Name an online service and there’s a good chance you can hire a gig worker to do it. In Brazil, where jobs are scarce but digital know-how is common, these services can go for as low as 20 reais (just over $4) each. Tasks for which professional designers, influencers, and marketers would charge up to thousands of dollars can be found on gig work platforms like VintePila, 99Freelas, and Vinteconto for a fraction of the usual price. Among the many services on offer is the niche of gig reviewer: someone hired to make homemade, amateur-style videos to publicly vouch for a product.
“It’s one thing hiring a famous person and paying them thousands of reais for an advert. It’s another thing paying a nobody 30 reais on VintePila for a review,” Xande, a 42-year old reviewer from Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, told Rest of World. He spoke under a pseudonym as he may be held legally responsible under Brazilian law for products he has endorsed in the past.
The enthusiastic reviews posted by these gig workers, however, are not organic expressions of authentic admiration at all. Gig reviewers told Rest of World their paid testimonials are heavily scripted, with no room for real, honest impressions. This means reviewers have no idea whether a product works as they say it does — or, indeed, whether it exists at all.
Though paid reviews might be an effective driver of sales for goods that do exist, paying for product reviews in any situation falls afoul of Brazilian consumer law, Marcio Chaves, a lawyer and specialist in Brazilian digital law at Almeida Advogados, told Rest of World. Seemingly genuine reviews sold as advertisements potentially fall under the country’s consumer protection laws against false advertising, he said, regardless of whether the products are real or not.
Gig reviewers are more worried about the risk of not taking these jobs. Pressed for employment in Brazil’s stalling economy, they told Rest of World hard times had pushed them into the business. To make ends meet, they review products without ever having used them, opening themselves up to — in the worst of cases — charges of larceny.
Rest of World reached out to VintePila for comment, but did not receive a response.
Warnings about fake reviewers on Facebook have long been reported across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. However, Helder Ferrão, an industry market manager at cybersecurity firm Akamai, told Rest of World Brazil’s tendency for early technological adoption puts Brazilians at a particular disadvantage when it comes to dealing with online fraud. While the population loves to use new apps and services — making Brazil a preferred global testing ground for transnational companies — they have little experience of the negative consequences or side effects.
“Brazilians are eager to jump into new [digital] platforms, often without understanding the risks,” Ferrão told Rest of World. He said economic inequality has hindered access to proper digital literacy — leaving poorer Brazilians, in particular, vulnerable to scams.
Getting a reviewing job on platforms like VintePila and Vinteconto is a simple — if labor intensive — endeavor, gig reviewers told Rest of World. First, they apply to job ads created by the clients — usually small digital business owners. The offer tends to be accompanied by a script and extra details like the product’s background or the video’s tone. Freelancers then estimate the length of the recording — one full page of the script usually results in at least one minute of video. Both parties agree on a fee, which usually starts at 20 reais (around $4). The client then pays the platform, and the recording begins.
It can take at least an hour to create a one-minute video. The industry standard is that videos must be shot in a single take, and delivered in as natural a way as possible. The products up for review range from the banal to the less believable: online courses, pills for instant weight loss, hair growth remedies, intimate oils, and solutions for erectile dysfunction. “I have no problems in that area,” said Xande in reference to the last product. “But I put myself in an actor’s shoes. To do a good job, I have to get in character, right?”
Experienced reviewers can cut the production time down to 15 minutes or less per one-minute video by using a few tools — like reading the script off a teleprompter app on their phones, or by pre-recording a reading and letting it play through a hidden earpiece. The client may approve the video or ask for revisions. In most cases, the reviewer’s work ends here, but some charge extra to post enthusiastic comments on the client’s social media.
Even if they’re happy with the final video, clients rarely rehire the same worker, since a reviewer becoming recognizable would undermine the authenticity of their testimonials. This means gig reviewers must constantly trawl for work.
The duration of the average review video is between one and three minutes. To make the equivalent of the minimum monthly wage in Brazil — 1,320 reais ($274.53) — a gig reviewer would need to produce over 83 minutes’ worth of reviews a month. It’s an arduous process that can take dozens of hours, not counting the time spent applying for each gig. The gig work platforms also take a commission from each worker’s sales — VintePila, for instance, gets a 20% cut.
“I know it is not much, but it helps to pay water and electricity bills,” Jonas, a 35-year-old reviewer from Belo Horizonte, told Rest of World, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of being banned from VintePila. He said he makes ends meet by juggling his time between delivering for iFood, Brazil’s biggest last-mile app, and shooting reviews.
The ones who are hiring reviewers are … fooling people twice over — the people that are going to buy the product and the reviewers.”
Some gig reviewers got their start in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Xande began in 2022 when he lost his job as a chef at a small pizza restaurant. “I thought to myself, ‘I’m not timid, I’m a good speaker, and I have no problem with being on camera,’” he said.
He quickly learned the ropes, charging 20 reais (around $4) per scripted minute of video and an additional 30 reais if the client didn’t provide a script. He said clients enjoyed what he brought to his reviews, delivering his lines in a very natural manner.
Since he started in this line of work, Xande said he’d only used two of the dozens of products he was paid to review: a hot massage lotion (“which wasn’t that effective”) and an electric shaver, for which he charged an extra 60 reais ($12.5) to record himself shaving his head.
Soon, Xande had a booming business. “I remember I made around 300 reais [around $62] shooting videos in the very first week,” he said. For far less work, he’d made over a fifth of his entire monthly paycheck as a pizza maker: 1,600 reais (around $330). But the heyday was not to last: Xande and Jonas said they now make around 550 reais (just over $114) in a good month, from around three videos per week. It’s far less than what they made when they first started out — something they attribute to an oversupply of gig reviewers competing for the same jobs.
Paid reviews of fake products are increasingly being used by scammers, affecting online shoppers around the country. Carlos Cabral, a researcher at Brazilian cybersecurity firm Tempest, told Rest of World this type of fraud is relatively new, as scammers have realized people increasingly base their purchase decisions on fellow customers’ experiences.
Brazilian media and the country’s consumer watchdog platform, Reclame Aqui, have highlighted several scams that used reviews to defraud people into paying for products and services they could never access nor get a refund for. Money Looks, which sold a supposed method of getting paid to evaluate clothing from fast-fashion e-commerce giant Shein, was revealed to be a sham service. Other fraudulent products included Gomic Beauty, a “skin enhancement” candy, and Gotas da India, an alleged miracle hair-styling oil brand.
Reviewers told Rest of World they often cannot differentiate a fake product from a legitimate one, since both involve scripted performances. For Xande, suspicions arise when his clients recommend he avoid using his real name in the videos. But, ultimately, the ethical ramifications take a back seat to the need to earn money.
Chaves warned that the workers reviewing fraudulent products could be tried by Brazilian authorities, whether they know they are promoting a scam or not. “If I ever bought a fraudulent product based on that review, the reviewer could be taken to court,” he said.
Jonas doesn’t think his reviews are the problem. Instead, he points a finger at the companies who pay him. “I am just recording a video,” he said. “But the ones who are hiring reviewers [to sell sham products] are … fooling people twice over — the people that are going to buy the product, and the reviewers.”
