Pareesa Afreen 
Dec 15, 2025
As the year draws to a close, online shopping activity is surging, fuelled by seasonal discounts and end-of-year sales. However, amid the rush to grab the best deals, shoppers are increasingly falling victim to AI-generated fake reviews designed to manipulate buying decisions.
Fake positive reviews have become a growing concern for consumers, as they are deliberately created to boost product rankings and promote scam or low-quality businesses.
This deceptive practice was explicitly banned in the UK in April last year after regulators found it was repeatedly misleading consumers.
Fake AI reviews
National Trading Standards (NATS) have since come out with a warning where they indicate that they have observed these scammers quickly using human auxiliaries and bots to create a high volume of fake reviews on online markets.
Such reviews have consistently been associated with high-demand household devices such as air fryers and vacuum cleaners, among other household devices.
Artificial intelligence will make online reviews a challenge for consumers to spot if they are true or fake because fake reviews used to have flaws in them, such as typos and grammar errors, making them easy to distinguish from really authentic reviews given by consumers. But with AI, fake reviews will be perfect.
How to stay safe from fake AI reviews?
As observed by experts, authentic reviews are always specific in nature and describe personal encounters with a product, whereas fake reviews are very vague and include generic terms such as ‘amazing’, ‘awesome’, or ‘must-buy’.
To not be deceived, it is advised to not focus on five-star reviews. Rather, one can read reviews with four, three, or two stars, which tend to have more balanced information.
Additionally, it is very important to check if a product has been purchased, since these will have an increased chance of being written by a consumer.
