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Work Griping
Sep. 18th, 2018 05:21 pm My colleague (Admin) asked me, a few minutes towards the end of today, to make up “eight or so fake email addresses, male, North-American-sounding names.”
“You want burner accounts.”
”Yes.”
”That’s interesting,” I said, wondering if we were going to sign in to chat rooms to see what potential customers are looking for in a product, or to send inquiries to other manufacturers to see how they reply to consumers. Then she told me it so we can post reviews of our products.
I don’t know whether this is her idea, or handed down from higher up. I don’t think they can fire me for refusing to make up the accounts. I don’t know. I’m also a bit unsure what to think of myself, because I was not particularly fazed by the idea of making up burner accounts, but I’m uneasy about using them as sock-puppet accounts. I suppose I feel spying on semi-public situations is ok, but directly interfering isn’t? Maybe I’m also just suspicious that if I agree to make the accounts, I’ll then be the person asked to post the fake reviews (in terms of who claims to be posting them, even if the actual information about the products is all factual). It’s not like I haven’t done dodgy things in the past (I claimed a stock photo for our intended boardroom poster was for “personal” rather than corporate use, so we’d only have to pay $20 instead of $300). But this really feels like a slippery slope.
“You want burner accounts.”
”Yes.”
”That’s interesting,” I said, wondering if we were going to sign in to chat rooms to see what potential customers are looking for in a product, or to send inquiries to other manufacturers to see how they reply to consumers. Then she told me it so we can post reviews of our products.
I don’t know whether this is her idea, or handed down from higher up. I don’t think they can fire me for refusing to make up the accounts. I don’t know. I’m also a bit unsure what to think of myself, because I was not particularly fazed by the idea of making up burner accounts, but I’m uneasy about using them as sock-puppet accounts. I suppose I feel spying on semi-public situations is ok, but directly interfering isn’t? Maybe I’m also just suspicious that if I agree to make the accounts, I’ll then be the person asked to post the fake reviews (in terms of who claims to be posting them, even if the actual information about the products is all factual). It’s not like I haven’t done dodgy things in the past (I claimed a stock photo for our intended boardroom poster was for “personal” rather than corporate use, so we’d only have to pay $20 instead of $300). But this really feels like a slippery slope.
