I’ve been noticing in a few forums that some unscrupulous companies have been making fake threads to advertise their products/services.
I recently reported one such case to HWZ’s mods and the threads/user have been deleted.
Here’s what they did:
1) Scheming person creates an account user_A and makes a thread in a help forum stating he’s having problems with his harddisk and asks how to recover the data.
2) Other forum users come in with honest replies suggesting using techniques/software to recover the data.
3) Scheming person then creates an account user_B and makes a reply in that thread some time later, proceeds to mention a company name that provides such recovery services and how it has helped them.
I don’t know if a lot of forum moderators have noticed this already. At first, it’s hard to tell or notice this sort of thing. But once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you can easily tell which users are doing this.
Key points to watch: post count, previous posts he’s made (you can usually tell from here whether he’s an honest user), difference between the account registration date of both user_A and user_B.
These fuckers waste the time of honest users who make effort to provide help.
Happens all the time on the forums I help run.
lol, it is a pretty common tactic nowadays. I once saw something similar in flowerpod. But then it involves more account.
Person A recommends a particular hair salon. Person B comes in and say she also tried it and recommends going to a particular hairdresser in the salon. Person C also come in and exclaims that she was also served by the charming and good skilled hair dresser. Person D came in and say she also noticed the hairdresser skill is good and she also recommends the salon.
End of the day, person A to D are posting from the same source. I almost fainted.
Lol