WITH the third heatwave of the year set to crescendo over the weekend, the advertising regulator has today warned Brits about the risk of buying dud or poor quality fans and aircon units that are accompanied by unrealistic claims and fake reviews.
With fans and aircon units on many reputable high street retailers, such as Argos and Currys, sold out, more and more people are looking elsewhere to help combat the heat — but many are finding themselves in a battle with the truth through an avalanche of ads popping up on social media platforms.
The issue is so widespread that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the advertising watchdog, has today warned people to be on high alert for misleading online ads for portable air conditioners.
The watchdog said: “With temperatures soaring, many of us are looking for affordable ways to stay cool. Unfortunately, we’ve seen some advertisers exploit that demand by promoting portable air conditioners with claims that sound too good to be true.”
It said some of the problems that are appearing include claims that a small device can cool an entire room or even an entire home within minutes, along with claims about how much energy the product uses or how much money it could save compared with a conventional air conditioner.
The ASA also urged consumers to be wary of products that claim to be “British engineered” or developed using “revolutionary” technology.
Additional red flags, it said, include fake or misleading customer reviews claiming dramatic temperature drops or exceptional performance, and fake stories about industry insiders or breakthrough inventions designed to make the product appear more credible.
Daniel Mohacek, CEO of review authenticity platform TruthEngine, said that for a dodgy retailer looking to shift loads of its trending products, such as fans and air conditioning units when the mercury soars, fake reviews on dubious ads can be the best way to do so.
Mohacek added: “When people are looking for products on sites they may not be familiar with or that are manufactured by brands they don’t recognise, the first thing many will do is look for reviews.
“The problem is that the scammers know this, too, and will have pre-empted this, generating countless fake reviews to make poor-quality but in-demand products such as portable aircon units and fans appear trustworthy.
“In many cases, the sites the ads lead to are crude AI-generated landing pages full of fake reviews that have one purpose, namely to sell as much of the product as possible. But it’s the people who buy from those landing pages who will have a truly hard landing.
“The big red flags people need to look out for are an unusually high number of five-star reviews posted within a short period, reviews that all use very similar language, generic comments that could apply to almost any product, and reviewers with little or no history. If you come across any of those, my advice is to not put that product in your basket.
“Consumers should also be wary of fan or aircon testimonials that focus on extraordinary results rather than realistic experiences. If dozens of reviews all sound almost too enthusiastic, or repeat the same phrases and claims, it’s worth treating them with caution.”
Mohacek says the safest approach is never to rely on reviews from a seller’s own website alone. Instead, he urged people to cross-check ratings on independent platforms and look at the detail behind the reviews rather than just the overall star score.
He added: “But by far the best piece of advice is, if a fan or aircon unit sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”
