It's hard to believe that Samsung would actually have to pay people to attend a launch event for its flagship smartphones but that's what a report out of Shanghai is claiming. According to the report Samsung paid 500 people to attend its launch event for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge in China, that means half of the 1000 “fans” reportedly present at the event were just there for the money.
Shanghai-based The Paper claims that each fake fan was paid 30 yuan or $4.80 to spend an hour at the Galaxy S6 launch event and recruiters that brought them in received 20 yuan or $3.25 per person for their services. It's claimed that the fake fans were also told to “like” Samsung's page on Baidu and if they were interviewed by members of the press they were to say that they attended the launch event because they were Samsung fans and interested in the new flagship smartphones. Samsung has not responded to these allegations yet.
Update: Samsung has issued a denial on its official blog. The company says that it has investigated these claims and has reached the conclusion that they're “totally groundless and bogus.”
