Sales operations where you need many customers, each consisting of low price point "buys" typically require a large salesforce of relatively low-paid junior people who make most of their money on commission (similar to classified sales at newspapers). Basically a boiler room style operation where people "dial for dollars" all day. It's not a surprise that some sales people may have attempted these tactics without management's knowledge or approval.
It may valid, but it doesn't exonerate the business (yelp, in this case) from responsability.
I think the real troubling issue is that they demand openess from other businesses but don't show their algorithms or give open access on their pages for response.
I wonder how long it will take for businesses to start using Mechanical Turk against this Yelp.
