Every once in a while, when I order something from Amazon, the product comes with a little slip that has some instructions and a phone number. The instructions ask you to post a 5-star rating for the product on Amazon and send a screenshot to the given number. They'll reply back sending you some money on your phone number.

Now I know this smells like one of those age old scams, but the fact is, its no scam. You do get the money. And thats the bad part - because now Amazon (and other e-commerce platforms) are littered with fake reviews that simply cannot be detected by any automated system. Unlike bots which post fake reviews, this modus operandi is immune to such filtering. Because every review comes from a user who has a "normal" purchase history and the timings of reviews aren't coordinated either.

The money you get for posting such a review is usually miniscule. However, with an economy this bad, the miniscule amount is sufficient to lure people into posting a fake review.

Lately, seeing such a slip with phone number has become my number one indicator of how good (or rather, bad) the product actually is. If the product were worth any attention, they wouldn't have been openly buying reviews. I've even faced a situation once where I contacted the "customer care" (which was just a WhatsApp number) regarding a defective product. Instead of a resolution, they offered me to give 1/3rd the item price back if I posted a positive review on Amazon.

Understandably, I blocked them and I also understood why the said product had such good reviews online. BECAUSE EACH AND EVERYONE OF THEM WAS FAKE.

I've even seen products with reviews that give 5 star then write a very negative comment. I'm not sure if its a comprehension problem or something else, but its certainly messing up with the online review system. I can no longer trust the ratings section.

There are more reasons why I find shopping online to have lost its initial selling point - I'm no longer saving any time by shopping online. The illusion of shopping from the ease of my living room fades away the moment I have to deal with defective products and returns.