They look like the sort of people you’d happily invite round for a cup of tea or perhaps buy a pretty trinket from online.
But ‘Patrick and Eileen’ and ‘Mabel and Daisy’ have one secret they’d rather keep from their customers – they don’t actually exist.
Unscrupulous foreign companies are using artificial intelligence to create fake photos and backstories of so-called family-run UK businesses to dupe British shoppers into parting with their cash.
Customers have told of feeling ‘completely ripped off’ after thinking they were buying from quaint independent boutiques in England – only to receive cheap, mass-produced items shipped from warehouses in East Asia.
Another suspect store, Mabel & Daisy, presents itself as a wholesome mother-and-daughter clothing business based in Bristol, but its contact details trace back to Hong Kong.
More than 500 one-star reviews have been left for the companies on Trustpilot, with furious customers complaining they paid premium prices for shoddy goods and were then hit with ‘extortionate’ return fees.
Shoppers said they were targeted by adverts as they scrolled through Facebook, raising further questions about how social media platforms allow dubious firms to promote themselves.
With their warm smiles, matching shirts and cabinets filled with glittering jewellery behind them, Eileen and Patrick look every inch the proud small-business owners
Customers have told of feeling ‘completely ripped off’ after thinking they were buying from quaint independent boutiques in England – only to receive cheap, mass-produced items shipped from warehouses in East Asia
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said tech companies must do more to protect consumers.
The Daily Mail has also uncovered multiple sites using the same AI-generated images but just simply changing the names.
With their warm smiles, matching shirts and cabinets filled with glittering jewellery behind them, Eileen and Patrick look every inch the proud small-business owners.
Except, according to Professor Mark Lee, an artificial intelligence expert at the University of Birmingham, they are literally too perfect.
Recent adverts for C’est La Vie, which claimed to be based in Colmore Row, Birmingham, even told customers that Eileen’s ‘beloved husband’ Patrick had died and that she was closing the business with a heart-wrenching 80 percent off sale.
‘I’ve battled to keep our handmade jewellery boutique alive but grief has drained my strength and I must close our doors,’ the message read.
The Daily Mail has also uncovered multiple sites using the same AI-generated images but just simply changing the names
Another suspect store, Mabel & Daisy, presents itself as a wholesome mother-and-daughter clothing business based in Bristol, but its contact details trace back to Hong Kong
But buyers lured in by the sob story soon flooded Trustpilot with complaints about receiving ‘lumps of resin’, ‘plastic junk’ and ‘cheap metal rubbish’.
‘If I could give 0 stars, I would – complete scam, no such company in Birmingham, can’t believe I fell for it,’ one shopper fumed.
When the business was contacted by the BBC, the C’est La Vie website abruptly claimed all products had sold out and that ‘Eileen’ was ‘carefully packing and shipping the final orders that were placed.’
The business name then briefly changed to ‘Alice and Fred’ before reverting to its original branding.
