A concerning new trend now sweeps across social media platforms. Several company founders confirm this trend directly causes real financial losses for businesses. Customers now intentionally use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create fake product damage and claim quick refunds. The edited images appear completely genuine, and several large platforms reportedly approve these claims without detection.
This fraudulent activity poses a serious, emerging threat to quick-commerce companies worldwide. E-commerce platforms must immediately implement systems that detect and flag manipulated image evidence, or they will continue to face escalating financial losses. This misuse requires an urgent response from the industry.
Customer Manipulates Egg Photo, Instamart Issues Refund
Founder and CEO Shreyas Nirmal recently shared a specific case on LinkedIn. He described how a customer allegedly used an AI tool to manipulate an image of a tray of eggs ordered through Swiggy Instamart. The customer received the order with only a single cracked egg.
Someone ordered eggs on Instamart and only one came cracked.
Instead of just reporting it, they opened Gemini Nano and literally typed:
“apply more cracks.”
In a few seconds, AI turned that tray into 20+ cracked eggs — flawless, realistic, impossible to distinguish.Support… pic.twitter.com/PnkNuG2Qt3
— kapilansh (@kapilansh_twt) November 24, 2025
However, the customer did not send the original photo. Instead, they reportedly used Gemini Nano to automatically add realistic cracks to almost every egg in the tray. The customer sent this AI-modified image to Instamart support, claiming full damage. The support agent promptly issued a full refund because the system lacked AI detection capability.
Lack of AI Detection Leads to Financial Losses
Nirmal clearly explained why this new trend presents a major business risk. AI tools like Gemini Nano create extremely realistic damage edits.
Currently, companies like Instamart cannot identify these manipulated photos. This loophole creates immediate financial losses, as even small, fraudulent refunds accumulate rapidly when customers abuse the system repeatedly. This one incident confirms the issue is real, not just a hypothetical threat.
If refund fraud rises due to AI manipulation, quick-commerce margins will drop significantly. Therefore, companies must urgently upgrade their validation systems to protect their profits.
Unethical Use of AI Harms Platforms
Nirmal strongly concluded that the AI tool itself remains extremely useful and powerful. He emphasized that the real problem lies with the unethical use of the technology.
This specific example clearly showed how misuse financially harmed Swiggy Instamart. The same threat now applies across all quick-commerce and e-commerce companies that rely on customer-submitted photographic proof. Social media users widely reshared Nirmal’s post on X (formerly Twitter).
Many users criticized the consumer behavior, publicly calling the actions dishonest and harmful to the e-commerce ecosystem. Platforms must educate users about ethical technology use.
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Swastika Sruti is a Senior Sub Editor at NewsX Digital with 5 years of experience shaping stories that matter. She loves tracking politics- national and global trends, and never misses a chance to dig deeper into policies and developments. Passionate about what’s happening around us, she brings sharp insight and clarity to every piece she works on. When not curating news, she’s busy exploring what’s next in the world of public interest. You can reach her at [swastika.newsx@gmail.com]
