That weird feeling from a Facebook marketplace listing that turned out to be a bot network

I was dead set on buying a used sofa from some lady named 'Sarah' near Buffalo NY, she had a whole story about moving and needing it gone. Then my buddy who works in IT pointed out that her profile photo was clearly AI generated, like the teeth were all wrong and the background had a floating lamp. I reverse searched the image and it linked back to 12 different fake accounts in 3 states. Has anyone else actually fallen for one of those bot listings without realizing it?

3 comments

3 Comments

scott.olivia3d ago

yeah that's genuinely creepy, i've seen those bot listings before and they get way too detailed with the backstories. i almost bought a "vintage" coffee table from someone who turned out to be a whole network of fake accounts selling nothing but ghost listings. it's wild how convincing they can be until you really look at the photos.

charles7203d ago

man that is so wild. my buddy dan actually fell for something similar on a different site. he found this "handmade" mid century chair and the listing had this whole paragraph about the seller's grandpa building it in his workshop. turns out @scott.olivia the photos were literally stolen from an etsy page and the chair never existed. dan was so mad he drove two hours for nothing. the bots are getting scary good at writing those little life stories to seem real.

fionafoster3d ago

Oh man, that is such a bummer and honestly creepy too. I had the same kind of thing happen with a "vintage" dresser near me. The seller had this whole story about inheriting it from their grandma and how it needed a good home. Photos looked legit at first, but then I noticed the wood grain was repeating in the background which is just not how real wood works. @scott.olivia you're totally right about those life stories being way too detailed, it's like they know exactly what buttons to push to make you trust them. I reported the listing and it just disappeared, but who knows how many people actually fell for it before that.