Can fake testimonials get you in illegal trouble?

Daynex · Jan 21, 2023

Can fake testimonials or using certain brand logos on your website get you in illegal trouble in the long run? Like fines and such? I am creating an agency and need some fake testimonials as I have only worked for two companies, I also wanted to use some generic brands as work proof. Can this end up really bad in the future? Or does it not matter since I am not creating the fake testimonials/hurting any other business as I do know how to provide the service I am selling professionally. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

DeadJoe · Jan 21, 2023

Daynex said:
Can fake testimonials or using certain brand logos on your website get you in illegal trouble in the long run? Like fines and such? I am creating an agency and need some fake testimonials as I have only worked for two companies, I also wanted to use some generic brands as work proof. Can this end up really bad in the future? Or does it not matter since I am not creating the fake testimonials/hurting any other business as I do know how to provide the service I am selling professionally. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

No one is going to give a shit about what you write on a small time website. But if you ever get really big, then yes you can get in trouble. Realistically, what are the chances of that happening? probably less than 1%. Remember when you are lying about something, you have to work a lot harder to make it look legit.

Daynex · Jan 21, 2023

DeadJoe said:
No one is going to give a shit about what you write on a small time website. But if you ever get really big, then yes you can get in trouble. Realistically, what are the chances of that happening? probably less than 1%. Remember when you are lying about something, you have to work a lot harder to make it look legit.

Thanks for your response, I agree 100% as this is what I am doing to show some social proof, was just curious to see if anyone ever ran into any issues with this down the line.

Daniel from Linxact · Jan 21, 2023

Don‘t use fake testimonials because people can tell anyways. It will only hurt you.

Sincerely,
The Data Scientist

davids355 · Jan 21, 2023

I very much doubt you’ll get in trouble for it. However, it’s not putting you in a good mindset for building your business. Personally I’d leave the reviews out, get some work and add some real reviews.

Even if you give away your service to a few people, real reviews will do a lot more for your agency in the long run. In more ways than just the obvious.

Thread moved.

Chris Newman · Jan 21, 2023

Acquiring (buying) some social proof (and mixing / blending it with "real" social proof) is harmless in terms of legal issues (some exceptions may be there). If not, almost every ecommerce store owner would by now be behind bars. It is better to have a mixing / blending of acquired (bought) social proof with "real" social proof.
About "using certain brand logos on your website", forget legal issues (which may rarely happen), but the owners of those brands / logos can report your website (to the domain registrars) and your website (domain) could end up getting permanently suspended incase you are unable to prove that you are officially permitted to use those brands / logos. It also depends on how you use those brands / logos on your website and the information pertaining to the brands / logos, on your website. If you use other's brands / logos on your website, better not do it in a misrepresentational manner.

Daynex · Jan 21, 2023

davids355 said:
I very much doubt you’ll get in trouble for it. However, it’s not putting you in a good mindset for building your business. Personally I’d leave the reviews out, get some work and add some real reviews.

Even if you give away your service to a few people, real reviews will do a lot more for your agency in the long run. In more ways than just the obvious.

Thread moved.

Thanks for the response and apologies for posting this in the wrong place. Gotcha, I appreciate your input. Like I mentioned before I have experience in the services I am providing and do have results I can show as well as some reviews but the problem is I worked for the same company (in-house, and another company years before that) for years and pretty much only have them as social proof. Since I am experienced and can bring results I would hate to lose potential leads over this you know?

Daynex · Jan 21, 2023

Trust WorkShop said:
Acquiring (buying) some social proof (and mixing / blending it with "real" social proof) is harmless in terms of legal issues (some exceptions may be there). If not, almost every ecommerce store owner would by now be behind bars. It is better to have a mixing / blending of acquired (bought) social proof with "real" social proof.
About "using certain brand logos on your website", forget legal issues (which may rarely happen), but the owners of those brands / logos can report your website (to the domain registrars) and your website (domain) could end up getting permanently suspended incase you are unable to prove that you are officially permitted to use those brands / logos. It also depends on how you use those brands / logos on your website and the information pertaining to the brands / logos, on your website. If you use other's brands / logos on your website, better not do it in a misrepresentational manner.

Thanks for your response, I appreciate your input and would like to ask you for your opinion on my current situation.

Since I started freelancing 2 years ago after working in house for a company, I had clients from all different types of niches. A lot of them being clients with ecommerce stores (Shopify, Bigcommerce and a few others) which I helped with branding, copy, product promotions etc, and less than a year ago I had a big client who I would set up their properties on Airbnb for, covering everything from keywords to copy.

Would I be good to use these brand logos without any issues? One of these clients closed the store I helped him with a few months ago so I feel like his testimonial/workproof would be useless.

BigBang3s · Jan 21, 2023

Definitely it is illegal if you try to slander a business and trying to build your own reputation

Daynex · Jan 21, 2023

BigBang3s said:
Definitely it is illegal if you try to slander a business and trying to build your own reputation

Yes this is very obvious and not what I am talking about/doing at all

Marco69 · May 22, 2023

I do not know where to get 3 positive testimonials for my website (coaching high ticket niche), maybe website visitors will looking after it if you have a few testimonials on your site.

Where to get them without having clients?

Can fake testimonials get you in illegal trouble?

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