Astroturfing, or faking grass-roots support for a product or cause, has been around for hundreds of years. But it’s been the surging popularity of online review sites and social networks that have tempted many companies into unscrupulous practices. And a couple days ago, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the U.S., one company got busted for it. As mentioned here on Thirdi last month, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently put new regulations in place to forbid the practice. And now we know those regulations have some teeth, as a cosmetic surgery company called Lifestyle Lift just got dinged with a $300,000 fine.

This company instructed its employees to pose as satisfied customers, and post positive reviews of the company all over the net. Stupidly Unfortunately for them, they instructed their employees via email…and somehow one or more of these emails was leaked to the powers that be. After the ensuing investigation, Lifestyle Lift settled with the State of New York, rather than face court proceedings. New York’s Attorney General Cuomo called the company’s efforts, “cynical, manipulative and illegal.”

Somehow it seems fitting that the, ahem, augmented reviews come from a company specializing in plastic surgery. And its certainly fitting that the government hit the company where it hurts, in the pocket book. It’s only the first of what will surely be many cases, but the threat of prosecution does hold some promise that we won’t have to lose our faith in customer reviews on social networks any time soon.

Have a custom web application you need built? Contact Thirdi today!

Related posts:

1. Are scammers ruining social networking?
2. Social networks for sinners
3. How social networking can help you find, lose jobs

Tags: astroturfing, FCC, social networking

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 2:08 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.