Bermuda Post

Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Fake ads on Facebook spoil real life fairy story

Fake ads on Facebook spoil real life fairy story

Robin Wight makes impressive wire sculptures of fairies and dandelions which have won the admiration of hundreds of thousands of people online.

Photographs that he has taken of his artwork have appeared in adverts on Facebook. The only thing is, Robin does not advertise.

The pictures from his website have been stolen by criminals who are using them to supposedly sell his sculptures as garden decorations to Facebook users around the world.

In fact, users are directed to other websites to make a purchase and either get nothing for their money or receive a low quality product.

It means Robin's small but successful family business in Stoke-on-Trent is being used by criminals in an international scam, and it appears that there is little that he can do to stop them.

Speaking on Radio 4's You & Yours programme, Robin said the number of fake adverts was "colossal".
"I haven't really slept for three weeks and every time someone reports another one, you go and look at that material and you do physically feel sick.

"Those images are effectively the currency that drives the flow of traffic to our business and what this scam has done is completely devalue that currency".

Criminals have used Robin's photographs in their adverts, even including pictures of him

Robin's business, called FantasyWire, started as a hobby over a decade ago.

He sold a few of his wire fairy sculptures locally before placing some of them along a trail for a village fete, where they were spotted by Amanda Dawson.

She was then the marketing manager at Trentham Gardens, a tourist attraction in Stoke-on-Trent, and thought Robin's fairies could solve a problem.

Amanda said too many people with children were only visiting the adventure playground, even though there was a 725-acre estate to explore. So Trentham Gardens bought and commissioned more sculptures from Robin.

"We dotted the fairies around the lake and then we saw a great increase in footfall," she says. "We had to put more benches around the lake and it was great to see that the intention had actually worked."

Interest in FantasyWire exploded a few years later after a photograph of a giant fairy at Trentham Gardens was posted online by a visitor.

Overnight, the number of people following the business on Facebook shot up. It now has more than 440,000 followers.

The photograph of Robin's 'Wishes' sculpture which was shared around the world after a visitor to Trentham Gardens posted it online

Each sculpture sells for about £15,000. It is a family business, with Robin's wife, daughter and son helping to produce sculptures, photographs and make-your-own kits.

"What Robin built with FantasyWire was a whole community across the world of 'fairy fans' who connect with one another weekly on his Facebook page", says Amanda.

"The downside of what's happened now is, that magic has been taken to a very dark and devious place by these scammers, so it's very sad and it just shows you the light and dark of social media and the internet."

Global victims


Kerrie Siebert lives in Sydney, Australia and was already a fan of Robin's work.

She says she recognised his photographs when they started appearing in adverts on her Facebook page "every single day" and thought they were "definitely" coming from him.

She bought a set of four sculptures for her garden but has yet to receive anything.

Vicki Cunningham fears she will receive nothing for her money

Vicki Cunningham from Perth, Australia says she did the same thing, clicking on a link that took her away from Facebook to another website where she made the purchase.

She now doubts that she will get anything.

Other victims, who have typically paid around £28 for each item, have received poor quality, plastic fairies which look nothing like the pictures they had seen.

'Industry-wide issue'


Robin Wight has been trying to report the fake adverts to Facebook but, he says, there were so many of them it was "completely infeasible" so he has given up.

The problem, he says, is that Facebook requires him to report each individual advert and there are hundreds if not thousands of them.

"They're asking me to report every leaf off a tree and I'm trying to report a forest".

Facebook gets paid for the adverts they host, but it told the BBC it did not want fraudulent activity on their platforms and was investigating the fake FantasyWire ads.

"We're dedicating significant resources to tackling this industry-wide issue and work not just to proactively detect and reject scams themselves, but also to block scam advertisers from our services and in some cases take them to court", a Facebook spokesperson said.

Many of the adverts remained on display even after the BBC had brought them to Facebook's attention.

This photograph of a sculpture by Robin Wight is one of many that have been used in the scam.

The fake fairy ads have spread to other major websites too including Amazon, which says it is working directly with Robin Wight to address the issue.

"Third party sellers are independent businesses and are required to follow all applicable laws, regulations, and Amazon policies when listing items for sale in our store", Amazon said, adding that anyone violating those policies would face action including "potential removal of their account".

FantasyWire is just the latest small business to be targeted in this way, according to Andrew Chow, a journalist who has written about the phenomenon for Time Magazine.

"I talked to a doll maker in the UK and a sea glass Christmas tree maker in Florida who were just two of the countless people who are falling victim to this and it is happening on a rolling basis".

He says tech companies such as Facebook are often accused of not doing enough to discourage this sort of behaviour, but even if they prevented most of the adverts from going up, criminals would keep trying.

"They can reach so many people on these websites for so little money, so it will be up to the global co-ordination of law enforcement agencies, I think, to put more of an effort into fighting this".

The problem is, with victims and perpetrators spread around the world, catching those responsible is likely to be extremely difficult.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Bermuda Post
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
'I just lost it' Lowe’s worker fired after 13 years of employment for confronting thieves trying to steal $2K of merchandise
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
×