exception: It may look like an ordinary photo with no make-up, but the moment Taniel Jay saw it, alarm bells rang in his heart.
That forced her to rethink her return process, and that’s how she took the photo.
The customer who sent the product claimed that the bronzer he ordered was found to have been damaged in transit and requested a full refund.
However, Jay noticed some inconsistencies, such as the cream product appearing watery and crumbly.
“We couldn’t physically do it the way we built it,” Jay told nine.com.au.
“We also ran the image through an AI detection website and found it to be completely fake.”
She asked customers for videos of cosmetic damage and sent them.
This has become a surprisingly common occurrence for Australian small business owners.
Some are reporting a surge in AI “reverse fraud,” where consumers claim the product they received was damaged and submit AI-altered photos as evidence.
They then request a refund or replacement, effectively defrauding the business of cash and inventory.
“Over the past two months, we have seen an increase in attempts to use AI to claim defective products,” Jay said.
Just last week, I received an email from a customer from the United States saying that he didn’t like the products he ordered for his makeup kit and that they arrived damaged.
Jay requested photos of the damage, but the images the customer sent appeared to have been “altered.”
AI detection software also flagged it as tampered with, she said.
Jai returns to the customer with his findings and offers a video call to prove that the product was indeed damaged.
That’s when the customer’s story changed.
“Right away she said, ‘Actually, I bought this for a client, and he edited it.’ [the photos]” said Jay.
“In fact, I got annoyed and just said, ‘With all due respect… why would you do this to a small business? That’s theft.'”
However, Jay and her two staff members were not able to catch all the dodgy photos, and there is no doubt that some customers have had their photos stolen in the past.
And if the famous makeup artist with nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram is willing to do it, Jay is sure she’s willing to do the same for smaller brands.
University of Melbourne law professor Jeannie Patterson previously confirmed to nine.com.au that this type of consumer fraud is a criminal offence.
“Fraud means intentionally deceiving someone, and you can’t argue that it wasn’t intentional. You’re trying to defraud a company,” she said.
“We’re in a spiral of fakery and fraud. I think it’s really bad.”
She suspects some companies will increase prices to cover additional shipping insurance or fraud losses.
Many companies may start requesting video evidence of defective or damaged products.
Jay took things a step further.
She now runs all photos and videos of damaged products through AI detection software, checking the metadata for red flags.
The company has also started asking customers who claim their products arrived damaged to video call them and show them the damage in real time.
“It’s scary that the only solution I can think of is to have a live call with these customers to confirm.”
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