Jewelry Buyers Duped by AI Scam Website
July 30, 26
(IDEX Online) - Buyers were duped by a "jewelry store website" offering 80% discounts that turned out to be an AI scam.
They ordered and paid for items advertised as being part of a closing-down sale, but never received their goods.
Customers were taken in by a social media post claiming the owner of a jewelry boutique, supposedly called Seren Cardiff, in Cardiff, Wales, was about to cease trading for personal reasons.
One customer later ran the pictures it used through a reverse image search tool and discovered they'd been taken from other websites. "That's when it clicked that I'd been scammed," he said.
The site has now been taken down.
Det Insp Iolo Edwards of North Wales Police said AI-powered scams were becoming increasingly common.
"Criminals are using technology such as AI to create websites that appear completely legitimate, making it much harder for consumers to spot a scam," he told the BBC.
It fits a wider pattern of online fraud where scammers use AI to make fake businesses look more legitimate, by using convincing product photos, crafting a compelling call to action and appealing to users' sense of local loyalty.
Pic shows a social media post that was part of the AI scam.