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Fran Lu

Fake photos generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are being misused to claim refunds from Chinese online shops, sparking moral and legal concerns.
As China’s Double 11 shopping festival took place around November 11, several e-commerce shop owners revealed that they received AI-generated photos of damaged products from consumers attempting to seek refunds.
Some people took photographs of fruit they received, then asked AI to make them look mouldy.
An electric toothbrush seller said a buyer sent a photograph showing a rusty toothbrush and demanded a refund.
“They come to me with problems that go against common sense,” he said.

A member of staff from a clothing shop said a customer asked for a full refund, saying the one-piece dress they received had seriously lost threads on the collar and sent them an AI-generated photograph.
The shop spotted suspect lighting at the collar when compared to the rest of the dress and obvious signs of AI generation at the edges of the garment.
In another case, a ceramic mug seller said he received a full refund request, with the buyer sending a photograph showing the mug with spidery cracks.
The seller found it strange because his products were all packed safely.
He asked the buyer to send a video. The buyer then withdrew the refund request.

The seller also used an AI detector to check the photograph, which estimated the probability that the photo was artificially generated was 92 per cent.
Many online shops in China have been bothered by “sheep shearers”, people who take advantage of other people to benefit themselves.
These so-called sheep shearers usually find fault with cheap products they buy online, then ask for full refunds without returning the items.
Some sellers revealed that the policies of e-commerce platforms usually lean towards buyers and will grant refund requests even when they are unreasonable.
Meanwhile, some sellers also use AI to beautify their products.
One told the mainland media outlet Jiemian News: “Some shops use AI to generate fake models, backgrounds and even products.”
In face of the rising trend of AI cheating, e-commerce platforms cancelled the “refund only” option in April.
Taobao and Tmall Group, owned by Alibaba Group which is the owner of the South China Morning Post, also established a system that rates buyers’ credit according to their purchase and refund records and sellers’ feedback on them.
China began enforcing new AI content identification rules on September 1.
The rules require all AI-generated content to be explicitly and implicitly labelled.

Some platforms used AI detectors to identify unlabelled AI-generated content and activated reminders under the content, but the accuracy of the detectors cannot be guaranteed.
“The platforms need more investment to develop accurate detecting systems and need to keep the systems up-to-date with new product photos, which is a big challenge,” an expert told Jiemian News.
Liu Dongchen, from Shaanxi Zhongzhi Law Firm, said consumers using AI-generated photographs to get refunds could constitute fraud.
“The platforms should not tolerate such immoral behaviour. Whoever uses AI-generated photographs to scam refunds should be banned forever,” an online observer said.
“AI can generate pictures that look so authentic. Asking for video evidence might be a good solution,” said another.


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China consumers use AI to alter product photos, claim refunds for goods that appear damaged

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘Immoral’ online buyers create fake discrepancies across range of products; experts warn AI bandits that they could be committing fraud

‘Immoral’ online buyers create fake discrepancies across range of products; experts warn AI bandits that they could be committing fraud