From smashed cakes to broken eggs, AI fuels food refund fraud

Supriya Roy & Sneha BhuraTNN
Apr 20, 2026 | 21:50 IST
Last year, a Mumbai customer used an AI image of a melted cake for refund (left); in Gujarat, another edited a cake photo by adding a fly

As customers use digitally doctored images to game refund systems, delivery apps and restaurants scramble to keep up

A tray of cracked eggs. A collapsed cake. A badly dented ice-cream tub. The images are sent to quick commerce and food delivery platforms for prompt refunds. Only, the damage isn’t real. Neither is the evidence.

Platforms have long dealt with some customers staging complaints by adding hair to food or damaging the package before taking a photograph. What’s new isn’t the instinct to game the system, but how easily AI can manufacture ‘proof’.
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