Belkin Rep Accused of Paying Consumers for Positive Reviews

From DailyTech: When you read product reviews good or bad online, there is more than a little trust placed on both the reviewer and the site the review is posted on. Reviewers be it professionals or consumers can be unduly harsh or praising of a product for many reasons.

Belkin has now found itself in a bad position as one of its employees is accused of offering to pay consumers to review Belkin products on Amazon.com. The employee in question is one Michael Bayard, a Business Development Representative at Belkin.

Bayard allegedly posted an ad on the Mechanical Turk site offering to pay a paltry $0.65 per 5/5 review placed on Amazon of a Belkin product. The ad stipulated that the review must use US English and proper grammar, always give a 100% rating, and be written as if the user owns and uses the product. Another stipulation was down rating any negative reviews of the product on Amazon as not helpful.

View: Article @ Source Site