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/ […]
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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 […]
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