Unscrupulous foreign companies are deploying Artificial Intelligence-generated imagery and invented back stories to impersonate long-standing, family-run UK retailers and draw in customers. Shoppers say they were targeted by ads while scrolling on Facebook and later received cheaply made items shipped from east Asia despite believing they were buying from independent boutiques in England. Consumer group Which? said the growing use of Artificial Intelligence tools is enabling fraud on an unprecedented scale, while the Advertising Standards Agency said social platforms also have a responsibility to tackle misleading ads. The BBC has contacted Facebook owner Meta for comment.
One site, C’est La Vie, presents a couple named Eileen and Patrick as Birmingham Jewellery Quarter jewellers trading for 29 years, yet lists a returns address in China. A University of Birmingham professor of Artificial Intelligence, Mark Lee, said the photos of the pair looked “too perfect and staged” to be genuine. Recent ads claimed Patrick had died and promoted an 80%-off closure sale, prompting Trustpilot complaints from customers who received “lumps of resin” and “cheap metal rubbish.” After the BBC approached the company, its website briefly showed all items sold out, temporarily rebranded to “Alice and Fred,” then reverted to C’est La Vie. The firm did not respond to requests for comment. Local jeweller Sunny Pal said such tactics damage the Jewellery Quarter’s reputation and undermine genuine family businesses.
Another site, Mabel & Daisy, markets itself as a mother-and-daughter clothing brand in Bristol, while listing an address in Hong Kong. More than 500 one-star Trustpilot reviews across the two brands describe high prices for poor-quality goods and steep return costs. One shopper, Justyne Gough, paid £40 for a dress that arrived weeks later in “awful” material and faced a £20 return fee, ultimately recovering only half her money. Another customer, Emma from Birmingham, said a £50 jacket was too big, and she was told to keep it and pay an extra £10 for a smaller size. She realised the business was not UK-based when Chinese symbols appeared during payment processing. Mabel & Daisy did not respond to questions.
Regulators have begun to intervene. In a case prompted by BBC’s Watchdog, the Advertising Standards Agency recently banned ads by a Chinese clothing company that used British imagery while shipping from Asia, and said it continues to act on misleading promotions. Which? policy director Sue Davies warned that trading standards teams are under-resourced, urging consumers to check independent reviews and company terms to verify locations. Prof Lee advised looking for images of supposed owners in varied settings and with identifiable locations, adding that as Artificial Intelligence improves, the challenge may soon be proving there is a real human involved at all.
