An Ohio woman was devastated by the fact that her cat went missing over two months ago. She was given a moment of false hope when a scammer reached out to her, claiming to have found her cat. But she quickly became suspicious that the image had been generated or altered using AI.
TikToker Monica (@sunshine_collective) lost her precious cat two months ago. She received a message from a woman who claimed they had found Monica’s cat. They said they found her number on a flier in town. As ‘proof’, they sent her a photo of themselves holding her cat in front of a mirror. However, Monica noticed a few things were ‘off’ from the moment she saw the picture. She immediately flagged it as AI and shared with her audience how she knew it was a scam.
Monica shared a photo of her cat, Rosie, on a neighborhood flier. In the image, Rosie was sitting on a handmade crocheted pink blanket that Monica made herself. Rosie had a heart-shaped ID tag in the photo, even though you can’t see it too well. Monica pointed out that the image appeared to include the same handmade crocheted blanket seen in her original missing-cat photo, which she said raised immediate suspicions. On top of that, the photo showed Rosie with a circular ID tag instead of a heart. Monica believed these inconsistencies suggested the image had been generated or manipulated using AI.
When Monica confronted the person who contacted her, she said they blocked her number. Monica is now telling her audience about her experience as a warning. She said a lot of people try to “take advantage” of those with missing pets to get money from them. She warned viewers to be cautious of people who may attempt to exploit missing-pet situations using manipulated images.
people will use AI to scam you out of your money.
Commenters were shocked and appalled by Monica’s video and the lengths someone went to for a scam. They reacted immediately, sharing their fears and opinions on what she experienced. One commenter stated, “The way my grandma would fall for this!” Another commenter warned, “This is also a good argument for parents to never ever put their kid’s image online.”
The video also opened up the floor for commenters to share their opinions on the progression of AI in our society. As one commenter mentioned, “I hate AI… This is getting so out of hand.” Some commenters expressed concern that advances in AI are making it more difficult to determine whether images are authentic.
Unfortunately, Monica updated the comments to say that she still hasn’t found her missing cat, Rosie. She’s been reaching out to shelters in the hopes that somebody finds her. She ends by saying, “I just hope maybe someone picked her up and decided to keep her.”
