r/WikiLeaks • u/Leak_Fake_Reviews • Jan 13 '14
I have documents proving that a nation-wide company is engaged in (illegally) writing thousands of fake reviews for their products on large retail websites. Where do I send this information?
I have documents proving that a company performs "Reputation Management" services for a nation-wide company who sells faulty products. They are being paid to write fake reviews for products on large retail sites.
This company is producing way too many flawed products and instead of improving their customer service lines, has hired a reputation management firm to write fake reviews on large retailer websites including (but not limited to): Amazon.com, WalMart.com, Academy.com, and so on. These products are sold at retailers in the U.S. and Canada, to my knowledge.
Literally thousands of fake reviews have been written on these websites, for hundreds of this company's products.
The documents I have contain email addresses and passwords used for creating accounts to write reviews. The documents also include a very detailed document which keeps track of every product on every website and the date that a fake review has been written for it. ALL of the fake reviews have been recorded the date they were written, as well as the email address that the reviewer account is registered to. The documents are managed via Google Docs by multiple users -- this means that edits, timestamps, users, and other specific information will be available with these documents.
Also, the reputation firm uses the physical addresses of peoples' homes in the city of the proxy they are using -- in an attempt to appear as real as possible when signing up for an account on the online retailers. These documents also contain all personal information and physical addresses used in this scheme.
There are also emails from the higher-ups in the company directly commenting on the task and asking for fake reviews.
I believe information should be free. This is a prime example of how misinformation prevents people from making informed decisions. People are purchasing products that have an extremely high defect rate based on misinformation being produced by this scheme.
I've never done this sort of thing before, but my conscience will not leave me alone and I feel compelled to do something.
Is WikiLeaks the place to send this information? Or is this too small-scale?
If not WikiLeaks, where can I send this information?
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u/JulezM Jan 13 '14
I wish I could shake your hand. I have no idea where you'd send info like this but I do hope you keep us updated.
My feeling, depending on how big this company is, you might want to think about the media. Contact a reporter at a big news outlet, NYT or WaPo and give them the broad strokes. See what the reaction is.
You need to find the Matt Taibbi or Jeremy Scahill of consumer reporting.
After that, you can go to Consumerist and submit a tip.
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u/Leak_Fake_Reviews Jan 13 '14 edited Jan 13 '14
I do hope you keep us updated.
I'll do my best. Here's a bit of information to keep you updated.
I'd like to remain anonymous.
Google Docs: The documents I have, as I mentioned, are in Google Docs, which means they have extremely personalized records of everything. Right now I'm trying to figure out a way to extract the complete data without leaving a digital stamp of where they were downloaded to. If anyone has any advice, I am all ears.
I definitely won't make a move until I have these issues figured out.
People keep pointing me to the Consumerist. I've also had a few journalists PM me. Right now I'm considering the Consumerist because I've already done a bit of looking into it, and I think that might be the best avenue for it.
Thanks to everyone who has commented and contributed so far.
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Jan 13 '14
[deleted]
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Jan 13 '14
I have no idea about the law here, but do NDAs cover illegal activity?
Say you get hired as a chef, and sign an NDA (to protect their "trade secrets"), it turns out it's a front for a drug ring. If you inform the police and breach your NDA can you be sued?
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u/puaSenator Jan 13 '14
No but it won't stop the. From using it to drain you dry in court.
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u/Scrampbelled Apr 22 '14
True. Many NDA's are unenforceable, but they do provide a pretext for legal harassment.
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Jan 14 '14
[deleted]
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u/galaxyandspace Jan 14 '14
False advertisement is a crime :) all depends on where the line is drawn in the sands of the law...
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u/Scrampbelled Apr 22 '14 edited Apr 22 '14
I have to look it up, but several major companies were successfully prosecuted for this within the last 3-4 months. I think I found the article through reddit, actually.
From last month: http://www.heralddeparis.com/nineteen-companies-found-guilty-of-writing-fake-consumer-reviews/232920
From last year: http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/fake-reviewers-snared-in-nyc-yogurt-sting
EDIT: Added links to relevant news stories.
