WeTab boss caught posting fake 5-star Amazon reviews, resigns

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/05/wetab-boss-helmut-hoffer-caught-posting-five-star-amazon-reviews/

by lotusleaf1987 • 16 years ago

14 8 16 years ago

powrtoch• 16 years ago

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.

lotusleaf1987• 16 years ago

On a related note, the Whole Foods CEO got caught in 2007 anonymously disparaging his business rival, Wild Oats Market, on Yahoo message boards. Apparently it was a violation of Regulation FD, which bans selective disclosure of information: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/vindu/2007/07/11/whole-deceptio...

nikosdimopoulos• 16 years ago

It is amazing how much information certain people have on the Internet regarding themselves. A simple IP check could have done the trick, provided that it could be cross referenced with orders. So if the individual shopped from home, they know his IP address - then posted a review, and continued posting more reviews... there you go :)

Sometimes reviews are pretty good to let you know what is going on with the particular product/service. It's a hit and miss though in most cases.

binbasti• 16 years ago

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/

kno• 16 years ago

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.

Sukotto• 16 years ago

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.

darwinGod• 16 years ago

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!

lsc• 16 years ago

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.

WeTab boss caught posting fake 5-star Amazon reviews, resigns

Related Stories