Independent. Checked weekly. Proof for every finding.
India banned 13 tricks that apps use to make you pay more. We check the apps you use every day, and show you what we find.
How it works
We pick about 50 of India's most used apps and sites, from shopping to rides to wallets.
An AI agent uses each one like a normal customer and saves screenshots and screen recordings.
It flags tricks that India's consumer regulator has banned, plus our own "wallet traps".
A person confirms every finding before it goes on the scorecard.
The tricks
Each one below is a made-up example. Learn the pattern once, and you will see it everywhere.
Saying something is almost gone, or that many people are looking, when that is not true.
Spot it. Reload the page or check another day. If the "last few" never run out, be careful.
Adding extra items, fees or donations to your cart without your consent.
Spot it. Read your cart line by line before you pay. Remove anything you did not choose.
Using guilt or fear in the "no" button to push you towards "yes".
Spot it. If saying no makes you feel bad, the wording is doing the work. Choose calmly.
Making you do something unrelated, like a sign-up, just to get what you came for.
Spot it. Ask if the extra step is really needed for your purchase. If not, it may be forced.
Making it easy to sign up for a paid plan but hard to cancel.
Spot it. Before you join, look for where to cancel. If you cannot find it, think twice.
Design that makes one choice loud and the other choice hard to see.
Spot it. Look at the faint text and small corners. The choice you want may be hiding there.
Showing you one thing, then giving you something else.
Spot it. Take a screenshot of the offer. Compare it with what you get at the end.
Showing a low price first, then adding costs bit by bit.
Spot it. Go all the way to the payment screen and compare the final total with the first price.
An ad made to look like normal content, like a review or a news item.
Spot it. Look for small words like "ad" or "sponsored". If there are none, ask who paid.
Asking again and again until you give in.
Spot it. If the same request keeps coming back and there is no real "no", that is nagging.
Confusing wording, like double negatives, that makes you choose the opposite of what you meant.
Spot it. Read the sentence twice. If you need to decode it, pause before you tap.
Charging you again and again in a software plan, for example when a free trial turns into a paid one with no notice.
Spot it. Note the trial end date in your phone. Check if the app warns you before it charges.
Fake virus warnings or harmful downloads that try to scare you into installing something bad.
Spot it. Real warnings do not come from random pop-ups. Close the page and do not install anything.
Tricks that make it costly or confusing to use or take out your own money from a wallet.
Spot it. Before you add money, find the withdrawal fee, where your full balance is shown, and how to close the wallet.
The scorecard
Every app starts at 24 karat. Each trick we confirm takes some of that purity away.
Nothing found in anything we tested.
One small issue, easy to avoid.
Several tricks to watch for.
A trick at almost every step.
First scorecard coming soon
Proof, not opinion
What we test. We start with the website version of each app or service, using a fresh session and a normal customer journey. We test the tricks marked "checked" above. We do not test everything.
How findings are proven. Every finding has a date, a screenshot or recording, and the steps anyone can repeat to see the same screen.
Human confirmation. Findings are gathered by an AI agent and confirmed by a person. Nothing is published until a person has checked it against the evidence.
What "not tested" means. It means we did not look. It does not mean the app is clean. A pass means "we found nothing within what we tested", nothing more.
On 30 November 2023, India's Central Consumer Protection Authority notified the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023. They name 13 specified dark patterns, and they cover sellers, advertisers and platforms that offer goods or services in India. In June 2025, the same authority issued an advisory asking all e-commerce platforms to run self-audits for dark patterns within 3 months, and to submit self-declarations based on their audit. Rules now exist. Khara Index looks at what ordinary customers actually see on screen.
Sources: Guidelines, 2023 (CCPA) · PIB release on the guidelines · PIB release on the 2025 advisory
As in khara sona, pure gold, and khari baat, the plain truth. We want apps to be khara too.
Founded by Ryan Sethi. Independent. No company pays us, and we are not affiliated with the government.
If you think we got something wrong, tell us. We look at every reply and correct mistakes in public.
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