PR Agency Linked to Fake Forbes Sites Sells Placements for US Visa Applications

A PR agency that appears linked to fake overseas editions of Forbes is selling paid editorial placements to support United States visa applications, with four former employees of Baden Bower speaking anonymously to Press Gazette. Immigrants are charged $2,000 for one published story, $4,500 for three and $6,000 for five on seemingly high-profile outlets. The firm produces between 200 and 600 articles a month for applicants from India, Afghanistan and the Middle East seeking EB1 skilled-worker visas, and an employee described writers using large language models to generate the copy, with editors whose job was to "edit out the AI tones". Publications on offer in sales documents included Forbes, The Guardian, the International Business Times, OK and Elle, and Rolling Stone UK. Baden Bower CEO AJ Ignacio said: "We strongly dispute any suggestion that Baden Bower creates or operates 'fake Forbes sites'." The agency's own website states it guarantees published materials about clients in Forbes and Business Insider.

The crux

The market for trusted bylines has been industrialised and AI-automated, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has started flagging publications, which corrodes the value of the editorial placements real publishers sell.

Sell-side read

For any publisher selling branded or sponsored editorial, this is the reputational risk on the other side of the desk; transparent labelling and audited placement standards are now a commercial defence, not a compliance chore.

Watch

whether the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services escalates its red-flagging of high-volume publications into an official list.