Caveat Emptor: Fake Testimonials on Sales Sites

After writing web content for years, I was asked by a client to do her sales page to pitch the book that I'd half-ghostwritten/half-edited for her. Sales pages weren't my thing, but I knew enough about marketing that I figured it couldn't be too hard. So I did a little research, modeled a sales page after several others I found online, and she was delighted with the results.

"But now I need some testimonials."

She needed testimonials? It was a brand new product. No one had used it yet, therefore there were no testimonials. Naively, I asked her if she had some to give me.

"No, just make some up."

After some very carefully worded wrestling via email, she finally agreed to supply me with some testimonials to include in the sales page. I knew perfectly well they were made up, and I felt bad about including them. But - well, what could I do? I'd already done the work, I had agreed to finish the job, and I would be bending one ethic or another.

After this, I was careful to always specify that I did not make up testimonials for sales pages, and I managed to avoid doing them for the most part. But I'd wondered ever since: does anyone pay attention to the testimonials? Is there any legal repercussion to making them up?

Turns out, people do - and there may well be.

The Kimkins Diet: Latest Scandal Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon!

The Kimkins diet claims to provide you with techniques that help you lose as much as a pound a day - not in the short-term, water-weight manner, but over months. You don't know it until you get into their program, but Kimkins gives advice like "replace fiber with laxatives" that seem more at home in a bulemic's how-to list than in a serious diet program.

The astounding thing is, a lot of very overweight women have used the program, and they do indeed lose weight rapidly. They also lose their hair, their periods, and their health. And now they're starting to sue.

What does this have to do with fake testimonials? Turns out that of the hundreds of testimonials found on the site, a significant proportion - no one's sure how many yet - are fake, made up by site owners and/or hired writers to make the diet look good.

This is not rare online, or offline. Sony's done it for movie reviews. A writing for hire site I use sometimes had an ad that provoked this blog post. Judging by things I've seen or been asked to do, fake testimonials are a fairly common writing gig.

The Law of Just Desserts

What does this mean to writers? First, be aware of everything you're agreeing to before you agree to it. When you're approached to do something new, check in with writing groups you know and love, like the AC forum, to find out what pitfalls you may expect to find along the way.

But second, and more importantly, you should realize that in a case like this, you could be held liable as well in case of any fraud. For the most part, the FTC and other law enforcement agencies stay away from advertising unless there is potential harm to the health of people, as in the situation above, or potential for serious financial fraud, as in cases where claims of instant wealth are not realized (Amway, anyone?). As the Internet grows, and as abuses like this proliferate, this may start to change. One good class-action suit could leave hundreds of writers who have bent their rules legally liable for fraud. Writers, beware, and trust your sense of ethics more than the cash your clients offer you.