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Standards Council of Canada

Globe and Mail article on “Astroturfing” (fake online reviews)

This is a very interesting article on “astroturfing” (fake online reviews) and how Bell Canada employees have put in stellar reviews about their own products which could result in fines of $200,000. Don’t think I’m against Bell because I’m not but I think there is an inherent controversy in what is being reported here. It also shows that there is a strong need for a standard on online reputation. Hopefully Canada will be a good leader and trend-setter in this area.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/competition-bureau-looking-into-fake-online-reviews-following-complaints/article21836158/

Comments

Re: Globe and Mail article on “Astroturfing” (fake online...

dfolkerson's picture
Permalink Submitted by dfolkerson (not verified) on Mon, 2014/12/01 - 11:39

The postings were the result of an overzealous effort on the part of our service team to highlight the app 

This week, BCE Inc. confirmed it had to send a message to employees at subsidiary Bell Canada not to write reviews of its own products. 

Very unfortunate to hear about the level of dishonesty at that level. Buyers beware, for sure, but at some point you need to be able to trust product reviews. 

This memo from the competition bureau has good advice for sniffing out fake reviews:

http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/03782.html

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