You’ve probably seen them while scrolling through social media: a knit sweater at a shockingly low price, or a Christmas decoration of an enviably nimble Santa climbing a ladder. The products look appealing, the discounts feel irresistible, and there’s a convenient “buy now” button just a tap away. But something feels off. The images are too perfect — overly sharp, unnaturally smooth, teetering on the edge of the uncanny valley.

Dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear these aren’t isolated oddities. They’re part of a growing wave of artificial intelligence-generated shopping ads designed to move fake or inferior merchandise, especially during the holiday rush. And the risk isn’t just wasting money; it’s handing over personal and financial information in the process. 

“Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio spoke with John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications, and fraud at the National Consumers League, about how AI-powered scams work — and what shoppers should watch out for. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

David Brancaccio: I remember thinking that an entry-level sitar might be a fun gift for a guitar playing kid. Now, I ordered it. It never showed, but eBay at that time was great about it. Got me reimbursed. But if you're on some brand X site, I mean, forget about it.

John Breyault: Yeah, I mean, I think these scam websites that consumers are setting up with the help of AI are a huge problem. And you know, even if you set up a great looking website, you still have to advertise it and get people to come to it. Unfortunately, what we've seen from some recent reporting is that some of the biggest platforms out there that are hosting these ads are not doing everything they can to protect consumers. There's a recent Reuters investigation that said that on Meta, there are 15 billion scam ads being presented to users every day, and that's on top of the 22 billion organic scam attempts.

Brancaccio: Let's just talk about this. I mean, like, you could be looking up. “Oh, that looks like a nice cable knit sweater for a cold winter day.” And it turns out it's a thin little cotton thing with the texture applied using AI Photoshop.

Breyault: Well, I think that, you know, those are very prevalent, particularly around the holidays. And I think that's why it's so important that when consumers are buying products online, that they rely on payment mechanisms that are safer. So for most people, that's going to mean your credit or debit card, because if that cable knit sweater ends up being a paper thin t-shirt, almost that you get, you can dispute that transaction with your credit card company and be made whole. That won't happen if you're paying with a gift card or via a peer to peer app, like Cash App or through cryptocurrency.

Brancaccio: I mean, if you're on form, you're focused, you're rested, you're caffeinated, you might stand a chance to spot this.

Breyault: I would say that the end of the day, when you're going to put down your credit card to buy something, you should do your best to buy it from places that you've had successful transactions with in the past. So, rather than going with that fly by night website that you just saw an ad for, on Tiktok or on Instagram, see if that same product appears on other platforms. Do a reverse image search on Google to see if it shows up on legitimate shopping sites, but at the end of the day, I think the best way to protect yourself and reduce your risk is to be paying in a way that you can reverse that transaction if it turns out to be bad.