Car services company admits to posting AI-generated reviews on sgCarMart
In the fake reviews, the names, vehicle registration numbers and vehicle photographs of customers were used without consent.
SINGAPORE - The owner of an automobile services company has admitted to posting AI-generated five-star reviews on car listing website sgCarMart, said Singapore's consumer watchdog on July 3.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) said it received a complaint from a customer of Lambency Detailing, a company which provides car painting and detailing services, after she found unauthorised reviews posted under her name.
Following an investigation, CCCS found that seven other customers were also victims to these fake reviews, and their vehicles registration numbers and photographs had been posted without their consent.
Holding company Quantum Globe, which owns and operates Lambency Detailing, admitted to submitting false reviews when confronted with the evidence, said CCCS in a statement.
The reviews were submitted through a QR code provided by sgCarMart, which allowed users to submit feedback without an account on the car listing website, Facebook or Google.
Quantum Globe said that the reviews, customised based on services received by each customer, were generated by ChatGPT.
Posting fake customer reviews is an unfair trade practice, said CCCS. 'Consumers might be misled into thinking that the product is more well-received than it actually is, and thus make misinformed purchase decisions.'
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore $500 in Child LifeSG credits, Edusave, Post-Sec Education Account top-ups to be disbursed in July
Singapore Over 40% of Singaporean seniors have claimed SG60 vouchers: Low Yen Ling
Asia 4 dead, 38 missing after ferry sinks on way to Indonesia's Bali
Singapore $1.46b nickel-trading scam: Ng Yu Zhi's bid for bail midway through trial denied by High Court
Singapore Pedestrian-only path rules to be enforced reasonably; focus on errant cyclists: Baey Yam Keng
Singapore Jail for 'sugar daddy' who gave minor cash for sex, threatened to post her explicit videos online
Singapore Train service resumes across Bukit Panjang LRT line after power fault led to 3-hour disruption
Singapore Is using Gen AI for schoolwork and tests cheating?
Quantum Global director Matthew Lim has promised that he will not engage in further unfair trade practices, said CCCS.
The company has agreed to, for six months, set up a channel which allows customers to report any fake reviews that have been posted on sgCarMart.
It will also publish notices on sgCarMart and other online platforms that it has posted fake reviews.
The company will also notify customers whose details were used in these reviews, and remove them within eight days.
SGCM, which owns and operates sgCarMart, said that it is exploring additional verification measures, such as SMS or e-mail confirmation, to improve the integrity and authenticity of reviews.
CCCS chief executive Alvin Koh said that this is the second fake review case that the watchdog has uncovered, and the first which involves a third-party platform and AI.
'When businesses post fake reviews to boost their ratings and popularity, they poison the well of consumer trust,' he said.
'Such deceptive practices, also known as 'dark patterns', not only mislead consumers but also disadvantage honest competing businesses.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Delta Air assures US lawmakers it will not personalize fares using AI
WASHINGTON :Delta Air Lines said on Friday it will not use artificial intelligence to set personalized ticket prices for passengers after facing sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers. Last week, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believed the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would "likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point.'" Delta has said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20 per cent of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. "There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data," Delta told the senators in a letter on Friday, seen by Reuters. "Our ticket pricing never takes into account personal data." The senators cited a comment in December by Delta President Glen Hauenstein that the carrier's AI price-setting technology is capable of setting fares based on a prediction of "the amount people are willing to pay for the premium products related to the base fares." Last week, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said using AI to set ticket prices could hurt consumer trust. "This is not about bait and switch. This is not about tricking," Isom said on an earnings call, adding "talk about using AI in that way, I don't think it's appropriate. And certainly from American, it's not something we will do." Delta said airlines have used dynamic pricing for more than three decades, in which pricing fluctuates based on a variety of factors like overall customer demand, fuel prices and competition but not a specific consumer's personal information. "Given the tens of millions of fares and hundreds of thousands of routes for sale at any given time, the use of new technology like AI promises to streamline the process by which we analyze existing data and the speed and scale at which we can respond to changing market dynamics," Delta's letter said. It added that AI can "assist our analysts with pricing by reducing manual processes, accelerating analysis and improving time to market for pricing adjustments."
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Delta will not use AI to set personalized ticket prices
WASHINGTON :Delta Air Lines said Friday it will not use artificial intelligence to set personalized ticket prices for passengers after facing sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers. Last week, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believe the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would "likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point.'" Delta has said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20 per cent of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. "There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data," Delta told the senators in a letter Friday seen by Reuters. "Our ticket pricing never takes into account personal data."
Independent Singapore
4 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Microsoft becomes second company to reach US$4T valuation after Nvidia
Photo: Depositphotos/tang90246 Microsoft became the second company to reach a US$4 trillion (S$5.20 trillion) market valuation on Thursday, after strong earnings showed the tech giant's hefty investments in artificial intelligence (AI) are paying off. Reuters reported that Microsoft's shares rose as much as 8%. In early July, Nvidia became the first publicly traded company to reach a US$4 trillion market value after its shares rose 2.8% to US$164.42 (S$210.34). Just this week, Reuters reported that Microsoft forecast a record US$30 billion in capital spending in the first quarter of the current financial year, driven by growing demand for AI. The company reported strong sales in its Azure cloud computing business and said its Copilot AI tools have surpassed 100 million monthly active users. Its capital expenditure forecast, which is the company's largest for a single quarter, has put it on track to potentially outspend its rivals over the next year. Gerrit Smit, lead portfolio manager of Stonehage Fleming Global Best Ideas Equity Fund, said Microsoft is becoming more of a cloud infrastructure business and a leader in enterprise AI, 'doing so very profitably and cash generatively' despite hefty AI capital expenditures. The Redmond, Washington-headquartered company first reached a US$1 trillion valuation in 2019. /TISG Read also: Microsoft launches first Southeast Asia AI research lab in Singapore Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only) () => { const trigger = if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { => { if ( { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });
