What the App?

I just received this from a friend who has developed an app, addressed to his "Friends and Family."  An excerpt from the email:

Apple relies very heavily on Ratings of apps to rank you in the App store and so we really need help boosting our number of 5 star ratings.  Could you please take a quick minute and give us a rating in the App Store.  Please also ask your kids or anyone with an iPhone to take a quick minute as well.

And it strikes me that asking friends and their kids to rate an app that they haven't used is less than admirable, both in a personal and business context.  Ask me to try, great.  Ask me to forward something, no problem.  Or to follow, share, etc.  But to say a product is great when I haven't used it ...

I've always been a little suspect about ratings, but now even more so, knowing someone who is a good person seemed quite comfortable with this practice.