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Incident · 2025 · E-commerce (fraud against merchants)

Shoppers in China use AI-faked damage to claim refunds

From November 2025, Chinese media reported shoppers using AI tools to fake product damage for refund-only claims. In one documented case, a buyer in Guangzhou used AI-synthesized video showing six of eight hairy crabs dead to get a 195-yuan refund from a Suzhou merchant. Police detained the buyer for eight days.

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What happened

OECD.AI logged reports from November 2025 of AI-edited images used for “refund without return” claims: fruit altered to show mold, clothing edited to show holes, a plush toy shown rusted and cracked. Items under 100 yuan were described as the hardest hit.

In the crab case, the order shipped on November 17, 2025. The buyer sent videos showing six dead crabs and the merchant, Ms. Gao, paid 195 yuan under the platform’s compensation process. She then noticed an extra leg and cropping that appeared to hide a watermark, asked for a video touching each crab, and the buyer stopped responding.

What happened next

Guangzhou police caught the buyer on November 28, 2025, ordered eight days of administrative detention and recovered the 195 yuan as illegal gains.

Legal or regulatory result

Administrative detention for fraud by Guangzhou police, per Sina Finance.

What would have stopped it

  1. Do not let photo or video evidence alone trigger an automatic refund. Check metadata, ask for a live capture with a specific action, or compare with carrier and order data.
  2. Score claims against the customer’s history and route repeat or high-ratio claimants to review.
  3. Offer return-for-refund instead of refund-only when evidence cannot be verified.

Sources

  1. Sina Finance: buyer detained over AI-synthesized dead crab video, in Chinese
  2. OECD.AI: AI-generated fake product images used for fraudulent refunds in China

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