[1][2] In most uses, shill refers to someone who purposely gives onlookers, participants or "marks" the impression of an enthusiastic customer independent of the seller, marketer or con artist, for whom they are secretly working.
The person or group in league with the shill relies on crowd psychology to encourage other onlookers or audience members to do business with the seller or accept the ideas they are promoting.
The word originally denoted a carnival worker who pretended to be a member of the audience in an attempt to elicit interest in an attraction.
The plastic surgery company Lifestyle Lift ordered their employees to post fake positive reviews on websites.
[citation needed] Both the illegal and legal gambling industries often use shills to make winning at games appear more likely than it actually is.
[citation needed] In marketing, shills are often employed to assume the air of satisfied customers and give testimonials to the merits of a given product.
Shilling has a substantially higher rate of occurrence in online auctions, where any user with multiple accounts can bid on their own items.
Walton and his associates were charged and convicted of fraud by federal authorities for their eBay shill bidding.