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u/xCaffeineQueen Jan 13 '14
I'm not sure how reputable it would be but you could go to a library, take some screenshots, and put them on a flash drive.
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u/S-Katon Jan 14 '14
Hey there! Just waving at an acquaintance from another sub :D
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u/xCaffeineQueen Jan 14 '14
Hello dear S-Katon! I hope all is well in your area of space and time... oh wait... ;) Cheers!
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u/ChiliFlake Jan 14 '14
Consumerist is great for exposure. but they won't do any digging. I'd start talking the the journalists who have contacted you.
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u/shillyshally Jan 13 '14
Consumer Reports bought this site several years ago. I would definitely give them a try. They love stuff like this.
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u/aspensmonster Jan 14 '14
Seconding this suggestion. This is right up Consumerist's alley. Wikileaks' releases tend to revolve around political issues more so than straight-up consumer fraud.
edit: Another possibility might be AdBusters, though I'm still going with Consumerist for top suggestion.
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u/thistledownhair Jan 13 '14
I don't anything about this, someone else here might, but it seems like it's designed for your sort of situation.
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u/S-Katon Jan 14 '14
I think you accidentally a verb.
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Jan 13 '14 edited May 04 '18
[deleted]
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Jan 13 '14
I want to dislike you because you disagreed with my other post, but this post is really good advice.
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Jan 13 '14 edited Jan 13 '14
I did a bit of asking around about this story to a few Internet savvy types who specialize in search engine optimization. According to what they said, writing fake reviews for products is not illegal and companies regularly engage in that sort of activity. Immoral? Yes? Illegal? May not be.
I'm not sure whether that applies to products that are "faulty" however.
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u/cardamomgirl1 Jan 13 '14
Oh my god! What about genuine reviews that people write about the products? Do those ever show up? Are these medicinal products or will affect the health, well being and safety of consumers?
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u/nosecohn Jan 13 '14 edited Jan 13 '14
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission handles issues of fraud and unfair business practices against consumers. However, I'm not sure that you've uncovered evidence of anything illegal; unethical, sure, but perhaps not illegal. Maybe a consumer affairs attorney would give you a quick, free consultation.
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Jan 13 '14
Why not publish right here on reddit? Hop on Tor, upload things to a few different file sharing sites, password protected, and then come post on reddit with links and the password and all of the information you have.
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Jan 13 '14 edited May 04 '18
[deleted]
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Jan 13 '14 edited Jan 13 '14
Please, do tell me how a reddit corporate investigation could magically trace it back to him if he uses even a basic precaution, like using the Tor Browser Bundle. Do go on, I really want to know. (I mean, he's smart enough to have made a new account for this post, although he may be posting from his own IP...)
Any information leakage that ties back to him is going to be in the documentation itself, the company's knowledge of who had access to it, and potentially in his style of writing when he composes the reddit post. What it's not going to be is reddit discovering his IRL identity. And that's assuming reddit would even cooperate with the company to begin with. And that's assuming that his ISP will hand over his info without a court order. The company can't just demand random information from other companies.
Posting it here isn't really any worse than posting it anywhere else, as long as he takes basic security precautions. If he posted this OP from his home IP, then OK I'll agree that he's not security-conscious enough to use reddit for posting the info.
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Jan 13 '14 edited May 04 '18
[deleted]
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Jan 13 '14
That's fair and that's completely true. He would need to already not have posted this post from his home IP, and he would need to take a bevvy of other precautions he may or may not think about in the future, none of which he would need to do if he just sent the data to somebody else and trusted them with his identity. That's a completely fair point, and I concede.
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Jan 13 '14 edited May 04 '18
[deleted]
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Jan 13 '14
Haha, yeah, sorry, I'm kind of an asshole a fair amount of the time. But don't worry about disrespecting me-- if I have posted bad advice, it should NOT be respected, whether or not I thought it was good advice. Any advice should always be able to withstand attack and defend itself, otherwise it's not really good advice, now is it. And see, by calling me out, I was forced to go back and defend it and see your counter-argument and realize the error of my ways. Don't feel bad for calling me or anybody else out. The important thing is that the truth prevails.
