UltraTac fishing for fake reviews

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AAA Flashlights
1

Received an email a couple days ago that I found quite weird. Bella from UltraTac is looking for people to give fake reviews for the K18 flashlight. Here is her email. I had to reply to find out which company and what flashlight product she was talking about. Stooping to a new low? I think so IMO

On Jul 4, 2016 7:15 AM, “bella” <3217501725@qq.com> wrote:

I am Bella

We currently need some review for our flashlights. You need to get the product information via google and youtube and then write a product review with yourself words.

Native English is the best, or you must have fluent English including excellent writing, grammar, spelling and formatting.

Reward: $5/500 words, $10/900 words, $15/1200 words (The higher quality, the more payment.)

looking forward to your reply!
Best Regards,
Bella

My reply:

Which flashlight company are you talking about?. You want me to do a review off of other reviews without having the product in hand to do it?

Thanks

Her reply:

UltraTac K18. you can get the product information from google. then use your self words to do a product review.

————————— 原始邮件 —————————
发件人: “robertb”;<xxxx@gmail.com>;
发送时间: 2016年7月4日(星期一) 晚上7:38
收件人: “bella”<3217501725@qq.com>;
主题: Re: Review Request for our popular flashlights

2

Why not just send you a light to review?

3

this makes no sense at all.

4

Later, walking out of jail after posting $10,000 bail:

"Wait, this isn't the street the county jail is on."

5

UltraTac K18 is the best aaa at this moment, in my opinion, of course.
The email is very strange, are you sure is from UltraTac?, they do not need request for this.

6

I’d consider it for $1 per word, but for 1 cent per word? Who does she think she’s talking to? Lol… :confounded:

7

The strange thing is such reviews always include selfmade pictures from the product. A review without pictures is kind of boring to me. Maybe they want to use it for the website under comments or something like that and thats why they dont need pictures.

8

To be honest with you, I have no idea. Here is the complete email thread in a a screenshot. I blocked out the email addresses per blf rules.

9

Bella is user BenSnail. Back a few weeks ago I received a message that follows. I thought it strange and did not accommodate the request.

Would I like to have a Lumintop TD16? Yes, but I won’t help with creating fake reviews to get one.

10

Stealing picts online never stopped many chinese companies. Maybe that’s what she expected me to do. I should have played her game a little further to get more info, but didn’t want to waste my time and told her I wasn’t interested unless I had the light in hand.

11

So BenSnail/Bella wanted you to translate a fake review for her. That’s pretty low class too.

Is UltraTac the same company as Lumintop? I seem to remember a Bella at Lumintop too.

12

Self moderated LOL

13

Fine!

This calls for laying in a supply of popcorn and beer …

14

Yup, I got those also… seems very fishy. If someone wants my opinion… send me a product or sell it to me for the cost of shipping and I will review it.

15

If you do get this sort of strange email, remember —-

view source, view full headers, and capture those.

If your email client won’t show you the full headers that are in email, forward it as an attachment to someone who knows how.

Headers can be faked, but with the complete information there’s a good chance of detecting phishing, forgeries, and viruses or trojans.

(If you’re not always scanning your mail — do get some software installed to screen it before you open it.)

16

It’s from the standard qq.com email servers many chinese businesses use, and approved by the chinese government for censorship purposes.

“qq dot com is an e-mail service provided by Chinese Tencent company. It is very much like hotmail/gmail. The qq dot com address can also be used to login for other services like the free 10 TB cloud disk offered by Tencent, Weiyun dot com. So it is definitely not intended for disposable/temporary emails.”

17

I’ve been reviewing gear for a few years on YouTube. Its a pretty common practice for companies to share lists of reviewers amongst each other. I get requests nearly daily to review stuff. Probably 75% of them are unrelated to my channel.

I can say the flashlight manufacturers are probably the most honest of the bunch.

I could spend all day telling horror stories of companies trying to buy positive reviews, or pay you to take down negative reviews.

The big problem being that alot of good companies hire bad marketing firms to promote product and they destroy reputations in a heart beat.

Its tough as reviewers to know if you legitimately working with a company rep or a marketing firm. I sent an email this week to a company because their marketing rep was leaving tons of fake comments on my reviews. They were very appreciative that I warned them about what was going on.

Its a dirty dirty world out there. I know for certain there are a few companies that leave bad comments on thrunite flashlights. I see it alot on my channel. Someone will leave comments on every video with a story of a DOA light, and how much happier they are with xxx brand. Its easy to spot because they do it in bunches and over a period of a few days.

As a reviewer your integrity is crucial. Luckily in the world of flashlights this kind of activity is few and far between.

If I was you I’d send that email to the company. If it’s a rogue rep I’m sure they would love to know

18

I received the same email from a Bella offering money for flashlight reviews. Wanted me to just look up existing reviews and put my own spin on them.I didn’t answer.

19

Yep reviews always have to be honest even if the companies don’t like it! Most companies are smart enough not to send out bad gear for review.

Now if i get a light with a fake emitter i wont review it. I will ask them if they want me to send the light back.

20

Wow $5 for 500 words. This is how some third world country people actually support their families, all you have to do is to have Internet connection, basic English skills and lots of free time.

This is why I usually don’t trust reviews unless they’re being detailed with the specs.

By the way this is already happening in BLF, instead of being paid in cash they receive free lights, so far lumintop reviews being the most common. I’m not talking about honest detailed reviews, but short and data lacking reviews which are submitted just to comply with the seller. Luckily this is BLF and people make decisions with the help of real, honest opinions instead of just reviews.