I see a lot of posts on this subreddit where users ask for advice and a user will recommended a specific app or service to use.

On its face, that’s not a problem. I do that all the time with services or products that I’ve used and liked. No big deal.

Except when it’s a type of underhanded and malicious marketing strategy: Astroturfing.

Astroturfing is intentionally hiding the sponsor of a marketing message so as to make it look like it’s coming from grassroots supporters (hence “AstroTurf,” fake grass). You see this on Reddit all the time: a seemingly “normal” user somehow finds dozens and dozens of threads on which to recommend using their product.

Most recently I caught a user astrotufing for their business. I think I spot about one per week on r/smallbusiness, and I see it elsewhere on the “business advice” side of Reddit.

Here’s the problem: you should be wary about doing business with people who try to trick you. Legitimate companies (including mine) disclose when they’re promoting their own products or services and they require that their employees disclose their employment relationship when doing the same. In fact, the FCC requires this of American companies – astroturfing is illegal and subject to a $16,000/day fine for violators. Don’t do business with criminals.

I’m a rule-follower so here’s my question for this community: should I set up a website that names and shames these companies? Is that something the community would support? I don’t think there’s any way to prevent this kind of scammy marketing without leveraging SEO and bad press, but that only happens if enough real people support it. Let me know if you think it’d be worth the effort, because for some reason this has become my personal pet peeve in the business world and I’m happy to do the leg work.

Edit: the founder of the business that I called out earlier reached out to me and committed to no longer engaging in this practice. Given that my goal is to encourage more ethical business practices, I’ve edited my post to remove the call-out by name. I think that’s a fair compromise and aligned with my values. I hope you all agree.