My sister sent me a Facebook post from a 'neighbor' about a lost cat that turned out to be pure AI, and it took me 3 hours to prove it | Bot or Not - Vivisector
My sister sent me a Facebook post from a 'neighbor' about a lost cat that turned out to be pure AI, and it took me 3 hours to prove it
Last month my sister in Phoenix sent me a screenshot of a Facebook post from a local group. A woman was begging for help finding her cat, Mr. Waffles, lost near 7th Street and Indian School. Something about it bugged me right away. The photo of the cat had that soft, smeared look where the fur on the left paw just kind of melted into the couch. I zoomed in and the collar tag had letters that were almost readable but not quite. I spent about an hour reverse image searching the photo and got nothing, which is weird for a real pet photo. Then I looked at her profile and she had posted the same exact lost cat story in 6 different city groups across 4 states in one week. Same cat, same name, different streets. I messaged her asking which neighborhood she actually lived in. She replied in 8 seconds with a long, polished paragraph that answered none of my questions and ended with a link to a pet recovery service. That link was the giveaway. It took me about 3 hours total to piece it all together. Has anyone else seen these fake lost pet posts pop up in their local groups, and did you figure out what the link at the end was really for?