[iEatClams]

Vancouver real-estate firm admits faking investor for TV news

The president of a prominent Vancouver real-estate company said he is deeply sorry that two of his company employees were falsely portrayed as Chinese condo buyers in an apparent marketing scheme.

The company involved, Mac Marketing Solutions, was forced to admit its error after a local blogger noticed something fishy in several recent TV news stories and alleged “media manipulation.”

The Mac Marketing Solutions employees — represented as young women from China — suggested to reporters that their parents were on the way to Vancouver to snap up a condo during Chinese New Year.

In a prepared statement, Ethan Faber, managing editor at CTV British Columbia News, said “we were certainly surprised to learn that two people our reporter approached who told us they were shopping for a condo, were in fact employees of the company. We are doing a followup story.”

A call to the CBC Vancouver newsroom — which also ran a story that turned out to include fake Chinese investors — was not returned.

In an interview Thursday, company president Cameron McNeill said: “I don’t know how the situation came about. I deeply regret the fact that two of Mac’s employees ended up being interviewed, and without us being forthright about their connection with Mac.”

McNeill was asked if the two employees were asked to play roles by bosses.

He said, “I did not ... it didn’t come from the top,” and “I don’t believe it happened on an order.”

McNeill said he was out of town when the interviews took place and he is trying to discover how the employees “ended up” in the situation.

“The fact of the matter is it was wrong,” he said. “I accept full responsibility.”

McNeill was asked if the apparent misrepresentation being alleged throughout Vancouver’s blogosphere — that the company seemed to be seeking to drum up condo sales using employees as Chinese investor actors — could constitute a fraud.

“I don’t believe that it was an absolute contrived situation, and I understand that some people would be angry about it,” he said.

Reporters often field real-estate story pitches and, in recent themes, marketers have focused on the voracious Chinese investor who comes to Vancouver on holiday during Chinese New Year ready to throw down cash.

On Thursday, the Mac Marketing Solutions Facebook page took quite a backlash against that narrative, seemingly from young Vancouverites who are fed up with exorbitant home prices.

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