We have a story on our website. It is really just a summary of
guidance, provided by the cfpb. If you've
been following the cfpb. The director is Rohit, Chopra and he
does not mess around. He's going after everyone. He uses very
strong language. They just they just suit MoneyGram. They
just went after TransUnion. He he
he literally takes
things almost personal. If you read some
of his commentary about the action that
the agency itself has taken.
And now, we're seeing a guidance or statement put out
by them. Warning people, not to post fake reviews
about your own products and services. So
essentially, he says, like fake reviews about yourself online
may result in significant penalties, may
result in significant penalties. Yeah. He's talking about
fines being sued and and so
forth and he did provide some guidance. He
referred to something that the FTC had
said he did refer to
Some case law or at least some case law that the FTC had
establish and it was kind of
a wake-up call for me because I think a lot of
us go into reading of
reviews about anything. Now, with the degree of skepticism you
trying in your mind to weed out the ones that are probably fake like,
if you're going and you're looking up a restaurant to eat at and
you have, you have eight that are terrible. And
you have one is like best restaurant ever. You're like,
okay probably written by the owner, right? Yeah, is what you're
Yeah. Yeah, but, but I
will say this, I number one, I did. I
did not have any knowledge that, you
know, this would be like, significant penalties
like significant penalties. Like this is, this
is like, they're not it's illegal. Yes. Again, it's a lie. I
little in my mind according according to them, my
mind. It was always like a slap on the wrist. Like, you'll get banned from
website or aren't like, they find out or even writing something about
yourself. You know, I think was gonna
be this big of
Deal. Yeah, and I think a lot of people think that way, you
know, they think they can, you know, you could, it's so easy. We talked about, you can create your own
do name like very quickly. You can write testimonials
to like, you know, beef it up if
you need to and it's so easy to manipulate things like that,
but it's significant. It's
you get in big trouble for it. That's
what caught me off guard. That you just did not get a slap on
the wrist that they actually like you can legally
get into some serious trouble.
Versus just being banned from a website. Yeah. Well,
we're talking here in the context of financial service companies
that are providing a financial product or service. That's
kind of the that's the realm of the cfpb operates
in. I think he
kind of the director kind of established that consumers.
Have a I
guess a a relative. They
have a kind of like a
relative Baseline to believe on the
Is that they read that
they should be able to believe to the ones that they read,
especially when it comes to a product or service. And
so, there were a few examples of reviews that
would be considered unlawful. And that is, if you write
your own fake reviews and you're
like, okay sure, but then it also went on
to say, if your employees are writing fake
reviews on behalf of the company, you know,
we may be giving rave reviews about products and services without
Disclosing that they are in fact employees if
they're posing as customers of the product and service that
could be unlawful. Yeah that
again that that's
like it. It's serious. There was another was another crazier.
One God the crazier one. Was that
if you allow people to give you reviews and
you post only the good ones and
you don't show the bad ones. You got that could
be a local but let us but let's say I'd like to get some
tests. Hey,
We'd love to have your feedback. It will be posted on the website. So
people say, once you people say the product was great. Bunch
of people say the product was bad. You're like, well, we'll take the
good ones or turn them into testimonials will put an extra product and
then the cfpb is saying, no, no. No, you
can't, you can't hand pick the ones you want, but I will sit
but who wants a like if you get a good review,
a good testimony, whatever you want to call it. Who wants
to put bad ones up? No one probably, probably no
one. But the implication was
that you can't do that. Do that. That if you're going
to show them, you have to show them or everything. Otherwise, it's unlawful
again. We've said it
many times. We are not the authorities, the legal authorities. We're
just communicating, what's being said, the cfpb, director
of means business. He has taken a lot
of very active steps recently. I
get that it's consumer-focused. However, they
do have an appetite for things on the commercial side. Plus
they also referred to
Actions, that the Federal Trade Commission
had taken and it could be something to consider if
the FTC where to examine. Yeah, but
say this particular industry. Yeah, you say, well,
the cfpb's consumer don't need to worry. The FTC has
control over the commercial side of
finance. And so if the cfpb is saying,
you can't do this and they're citing
the FTC. I think it's important that everyone just
be aware. Yeah. That if you're like, well, I'm
just gonna
Going to start my company set myself up
with a thousand fake good reviews, and I'll be off to
the races because it you know, how else you gonna get your name out there. Yeah,
you need to you need to have some kind of record. You Know. Jack record online
and we only customers yet. So we'll leave, we'll leave a thousand fake
reviews. Talk about how awesome we are and then hopefully we'll
get some real ones, you know, down the line. You could, you could be
at risk. That's, that's all that we're saying. Yeah, scare anybody. No, definitely
not. But it's good. It's something really good to know especially if
you're going to start up your own business because like you said, you need
Momentum. You need like you need something to kind
of get yourself going because when you when you're just starting
off, the reality is it's like you can give people your
information and they're going to look for the reviews. And if
you have none - they all this company, the scam, right?
So yeah, it's hard for you to say. Well, we don't have
any reviews because you would be our first customer, right? Nobody
wants. Nobody wants to be 21 to get a customer. That's like, all
right, I'll just, I'll just go to someone who has mixed reviews versus someone
who's never sold a product or service. What would you do? What would
you personally?
Go to someone that has mixed reviews versus someone that has no
reviews. Yeah. Okay, good. What if they told you? Hey,
is your my first guy? Would you still be like, it?
Really depends on what it is? I might be interested. But
at the same time might be like, I'd rather have someone who's. Well,
seasoned Haddix has had the experience,
the good in the bad. Yeah, and it's, hopefully hopefully doing whatever
it takes to create a better and more improved, customer experience, and
hopefully, I'm the customer that gets the good one version.
Let me ask you, is what
Do you speculate when you see online that someone
has all good reviews, do you speculate at all?
Yeah, I'm like I was probably fake. Okay, so you do speculate.
Okay, every time I reviews I
always try to think which ones in the pink ones. Okay, every time every time
apparently that exercise is something
that, you know, that the legal authorities are trying
to minimize that we shouldn't have to go in and
try to be detectives. Yeah. And determine which
ones are fake. Which one's the real? Because honestly, I
have made choices.
Choices based upon what I've read. Yeah.
Absolutely. I really wanted to eat here. And
I don't know if these reviews are you doing a customer or
if it's their competitor? Yeah, leaving that bad reviews, but
you know, I will say this, especially
for things like Airbnb restaurant. So even like simple
Services one for me, one bad
review. I'm like, I'm
not going to go into that but then but then I kind of look at the
context of that bad review and then I start seeing if anything else adds
up.
And then I kind of look at the whole big picture, like this person was like,
I look at the date and I play detective. Hardcore on my Gayo.
This has this day, like, all right, like it's exhausting doing
that it is and then I click on the purchase profile. I don't like, I
like, who is this person? Hmm. It
is exhausting. But then you said, this is good to
know. If you're just starting a business. You can't just again.
I thought it was just a slap on the wrist. And that's it. And you
get banned for the website for a couple days and called it. You know, you go back
but it couldn't be yeah. Illegal.
Tivity. It is. Yeah, very very good to know. They're very
good already.