I read the article (I pay for WSJ) and there's one area they didn't mention: books.

I see a lot of books, especially business, productivity, time management books, written by authors who churn out poor quality (but legit, in that they're not filled with nonsense which is another scam) books by the dozens that mostly are the same book but freshened or rearranged. These books are low-cost so I've taken a chance on a few of them.

What made me try them if they have hundreds of legit looking reviews and 4 and 5 star ratings. I imagine there's some sort of "farm" for Amazon self-publishers that does this.