All RTAW Members: Don’t believe everything you read

[MASA]

We believe there have been recent occurrences of businesses registering under separate user names to pose as individuals in order to attack or undermine their competitors. Typically their posts have taken the form of complaints from dissatisfied customers or reports of supposedly faulty equipment.

This type of activity can be very hard to prove so in an attempt to ensure that the users of our forums are not deceived by these actions we would urge you to consider the potential identity of users when reading such reports, particularly where it appears they have a high degree of knowledge about the commercial entity with whom they have a grievance.

Whilst no guarantee, post count and date of registration may give some indication of where an application of scepticism might be appropriate.

We take this opportunity to remind users that we have a rule that prohibits the posting of material that is “knowingly false”. Also, posts from commercial entities, when associated with their business interests, must comply with the Commercial Posting guidelines, and must disclose their commercial identity as part of their signature.

We are reluctant to take the action of removing material from the board without having proof of its falsehood, but where we have more than reasonable suspicion, we will not hesitate to do so.

If you have suspicions or reason to doubt the purported identity of a user, we encourage you to bring it to the attention of the moderating team by way of the “Report” button.

The MASA Committee and Moderating Team.