Do internet "shills" exist?

A friend of mine in college worked for a dating website. His job was to act as a couple of hundred different women. He maintained their profiles, 'winked' at people, answered emails, etc.

These women of course never existed, his job was to make it seem like there were more women on the site than there actually were. Pretty sleazy job and we always gave him grief about it. But he said, 'what the hell, they pay me to work at any hour and from my dorm.'

So I'd guess it's entirely possible there are such shills in the world of politics since there's so much money in politics. (Certainly more than in on-line dating!)

By the way, welcome to a2k, Gary (whether or not we get into disagreeing on something).

I thought the word shill was used as "a shill in the audience." Meaning, for example, that a mind reader's act started with the mind reader (blindfolded) would say, "There is someone in the audience who is 52 today, and left school at an early age to support his family as a newsboy." Someone would stand up saying, "Are you talking about me."? (The shill.)

I think this thread is talking about the political end of "guerilla marketing," where people are paid to talk up an item at a bar, etc. Since it exists in the non-cyberspace world, it only makes sense it can exist in the cyberspace world, especially when there are countries with money to burn, so to speak.

It makes one wonder when one hears vehement political positions that only knows that their position is the only totally logical position.

If that exists in cyberspace, what does one do? Are there shill busters, like ghost busters?