It is of course not legal, but practiced by everyone nonetheless. I mean, even 20 years ago all "awards" and other nonsense were just paid, different award figurines from different "review" sites arriving with the same sender address... Like after 20 years on a dating sites one may forget that they were supposed to pretend that they were looking for the "true love", people can forget it here too... Not even sure these lies are a benefit to anyone anymore, like people aren't dumb. It's more of a ritual dance.