OK, I understand your point now. I am still not entirely convinced, however. Telephone networks did not perform the manipulation, but the law prohibited them to do so. As to BBSes, I think that the reason is that most of the ones you may be thinking about were not run as a business. Actually, the counter example here is dating sites which had BBS functions and populated them with fake women to entertain the paying male customers.
I still think the problem is not with technology, but with the fact that any commercial entity will try to maximize its revenue in the frame permitted by the law. If the law does not prohibit user manipulation, they will do it because it brings revenue.
