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The word "shill" is probably related to "shillaber", a word of obscure early-20th century origin with the same meaning.
Shills are illegal in many circumstances and in many jurisdictions because of the frequently fraudulent and damaging character of their actions. However, if a shill does not place uninformed parties at a risk of loss, but merely generates “buzz,” the shill's actions may be legal. For example, a person planted in an audience to laugh and applaud when appropriate, see "claque", or to participate in on-stage activities as a "random member of the audience", is a type of legal shill.
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Shills in gambling
The illegal and legal gambling industries often use shills to make winning at games appear more likely than it actually is. For example, illegal three card monte peddlers are notorious employers of shills. These shills also often aid in cheating; they will disrupt the game if the mark is likely to win.
In a legal casino, however, a shill is sometimes a gambler who plays using the casino's money in order to keep games (e.g. especially poker) going when there are not enough players. (This is different from a proposition player who is paid a salary by the casino for the same purpose, but bets with their own money.)
Shills on message boards
In online discussion media, such as message boards, discussion forums, and newsgroups, shills may pose as independent experts, satisfied consumers, or “innocent” parties with specific opinions in order to further the interests of an organization in which they have an interest, such as a commercial vendor or special-interest group. For example, an employee of a company that produces a specific product may praise the product anonymously in a discussion forum or group in order to heighten and generate interest in that product, or a member or sympathizer of a special-interest group may pose as a highly-qualified expert in a specific field in order to give apparently disinterested support to whatever cause the group promotes.
In some jurisdictions and in some circumstances, this type of activity may be illegal. In addition, reputable organizations may prohibit their employees and other interested parties (contractors, agents, etc.) from participating in public forums or discussion groups in which a conflict of interest might arise, or will at least insist that their employees and agents refrain from participating in any way that might create a conflict of interest.
In some cases, the members of an organization or the employees of a company may monitor and/or participate in public discussions and groups. Such people are not shills, since they don't attempt to mislead others. Some of them may monitor groups in order to better evaluate public and consumer attitudes about a certain product, issue, etc.; others may participate in order to provide information about products or other topics in a neutral way. Some companies allow their employees to participate anonymously in public discussion groups for the purpose of providing information or expressing opinions, as long as there is no intent to defraud and the employee's affiliation with the company is not mentioned (because mentioning the company might make a personal opinion seem like a corporate policy announcement, which would be both misleading and likely to incur liability for the company). Occasionally employees of a company may participate openly in discussions but will include disclaimers making it clear that they speak only for themselves. Finally, on rare occasions, employees of a company may participate openly in a discussion and speak officially on behalf of their employers—but when this occurs, often the employees are moderators of the discussion venue as well, and it is likely to be sponsored by the company (as opposed to venues operated by third parties or open to anyone, such as USENET).
Shills in marketing
In marketing, shills are often employed to assume the air of satisfied customers and give testimonials as to the merits of a given product. This type of shilling is illegal and almost impossible to detect.
Shills in retail
In retail, shills assume the air of enthusiastic customers. This is done particularly when goods of usually negotiable prices—like automobiles—are to be sold; otherwise, it is not very profitable. This type of shilling is probably legal, but rarely used because of the damage it threatens to a retailer's reputation.
A more disturbing case is where a vacant shop is taken over for a very short period (say, a few days, or a week) solely to sell shoddy goods. The seller asks the audience who will buy the offered good-quality item, quoting a low price. The shill immediately "buys" it and triumphantly displays the item to genuine customers as he departs. The seller declares there are many more similar items and that they are fully guaranteed and returnable. In fact, subsequent sales to genuine customers are of faulty or very poor quality goods for inflated prices. Customers that later attempt to return the goods for refund will sometimes be intimidated and deterred by the seller's bodyguards, or be told to return on a later date (by which time the shop is no longer in business). This is usually illegal.
Shills in auctions
Shills, or "potted plants", are frequently employed in auctions. Driving prices up with phony bids, they seek to provoke a bidding war among other participants. Often they are told by the seller precisely how high to bid, as the seller actually pays the price (to himself, of course) if the item does not sell, losing only the auction fees.
Shilling is an even larger problem in online auctions, where any user with multiple accounts (and IP addresses) can shill without aid of participants. Many online auction sites employ sophisticated (and usually secret) methods to detect collusion, and a number of people have been sent to jail for online auction fraud in the past decade. See more at: The Hazards of Online Auctions
A common shilling tactic is to have two shills. The first is a young child who offers a low bid for a moderately-priced item. Other auction participants will be reluctant to outbid him. The second shill is an ill-mannered and usually overweight man who does just that—he outbids the kid, who starts crying. In theory, this should provoke other auction participants to outbid the man solely for the sake of beating him; by bidding well beyond the item's value, he can artificially increase prices.
This practice is illegal in virtually all jurisdictions.
Shills in journalism
Many people consider the use of shills in journalism—usually by commercial or political interests—to be the most dangerous of all. The term is applied metaphorically, by comparison with the above, to commentators who have vested interests in or associations with parties in a controversial issue. Usually this takes the form of a show or network pretending to be offering news when in fact they are simply repeating "talking points" offered by a political party.
Journalistic ethics, of course, require full disclosure of conflicts of interest, and of any interference by other parties with the reportage. But it is difficult to draw the line between normal influence and illicit interference. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the internalization of sponsors' values by members of commercial media make it impossible to notice such conflicts of interest.
External links
- "Strange bedfellows: Journalists as corporate shills"
- Mainstream Media Shills For NATO
- I Quit, Confession of a Republican Shill
- Confessions of a Government Shill | By Andy Borrowitz
- Corporate Shill Enterprise: A Corporate Lobbying Front Group
- American Media: Government Shills?
- Some American journalists accused of being spokespeople for the administration
- The Hazards of Online Auctions
- Internet Shills: Old Trick, New Tech
- EBay's policy
Categories: Gambling terminology
