Polonius has hired Reynaldo to spy on Laertes while he's studying in Paris. Polonius has already given his son lots of fatherly advice ("Neither a borrower nor a lender be . . .") but it's clear that he doesn't quite trust Laertes to behave himself, surrounded as he'll be by all the temptations of youth. Polonius is worried that Laertes will behave in a way that will bring shame and dishonor to the family name, so he instructs Reynaldo to put about false stories of Laertes's alleged debauchery as a means of finding out from his friends and acquaintances what he's really been up to.
This whole unedifying episode illustrates once again Polonius's penchant for devious manipulation. Not content with sending one of his lackeys to spy on Laertes, later on in the play he embroils his own daughter, Ophelia, in a sordid plot to discover the reasons behind Hamlet's apparent madness.
We can find the answer to this question in act 2, scene 1, which opens with Polonius briefing Reynaldo on his mission in Paris. Polonius tells Reynaldo to "inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris" and what company they keep, knowing that Reynaldo will soon discover through these inquiries that "they know [his] son," Laertes. Having ascertained this, Reynaldo is tasked to then claim "some distant knowledge" of Laertes, such as that Reynaldo is a friend of the family but not close to Laertes personally.
Polonius then wants Reynaldo to "put on [Laertes] what forgeries" he pleases—that is, to tell those he meets in Paris that Laertes is given to "wild and unusual slips," not sufficient statements to completely ruin his reputation but enough to suggest that he is a "wild" youth. Polonius gives some suggestions of what to cite, such as "drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling." These would all be completely untrue rumors, but having spread them, Polonius feels the people who know Laertes in Paris would be more inclined to tell their own stories in return about what Laertes is actually doing there.
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