most likely that I am responsible for such a job.