Samsung investigates itself, finds it's innocent of hiring 'fans' for Galaxy S6 Shanghai launch

While Samsung has been basking in the glory of its successful launch of the latest Galaxy model known as the S6, other news has been circulating. Most recently, reports have surfaced that the company hired people to pose as fans during the big Shanghai, China event. Probably not an unheard of practice for many companies.

The news spread quickly, with such major outlets as Daring Fireball and WantChinaTimes running with the story, though the former has now issued an update because Samsung is denying the reports, claiming it conducted a thorough investigation into the matter.

The speed of the investigation could be questioned, given that it was completed within two days of original reports. The fact that Samsung investigated Samsung could also be called into question. As my colleague Mark Wilson put it -- "Did we do this?" "No". "Oh, that's good".

The response came in an announcement from the company that states, in part "Samsung investigated a media report on April 3 that claimed people were temporarily hired and paid to attend the Galaxy S6 launching event in Shanghai, China and later found that the story was totally groundless and bogus".

Well, OK. There isn't much that can be said to refute the claim, short of a real investigation into the matter and perhaps some "fan" coming forward. Neither is it really worth the time and effort, as there isn't anything illegal going on.

Samsung concludes "our findings have indicated that under no circumstances has anyone been hired or given money to attend the event. In fact, the more than 1,100 attendees, including consumers and industry officials, have all been formally invited to the Shanghai Culture Square where the event took place".

Both report and response seem largely unsubstantiated. We'll honestly never know the truth, and that's fine because it's really not the big deal that it was made out to be.

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