‘AI scammers stole my business name to scam customers’

A jeweller has said AI scammers copied her business name and duped customers into buying cheap items.

Deanna Newman set up C’est la vie Jewellery in March last year as an “interesting adventure” sideline which she hoped to turn into her dream full-time job.

But earlier this year a company operating out of China pretending to be a Birmingham-based jewellers began using the C’est la vie name, damaging the reputation of Ms Newman’s business.

“It’s awful because I get calls on the regular from people subject to the scam complaining about the jewellery, and I don’t want my brand to be associated with low quality,” Ms Newman, of Ontario, Canada, said.

The BBC revealed on Wednesday that unscrupulous foreign companies were using AI generated images to fool customers into buying poor quality items from fake businesses.

Ms Newman said the first she knew about the issue was in July, when she posted a message on Facebook thanking customers for their support, followed by an aggressive comment appearing on the post a few weeks later.

“Received my order today, it’s Temu/Shein goods. SCAM,” it read.

The jeweller was “totally confused” when she read the comment and replied explaining that the customer was mistaken. A few days later, she got a call from another customer in Ireland complaining that they had not received their order.

For the next month, messages from customers mistaking Ms Newman’s business for a scam were “continuous” as they commented on social media, emailed and called her.

“People were asking for refunds, arguing with me and being aggressive, it was super upsetting and I had to keep telling people to contact their banks for refunds,” she said.

Ms Newman was forced to post a video on Facebook to show that she was a real person, and separate her business from the scam.

“It was honestly so frustrating and super stressful because I thought I could make the messages stop by making it clear I am not associated with a scam,” she said.

Contact from angry customers has since slowed down now but she said it had left her worried about the future of her online business.

“People are worried about a scam with a similar name and that makes it really hard.”

“I probably am not getting the amount of sales I should be getting,” she said.

The scam website, C’est la vie Birmingham, states it is run by couple called Patrick and Eileen and claims in adverts on Facebook that Eileen is selling up due to the death of her husband.

Ms Newman said the business mix-up was so severe, she received messages of sympathy from customers wishing her well after her husband’s death.

“It’s crazy as our websites are completely different. I sell sterling silver, dainty pieces and engagement jewellery,” she said.

Her business is one of many that have been duplicated by foreign firms claiming to be independently-run to lure customers into believing they are getting high quality goods from trusted sellers.

The reality could not be more different, as clothes, jewellery and other items are mass shipped from warehouses in east Asia with customers forced to pay high fees if they return anything.

Consumer guide Which? said the growing use of AI tools meant fraudsters could mislead the public on an “unprecedented” scale.

To separate her business from the scam, Deanna spent days researching the fake C’est La Vie business and redesigned her whole website to make the difference clear to customers.

Her family suggested she change the name of her business to avoid further confusion, but she said she was determined to stick with her name and hoped Facebook would take the fraudulent page down.

“I put a lot of thought into the name and I hope it works out because I’ve invested so much money into my branding, why do I need to change my business?” she said.

The scam has left potential customers feeling afraid, Ms Newman added, as she noticed more people browsing her website without making orders for jewellery.

“You put all this time, money and effort into advertising and I’m getting all these people to my website but they’re not buying because they’ve lost that trust due to a scam with a similar name,” she said.