Cheating the App Store: PR firm has interns post positive reviews for clients

When it comes to winning in the App Store, one PR firm has discovered a dynamite strategy: throw ethics out the window. Reverb Communications, a PR firm that represents dozens of game publishers and developers, has managed to find astounding success on Apple’s App Store for its clients. Among its various tactics? It hires a team of interns to trawl iTunes and other community forums posing as real users, and has them write positive reviews for their client’s applications. Yeah, that 5-star iTunes app review you saw for the once top-5 paid app Enigmo? It might not be written by a real user, but rather by Pangea Software’s PR firm. Reverb isn’t the first to try and game the user review process, but they are definitely one of the most blatant cases. [...]

sources : mobile crunch
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L'influence en ligne, c'est un vrai métier

"Son job se situe quelque part entre VRP, animateur de colos, évangéliste et conseiller marketing en ligne. Borey Sok fédère les internautes autour des marques ou produits de ses clients. Pour cela, il fait beaucoup de veille avant d’investir les forums, les blogs, les sites et les réseaux sociaux (Viadeo, Facebook, Twitter ou Myspace). Hors ligne, il invite des blogueurs "influents" à des soirées spéciales."
Le Journal du Dimanche

Revised FTC Guidelines: Blogger Beware

[...] Under the revised guidelines, advertisers that employ these kinds of indirect or third-party marketing techniques now have an obligation not only to police what the bloggers who receive their products are saying about them, but also to advise those bloggers of what their obligations are as "endorsers" under the FTC guidelines. [...]

Law.com

Villepin : internautes bidon (Le Canard Enchaîné)

Le Canard Enchaîné accuse le site Villepincom.net d'inventer des internautes qui posent les questions à l'ancien Premier ministre. Ouvert une semaine avant son procès, par une association qui soutient Villepin, le site est associé à un "réseau social" salué par plusieurs articles récents (Le Parisien, Le Figaro.fr, Le Monde.fr) car il a ainsi devancé le PS et l'UMP dans ce domaine. Mais...
arret sur images

Crackdown on biased online product testimonials

[...] The Federal Trade Commission told Bacon in a settlement last fall to tone down her claims and change her promotional tactics. And recently, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a $300,000 settlement with a cosmetic surgery firm he said had employees pose as clients to write glowing testimonials and online journal;

San Francisco Chronicle

Cosmetic surgery co. gets slapped for fake online reviews

Astroturfing is slimy, but it's everywhere you look on the Internet. In a small sign that legal authorities may be catching on to this scam one cosmetic surgery company in New York has been caught leaving fake reviews and has agreed to pay $300,000 to the state for its sins.

arstechnica.com

Wikipedia blocks access from Church of Scientology in L.A.

The Internet encyclopedia aims to stop pro-Scientology revisions of articles. Some critics of the religion have also been banned. The moves raise free-speech concerns

Los Angeles Times