Astroturfing

Astroturfing is when people pretend to be regular members of the public but they're actually hired by a company or someone with an agenda. They'll try to make it look like there are lots of people who support what the company or person is doing, when in reality they are just paid to say they support it. For example, a company might pay people to leave positive reviews online to make it look like lots of people like the product when most people haven't even seen it.