[MangoToupe]

> If a company knowingly misrepresents their user activity then it's fraud.

Demonstrating this in court might get pretty complicated, though. Legal terms often have a way of obscuring the complexity of real life (which is understandable, of course).

I'm guessing the number of well-known startups who have committed fraud by "faking it until they make it" is somewhere between 1 and N. What that number is might well be subjective to the judge or jury rendering a verdict. Unfortunately, lack of serious insight into this might also be evidence that "faking it until you make it" works even if it's fraud, so long as you can spin revenue that investors demand out of it eventually.

Edit: forgive my claiming lack of evidence = evidence; i'm just tired. I think my point that it's kind of unknowable, and this might prompt people to accept it as proof positive (even irrationally). I hope my comment can be received in good faith