“There is insane fraud, yaar,” says Deepinder Goyal as he reveals how customers use AI to scam Zomato

Deepinder Goyal and Zomato are once again in the news, amid discussions on the gig economy, rider safety, employment, and more.

Amidst these discussions, the CEO of Eternal (parent company of Zomato and Blinkit, Deepinder Goyal, sat down for a conversation with Raj Shamani on his podcast. 

Here, Deepinder Goyal discussed customer behaviour, delivery partner fraud, and the internal systems Zomato uses to manage disputes at scale.

Revelations of Frauds

One of the most striking revelations was the extent of fraud attempted by customers on the platform. 

According to Deepinder Goyal, some customers go to extreme lengths to claim refunds. 

“Nowadays, AI-generated images are used. They will add an AI-generated fly, an insect, or a foreign object, such as a nail. AI has even made it easier to convert your perfectly fine cake into a smashed, smudged cake. I was like, suddenly, 5 per cent cake smashes. How has this risen so suddenly?”he revealed on this podcast.

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What Customers Do?

Goyal also stated that in some other cases, customers allegedly place their own hair in food before raising complaints.

Fraud is not limited to customers alone. 

Managing Rider Frauds

Deepinder Goyal also reported that Zomato fires about 5,000 delivery partners a month due to misconduct in the service. Some common misconducts include:

• indicating that food and cash have been delivered when they have not,

• cash-on-delivery scam, where riders claim they do not have enough change and a refund will be issued upon return, but this rarely happens.

For handling disputes between customers and delivery partners, Zomato has a mechanism called the “karma score” system.

How the Karma Score System Works? 

This mechanism assesses past behaviour to ascertain trustworthiness. When a dispute arises, Zomato weighs the rider's record against the customer's record.

If the reputation of one individual is much higher than the reputation of the other individual, Zomato makes a decision based on that.

But Goyal pointed out that for “50 to 70 per cent of disputed instances,” Zomato ends up paying the cost itself so that the rider is able to stay on the platform, as well as giving the client a refund.

“When the mismatch is very stark, and patterns repeat in complaints against the delivery rider, then we terminate them,” Goyal explained.

He also emphasised that decisions are based on repeated behaviour rather than one-off incidents.

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