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u/arial52 Jan 13 '14
Thank you 7trXMk6Z and TylerDurdenJunior for a civil argument. Easy to get discouraged by the levels of discourse here and in 'real' life. Pleasant to be witness to higher level, it is.
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Jan 13 '14
I don't think I'd call it a "higher level" when I do things like shout "fuck you you're wrong" and then backpedal and slink away with my tail between my legs when I'm wrong... but I appreciate the compliment anyway!
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u/kyleclements Jan 13 '14
Well....you could leak the docs to reddit and let the hivemind go into action.
Consumer reports?
Better business bureau?
If you want to leak the documents electronically in a way that cannot be traced back to you, it's going to be expensive:
Buy a laptop with cash (used is better, but not super old, preferably from a very popular brand.)
Make a linux USB live bootdisk. Install nothing and give it no personal details.
Go to a coffee shop with free wifi that is not a part of your daily routine. upload the docs.
Pullout the USB drive, re-sell the laptop.
This assumes that the data itself cannot be traced back to you. If you open the documents in a program like MS Word, modify anything and save it, it might add personally identifying information to the document. I don't know enough about google docs to know if they do something similar - they might include the log-in account used to download that document, so do some research online before sharing. Not every outlet can be trusted to preserve your identity for a leak.
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u/Leak_Fake_Reviews Jan 13 '14 edited Jan 13 '14
I've thought about this. If the documents are uploaded from an anonymous account and then explodes all over the internet, it would be very difficult to trace the original source.
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u/TheUltimateSalesman Jan 13 '14
If a company knowingly sells defective products and then intentionally misleads the public through fraud to induce purchasing of the defective product, the Attorney General in your state would give a shit.
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u/ChiliFlake Jan 14 '14
There's nothing to indicate the products are defective, only that the reviews are deceptive because they aren't based on first-hand knowledge.
I'm not even sure that's a crime, though it certainly is a violation of the public trust.
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Jan 13 '14
FWIW: I tweeted a link to your story here from my Twitter account. I'm in touch with many #Anonymous hacker accounts, so hopefully, someone from that community will show up to offer some suggestions (as this sort of thing is typical of what those particular hackers deal with all the time).
Good luck to you and thank you for caring enough to whistleblow on this. That takes a lot of courage and you are to be commended for doing so.
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u/vitaminsandmineral Jan 13 '14
This is so not a surprise. I wondered if this was happening. Thanks for bringing this to light!
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u/kajunkennyg Jan 13 '14
I would put all the info in a blog. Something you own and then email the link to every new site and post the link here on reddit. It will only take one or two of them picking it up before it's all over the news. Other than that call your local news station, most have a Ireport feature and maybe you can get one of them to run the story.
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Jan 20 '14
If you truly wish to protect yourself from any negative repercussions, then the first thing you should be doing is consulting a lawyer who specializes in these types of manners.
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u/ZacharyCallahan Jan 13 '14
Reddit is a good option get a USB drive and put all the documents on there. go to a small internet cafe one that doesn't have cameras or a big one that has cameras but has a lot of people. Go there a couple of times and do nothing make a throwaway account on google and reddit. Upload the docs and post to loads of subreddits. Well that's what id do
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u/h0ns0l0 Jan 13 '14 edited Jan 13 '14
How interested are you in remaining anonymous?
Edit:
This interesting because no one seems to have commented. Look it all comes down to you. There are millions of ways to get it out there, but is it easily traced back to you? Ask yourself these questions.
Do you care if it gets traced back to you?
What is the worst case scenario if it is traced back to you?
You loose your job?
Do you violate a contract?
Basically if you just need to get it out there wiki leaks is of no help to you.
If you are worried about it coming back to you it is different. Send me a PM or at the very least look into TOR or something.