A new scam pattern has surfaced on Facebook—creating AI images of products, implying they are real, getting people to interact with the post, and then leading them to a landing page with AI-generated images and copy, with no way to buy the product. However, a lot of links to other sites where thematically related things can be purchased appear across the page.
The AI-Powered Bait
On Facebook, the page “Inspiring Designs” is publishing cool images of seemingly real products, such as these Star Wars-themed cribs:
FB users like and comment, and share this post, spreading its reach. As of this writing, this post had been shared 430 times.
The AI-Powered Trap
When people follow the link to the website, they encounter a reasonably assembled and written page with compelling images and normal-seeming copy:
However, the page is filled with ad links to Wayfair that imply that the item displayed on the page can be purchased on closeout at Wayfair:
Currently, the scammers have not turned off comments on their pages, so the comments sections are filled with confused people looking to purchase the items:
The Ad Payoff
Clicking on one of the ads (the only thing that seems like it might be a way to purchase the cool items), the FB user is taken to Wayfair, shown products that are unrelated to this, and the site owners collect referral revenue.
No clear way to report this scam
I then went to the origin page and attempted to report it as a scam. However, Facebook’s issue reporting system does not have a specific category for this. I reported it as “Fraud or scam > Other”.
Get ready for AI-powered scams
This is merely the beginning of a larger issue. It represents only one of the earliest examples of numerous possible AI-driven frauds that will be extremely tailored and impactful. These scams will surpass mere ad revenue theft and could involve convincing deep fake phone conversations with acquaintances requesting urgent money transfers due to their supposed dire circumstances.
Stay frosty, humans, it’s going to get weird.