New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently made headlines by
targeting astroturfers -- marketers who pose as consumers and then
sing their companies' praises in fake reviews.
No doubt that's a questionable marketing strategy. But here's one that's even worse: hijacking customers' accounts in order to post glowing reviews
in their names. The idea might sound ludicrous, but it happened at the recent New York City Comic Con. The convention organizers asked people to provide their social media credentials when they
registered. Then when the event started, the organizers took over attendees' accounts in order to send out promotional tweets -- with the type of copy that few creatives would want to include in their
portfolios.
“So much pop culture to digest! Can’t. handle. the. awesome. #NYCC,” read one, which went out under journalist Brian Crecente's name. Crecente reported the
incident on Polygon.
The conference stopped the practice after people complained, but a
few hundred faux tweets had already gone out by then. "This was an opt-in function after signing in, but we were probably too enthusiastic in our messaging and eagerness to spread the good word about
NYCC,” the organizer wrote to attendees.
Of course, calling
something “opt-in” doesn't mean that people knowingly opted in. Consumers often agree to whatever terms are suggested -- especially when they have no reason to think the company is
planning on pulling a fast one.
Consider, many social media users have said they were duped into agreeing to let platforms spam their friends with invitations to join. Also, numerous consumers
who made purchases at sites like Fandango were then tricked into buying monthly subscriptions to discount clubs. Even the
much-maligned adware programs were “opt-in” in that people had to download software and click on a user agreement to install the ad-serving software -- even though many who did so later
said they had no idea that they would soon be bombarded with ads.
The Federal Trade Commission and Congress have taken action regarding some of the worst abuses of trust, but many companies
still seem to think that aggressive, envelope-pushing practices are fine, as long as consumers technically consent.
In the case of Comic Con, people who realized what was happening were able
to delete their tweets relatively quickly. Still, the phony tweets were at least as deceptive as old-fashioned astroturfing campaigns. In this case, the victims include not only the attendees, who
were duped into making endorsements, but also the public at large, including anyone who decided to attend future conventions after seeing the phony tweets.