E-COMMERCE: INSIDE THE GREAT 5-STAR REVIEW CON

Many of those glowing reviews are fake, written to manipulate you into buying. A Mint investigation.

- Shadma Shaikh

As the summer heat soared this year, Vishal was on the hunt for a cooler. But instead of heading to Amazon, Flipkart or any other e-commerce platform, he sent a message to a private Telegram group to ask for a "deal." In that same group, Samrat was looking for a deal on perfumes, while Ashutosh wanted a discount on headphones.

Vishal, Samrat and Ashutosh aren't ordinary shoppers hunting for bargains. They are part of a sophisticated underground network of product reviewers, who receive heavy discounts or sometimes even free products in exchange for leaving glowing five-star reviews on e-commerce portals such as Amazon and Flipkart.

A hidden world of fraud is flourishing in the depths of Telegram and private WhatsApp groups, with thousands of messages flooding in every day. These groups, which seem like spaces for bargain hunters, are actually hubs to orchestrate sophisticated review manipulation schemes across e-commerce portals.

The groups, which tend to have over a thousand users, are places where mediators facilitate fake reviews by offering customers steep discounts or even full refunds in exchange for five-star ratings on products they may never have used. From shoes to skincare, electronics to handbags, the goal is simple: boost product ratings and deceive consumers, all while making a profit.

According to a study by cybersecurity company CloudSEK, over 12,000 fake reviews have been generated in the last 10 months, influencing products worth ₹150 lakh, across various e-commerce portals. For the unsuspecting customers relying on these reviews, the consequences are real when the products don't match their glowing endorsements, making them distrustful of online shopping.

The average consumer often tends to filter out products with reviews with less than four stars and tends to read reviews before ordering a product. Consumers trust reviews from "verified buyers" believing they reflect genuine user experiences.