TikTok Shop reportedly faces deluge of 70 million fake products. AI is to blame.
AI slop has entered your cart on TikTok Shop.
According to Business Insider, TikTok Shop and other e-commerce platforms, like Amazon, have an AI problem. Fraudsters are reportedly using generative AI tools to create fake brands, dupes and products, tricking users into paying for things that are not real and do not exist.
“To be honest, this is organized crime,” Nicolas Waldmann, who leads TikTok Shop’s external affairs governance and experience team, told Business Insider. “They basically try to sell and sell, and of course, never deliver anything, and then run with the money.”
Crushable speed of light
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This type of fraud is not a new phenomenon. Fraudsters love scams and they will always find a way, but AI is making it increasingly difficult to detect them. Amazon, for its part, uses AI to track down scammers who use AI. TikTok also uses AI to prevent this type of malicious seller, but it also uses human moderation. Waldmann told Business Insider that the company uses “AI to manage AI.” What a fun little cycle.
In a report released Thursday, TikTok said that in the first six months of 2025 it “rejected more than 70 [million] products before being referenced, a 40 [percent] increase compared to the previous six months.
“As our community of sellers and creators grows globally and our ability to detect banned products improves, the number of infringing products we prevent from landing on our platform has increased,” TikTok said.
This isn’t a brand new problem. In August, PC Mag reported that scammers were running a “widespread and ongoing malicious campaign” that allowed them to steal cryptocurrency and users’ personal data.
