Is it illegal to post fake reviews?

7878, I don't assume this is the only way to get them. Obviously one could work with their existing client base, offer incentives for new reviews, and so on, but all of this is much more time consuming, and therefore costly, than simply adding 30 paid reviews... However, in the interests of staying on the right side of the law, these may be the only option...
 
its not illegal to post fake reviews but you have to let customer know they are fake. How?

You can say this is reproduction of testimony, or say that testimony is dramatization of actual results, and if you really sell hard you might need to add that results might not be typical.

but, you can put all that at the bottom with some greyed out text in size 6 font, or make a policies page, etc.

The main person you need to worry about is the creator of the product. They may have certain rules for you to follow when promoting. Peace.
 
I was on dmexco today and spoke with some kind of reputation manganer about this. He told me that it is defintely illegal in Germany and you can get in trouble with something like consumer protection.
 
i think testimonials are always supposed to be from a real source. but in terms of actually being illegal? people throw that word around a lot but that would actually require a law and not just beign frowned upon for being immoral
 
Rather than fake the entire review post positive reviews that are excerpted from real email you may have gotten.
 
Excellent question. I would like to have some insights about it in european countries too.
 
Don't try it with CB products. They are hot on fake reviews and will toss you if they find it. Other sites not sure.
 
Just do it!
you are in Blackhat SEO forum anyway, whereby the methods that we used are supposed to be "unethical"..

:D
 
Depending on where you post, you may get booted if they find out.
 
Found an article on New York Times. Search for Lifestyle Lift. Company was made to pay $300,000 to the state.
Looks to be illegal.
 
all the people saying it is not illegal needs to check which country they are in. I am in UK and i can say it is very much illegal to post fake reviews

Can I enquire under which statute or case law you would believe this to be the case?
 
The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive which I think was made law 31/12/2007. This was to bring the UK in line with the the EU UCPD.

You'll maybe have to search berr or something if you want more specific.
 
There are only winners and losers in life.

Which one are you?
 
I'm not from the UK but theindiaphile already posted this above.

Many thanks. My only reservation would be that this appears to apply only to self-promotion, ie you couldn't invent fake reviews of your own products or websites. As far as I can see, there would be nothing against posting negative reviews of your competitors?
 
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