Using AI generated images to get refunds • Hacker News Board

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#21

Post by avereveard » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

websiteapi wrote: post #15

avereveard wrote: post #13

every time I dig in this story is always stories of stories, and all walk backward to maybe one single merchant, which is just his word, with no police trail or court case trail or anything substantial, with news agency work over "examples and reconstruction of what might have happened" and no actual data that could be verified / falsified. is this something anyone has actually seen happen, or is it part of the AI hy…

scamming to get refunds has always been a thing.

and that say nothing whether this is actually happening or not, what's your point?

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#22

Post by websiteapi » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

gray_-_wolf wrote: post #17

websiteapi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

laws can change - eventually this scam described in the article will be ubiquitous and unavoidable.

Laws can change, sure, but probably business practices will change first, since it is easier. In EU, you are entitled to money refund for online purchased goods (with some caveats ofc), but the business can (and most do) require you to send the item back first, on your own expense. That reduces the risk of fraud like this.

hardly - go read up on eBay scams. it's never been easier to scam people online. all shipping the item do is force the scam buyer to make the defects so, which is why many if not most seller just pay the buyer partially to keep as-is

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#23

Post by eru » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:29 PM UTC

isoprophlex wrote: post #5

Maybe the extreme scalability of AI bullshitting will offset the extreme scalability of running large-scale direct-to-consumer oligopolies, and we see some return to local shopping, with all the positive effects on local communities... one can hope

Division of labour is a good thing. It's why we are rich today.

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#24

Post by pixiemaster » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:30 PM UTC

websiteapi wrote: post #15

avereveard wrote: post #13

every time I dig in this story is always stories of stories, and all walk backward to maybe one single merchant, which is just his word, with no police trail or court case trail or anything substantial, with news agency work over "examples and reconstruction of what might have happened" and no actual data that could be verified / falsified. is this something anyone has actually seen happen, or is it part of the AI hy…

scamming to get refunds has always been a thing.

I was consulting for an insurance company once. they even had examples of some of their employees to get insurance money for broken things, using their internal example pictures….

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#25

Post by eru » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:30 PM UTC

gray_-_wolf wrote: post #18

exe34 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it will be implemented by chips-on-camera, that will tie you to a picture. it will be pushed forward by law enforcement ("think of the children!") and it will be great for profits. not so much for privacy.

Out of curiosity, what stops you from taking a photo of a AI generated picture?

Well, you could make your verified camera do a 3d scan. Then at lest you'd need AI to 3d print a scene or something.

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#26

Post by supriyo-biswas » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

thunky wrote: post #16

supriyo-biswas wrote: post #6

The way I see it, generative AI has been introducing a lot of distrust into systems that worked "fine" previously, such as rendering homework ineffective in the case of education, making verification difficult for remote interviewing, flooding the internet with low-quality noise (aka slop) that makes it difficult for reputable and researched sources of information to stand out, with all the implications it has for so…

> rendering homework ineffective Homework isn't any more ineffective imo. The way we educate and grade is. Imagine if people went to school to learn something rather than to "level up". And you earned a job based on what you know, or what you can do, rather than what degree you banked. Then maybe you would want to do the homework. If gen AI helps us flip the current system on it's head that would be a good thing.

> And you earned a job based on what you know, or what you can do, rather than what degree you banked

As I see it, companies will want some sort of artifact that tells them that the person has some basic knowledge in their field of study, which would make us come back to the same system that many detest.

Otherwise we'll just end up with Samsung Korea's version of the entrance test[1] which is like the SAT but for getting a job, which only a handful of companies can realistically do, and as such there is very little appetite for it in the "West".

[1] https://www.graduatesfirst.com/samsung-aptitude-tests

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#27

Post by PunchyHamster » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

avereveard wrote: post #13

every time I dig in this story is always stories of stories, and all walk backward to maybe one single merchant, which is just his word, with no police trail or court case trail or anything substantial, with news agency work over "examples and reconstruction of what might have happened" and no actual data that could be verified / falsified. is this something anyone has actually seen happen, or is it part of the AI hy…

well, now that it hit the news it will happen more often!

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#28

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

frenzcan wrote: post #19

maelito wrote: post #2

We absolutely need certified no-AI digital proofs.

This seems like such a tricky problem. There was a no-ai camera posted here recently which verified the photos were genuinely taken on the device. It was pointed out someone could photograph an ai image via the camera to produce a verified image. Maybe it needs to be similar to SSL certificates where trusted authorities can verify and revoke verification for digital assets.

[deleted]

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#29

Post by avereveard » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

PunchyHamster wrote: post #27

avereveard wrote: post #13

every time I dig in this story is always stories of stories, and all walk backward to maybe one single merchant, which is just his word, with no police trail or court case trail or anything substantial, with news agency work over "examples and reconstruction of what might have happened" and no actual data that could be verified / falsified. is this something anyone has actually seen happen, or is it part of the AI hy…

well, now that it hit the news it will happen more often!

maybe, but this story is circulating for a while now even on mainstream media, and I still haven't seen shops names, no order IDs, no platform statements, nothing that can be independently verified yet. just "people say". sure if this is such a big problem we'd have some proof to go by by now.

Re: Using AI generated images to get refunds

#30

Post by sweezyjeezy » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #23

isoprophlex wrote: post #5

Maybe the extreme scalability of AI bullshitting will offset the extreme scalability of running large-scale direct-to-consumer oligopolies, and we see some return to local shopping, with all the positive effects on local communities... one can hope

Division of labour is a good thing. It's why we are rich today.

That's a stretch. One can hold the view that division of labour is a useful economical principle, but also that oligopolies represent a dangerous concentration of power.