Amazon India accused of rigging contests as one man wins more than 5 giveaways

Amazon India has been accused of rigging contests in favour of one man named Chirag Gupta.

Updated on: Oct 11, 2024, 12:00:54 IST

By Sanya Jain

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Amazon India has been accused of rigging contests in favour of one man who seems to have won several giveaways hosted by the e-commerce giant over the last few years. The man, named Chirag Gupta, has defied all laws of probability to win at least six Amazon India contests over the last decade.

A man named Chirag Gupta has won several Amazon India contests, sparking accusations of bias (X/@amazonIN)

Amazon India frequently hosts giveaways and contests as part of its promotional activities. Participants stand a chance to win Amazon gift cards, gadgets, and other exciting gifts. Each contests draws thousands of participants, but the unlikely event of one man winning multiple separate contests has raised accusations of bias against Amazon India.

Chirag Gupta’s streak of wins gained public attention thanks to an exposé by an X account posting under the handle “@Crypt0holicpoet.”

A series of (lucky?) wins

On October 8, the official X account of Amazon India declared Chirag Gupta as the winner of its Amazon Great Indian Festival ‘Apple Macbook Air M1’ contest.

X user “@Crypt0holicpoet” responded to the post accusing Amazon India of bias. As proof, the X user gave six other examples of Gupta winning Amazon contests. “These admins are insiders. They choose winners from their friend circle and then take commission. I have been noticing it for 1 year,” the X user said.

The post revealed that Chirag Gupta has been winning Amazon contests since at least 2014. Over the course of 10 years, he has won a fashion hamper, a OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G, a gift card worth ₹1,000 and several other prizes.

Gupta was sometimes declared the sole winner of a contest and sometimes won alongside other participants.

The exposé led to severe backlash against Amazon as dozens of customers accused the e-commerce giant of hosting fake giveaways to benefit one individual.

“This is a serious expose. One person has won the Amazon giveaway since last 10 years many times. Can't be a coincidence,” wrote one person on the social media platform.

“Something’s off with Amazon India giveaways. Either they’re rigged, or this @ChiragG14 guy is a hacker—he seems to win every time!” another said.

HT.com has reached out to Amazon India for a statement and will update this copy on receiving a response.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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