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Comment by raverbashing | Hacker News Reader

In the case of the dating website it is faking. Because there's no way you'll end up dating the fake profile

Not sure how it was in the case of Paypal, if it was a false order or they would just go ahead and buy small stuff then.

But in the case of Reddit and Rentoid, it's not fake. You're getting what you want. Links and the products to rent.

It doesn't matter if it's being provided by the founders, you're getting the service

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But the founders were lying about their identity when posting the links. If the user considers the service to be "links from other users" then yes, the content is fake. If the user considers the service to be "links", then you're correct. Personally, I consider the service to be "links from other users" and therefore, from my perspective, the content was fake.

Lying may be too strong of a word. The users have pseudonyms; there was no reddit real names policy. It seems reasonable for multiple pseudonyms to be controlled by a single person.

Users may have been surprised to find out just how few other people actually existed. But I see this as legit. It would be like a big corporation hiring "Esprit Legal Firm" for their defense, winning in court, and hen finding out that the company was run by a single lawyer. Obviously businesses can't lie, but you're not required to list your own flaws either.

Businesses lie all the time. I believe AT&T was busted a year or so ago for misleading consumers that the fees attached to their phone bill were mandates by the government. Bestbuy was busted on using different instore flyers then the ones they shipped out.

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