A suspected fraudster has appeared on an online marketplace selling flower seeds purporting to resemble a cat’s face, according to a fact-finding investigation.
“Cat’s eye flowers are so named because the special arrangement of their leaves resembles a cat’s eye.” Description of a productPart of the item listed on eBay, called “Cat eye dazzle,” reads: According to the product name, this flower blooms all year round.
advertised by the seller another product, “Great Plants Cat’s Eye Dazzle 50 Seeds” is newly listed on eBay. According to the listing, the seeds cost 19.99 pounds (about $25). However, according to , both items appear to be the same, just relisted. Customer reviews.
Plants identified by the seller as “[t]He is said to have had the scientific name “cat’s eye flower” Cryptanthus bibitatus The product listing described it as a “stunning plant belonging to the bromeliad family.”
but, Cryptanthus bibitatus It is the scientific name of a tropical plant native to Brazil, commonly called Earth Star. according to North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension.
The seller warned that “the pictures you see and the plants growing are not 100% the same.” Nevertheless, one buyer described it as a “great deal.” [being] As stated in customer reviews. Several other buyers expressed similar opinions. However, some people complained that they never received their seeds, that “the seller did not refund their money,” and that their tracking numbers were invalid.
The seller is registered with eBay as a private seller, so eBay explains that “consumer rights under EU consumer protection law do not apply to the seller.” (Related: Suspected scammer arrested for using fake images to promote the worst ‘immersive’ experience you’ve ever seen)
The image of a cat-faced flower that gained a lot of attention on social media in April is fake, says fact-checker Snopes. Suspect. “When we scanned the photos with AI detection tools at aiornot.com and isitai.com, they were created by artificial intelligence,” Snopes reported. “Adobe Photoshop may also have been used to fine-tune the photos.”
According to the product listing, the eBay item was located in Denpasar, the capital of Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali. But Snopes said the sale was part of a fraud that may have originated from China.
“As of this writing, seeds of this flower are for sale at imseeds.com, gardenerstar.com, foundseed.com, and dailyrosy.com. The domain registration information for these websites points to China.” Snopes reported. “Here’s how we know: On ICANN.org he searches for the domain name of the website and finds the organization name “Alibaba Cloud Computing Ltd. d/b/a HiChina (www. net.cn)” and “Hangzhou, China.'”
According to Snopes, these alleged seed scams were widespread across various online platforms.
However, a flower that closely resembles an animal is the “monkey orchid”. Dracula SimiaAccording to , it is native to Ecuador and Peru and was first discovered in 1978. huntington library.
