https://www.reddit.com/r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit/comments/110nah7/shill/
created by EncyclopaediaBot on 12/02/2023 at 18:58 UTC*
2 upvotes, 0 top-level comments (showing 0)
A ‘shill’ is an accomplice in the crowd of a con game to make the fakery seem real. In Reddit terms, a Shill is a Redditor (probably a bot account) who is promoting dodgy merchandise disguised as a Post. They often work in threes[1]: one posting the product, another asking for a link and yet another offering the link or thanking the OP profusely for providing the link. All three accounts will be the same age and have very low karma because they are usually just one user engaging in sock puppetry.
1: https://i.redd.it/e7t2ni7r6gd91.jpg
You’ll note from the screenshot that the only truthful person in that particular exchange was the only one downvoted. Sometimes they’ll roll out several sock puppets[2] in one thread if they believe it’s being successful.
Be very wary of random posts in any sub[3] from unfamiliar or low-karma Redditors showing off items[4] such as posters, stickers, T-Shirts or mugs, where the caption says generic things like “Got this for a friend”[5] or even “I’m so pleased with how it came out”[6]. They are waiting for you to reply, and if you do, hey presto - you’ve fallen for their scam and run the risk of getting permabanned from the sub as their accomplice.
3: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/kx83v3/what_is_up_with_this_tshirt/
4: https://www.reddit.com/r/sharks/comments/q2m5ve/halloween_candy_corn_shark/
6: https://i.redd.it/lmwef426nad91.jpg
If you suspect a post to be a Shill, do not engage with it; just downvote it, comment the subreddit link r/TheseFuckingAccounts then use the Report option[7] as Spam --> Link Farming or report the accounts to the admins at https://www.reddit.com/report[8][9] and move on.
7: https://i.redd.it/k732ju47qhw81.jpg
8: https://www.reddit.com/report
9: https://www.reddit.com/report
You should know that if you report a post for any reason, that post will now automatically be hidden and appear in your Hidden folder, which you can see here: https://www.reddit.com/user/me/hidden/[10][11]. You can Unhide it if you wish using its “hamburger” post overflow menu.
10: https://www.reddit.com/user/me/hidden/
11: https://www.reddit.com/user/me/hidden/
There's nothing here!
