Business is often compared to war; companies compete against one another, vying for control of a market as much as kings and countries fight for land and resources. And, as in war, many a company is tempted by tactics many would consider... less than upstanding.

Down below is a gallery of dirty secrets that many industry leaders would rather you didn't know.

Midway games at carnivals or fairs purposely let people win early on in the day. This way people carry around the prizes and advertise them for the rest of the day.

I was a deep sea diver for 10 years in the Gulf of Mexico. Huge oil spills happen and are covered up hundreds of times a year by every company. The entire industry is in on it. The bottom of the gulf is a disgusting garbage dump. Every boat dumps their trash into the gulf no one obeys the laws and the coast guard doesn't enforce s**t.

I work in payroll. The number of payroll reports I see where people are conned out of their overtime is saddening.

Record labels and producers sometimes use 'ghost vocalists' for pop stars who really can't sing. Ghost vocalists are like singing impressionists who come into the studio and re-sing the song in the style of the popstar, but better. Often the popstars in question don't even know that their vocals have been replaced.Oh and, for the record (no pun), terrible singers can't be fixed with autotune, it is only used to polish slightly untidy vocals. This is why ghost vocalists are used.

Nearly every caller you hear on top 40 radio is either an intern or someone else close to the studio, everything is fake. Especially that war of the roses s**t.

Not sure if this is an industry practise, but a very popular online retail company in my country has no in-house web designers or any other IT staff beyond your generic networking techs. Any time their website or backend systems need work they simply advertise a permanent position and give the job of sorting out whatever they need done as a "trial" for the candidate. Once completed, they then inform them that the position is no longer available and send them on their way. They've been doing this for years.

I work in a shipping company. I'm a merchant marine engineer working on mega container ships. Lot of unethical shipping companies. They dump a lot of garbage, oily sludge, waste, contaminated water, and oil out when sailing in international waters far away from the shore because it's cheaper to do that than land the waste to correct shore reception facilities. There are only a few handful of players (I can count them on my fingertips) today who are actually executing business trades, while still keeping the carbon footprint and environment as one of their core policies.

How often bodily fluids get on food, and I mean intentionally. Wash your produce.

You use too much dawn dish soap. That stuff is ridiculously concentrated.

Diamonds should be worth much less than people pay for them.

Every programmer in the world occasionally writes a very bad code that sticks with the app/program forever.

Rocket science is like 90% plumbing.

Customer service text chat can see what you're typing in the box before you hit send.

A bottle of Windex is basically 95% water 4% ammonia, and 1% blue dye / fragrance. The most expensive part of the product is the bottle.

Patient confidentiality just means your name isn't in the story, not that your story won't get told.

The fresh chocolate chip cookie scent that can be smelled outside of the Magic Kingdom bakery is artificial. It's piped out there to draw you into the bakery.

Customer service also have mute buttons, and they use it to laugh at you and/or call you names while you're busy complaining.

Your children tell us nearly everything about what goes on in your home.Source: Preschool Teacher

When a movie trailer has shots that turn out to be "missing" from the actual movie, that's not because scenes were cut. Those shots never existed in the movie. The trailer didn't test as well as they wanted, so the studio inserted scenes specifically made for the trailer during "additional photography."

In sofa/couch commercials they use smaller actors/models to make the sofas/couches look bigger.

People die in hotel rooms all the time, and unless it’s public record, they’re going to clean and resell the room. That day, if possible. So better check the closet and under the bed.

Fast food workers don't wash their hands as often as they should and rarely call in sick even if they are sick.

I'm a visa agent. I’ve seen people be refused because the manager didn’t like their face.