A harassment campaign on Goodreads

> Not all of these fake reviews are one stars – some give five star or other highly rated ratings. The catch with these highly rated reviews is many of them are created to give the false appearance that they were written by Tomlinson to raise his own Goodreads ratings, spoofing his name and photo and sometimes even using his own copyrighted writings.

Wow, that's devious. I wonder if any of the fake product reviews I've seen are obvious fake endorsements placed there by the competition.

This problem isn't one born with the internet. Think about all those "WE BUY HOUSES 4 CASH" signs you see at stop lights. Why can't the city simply look up the phone number on them and convict the business owner for breaking advertisement laws? Because there is no proof he put the sign there. It could be the competition trying to frame him! Thus, the signs are simply thrown out... and he can put new ones out tomorrow.

"Hello, I saw a sign that says you buy houses for cash, can I set up a meeting?"

"Yes, when are you available?"

> Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.

Surely can't be that hard to find out if the business owner set up that sign, right?

Let's say you buy houses for cash and I put up a sign with your number on it. The police call you and find out that you do, indeed, buy houses for cash. They throw you in jail and I snicker, knowing that by breaking the advertising law myself but with your name I have put you out of business.

While I'm at it, I leave your business card at the scene of a heist.

I want to live in your town, where there's so little crime the police have time to investigate people who advertise on telephone poles.

In Germany such stuff is handled by the "Ordnungsamt" (office of public order, roughly translated). They're not policemen so they don't have the authority to arrest, but they can and will issue fines for littering, graffiti, improper advertising and the likes.

This way police is free to handle actual crime.

I guess they are slacking in Berlin because the whole city is covered with graffiti and random advertisement trash on every traffic pole.