Shady stores are using AI to trick us out of holiday cash

BY KERRY TOMLINSON, AMPYX NEWS

Real or fake? Some unethical online companies are using AI to create images of the perfect gift. But in some cases, the gift doesn’t exist. Or it exists in a very different form.

We investigate an ad for a popular holiday product to see if it’s deceptive --- and if our payment information could end up in the hands of shady companies.

Watch here:

Animal Fakes?

The holiday ad pops up with a parade of ornament images. A fox nestled in an acorn, followed by a rabbit, and an owl.

The cuteness factor is high. But these images have the feel of AI. How real are they and what do you get for your money?

Could it be like the recent AI bunny debacle? Ads claimed to show "2025's most realistic bunny toy," a tiny, highly realistic, pink-and-white bunny perched in someone's palm, sniffing its nose daintily.

But the video was AI, computer-generated.

People who bought it on Amazon say they received a low-quality toy rabbit that looks nothing like the ad, calling it a "cheap blob of plastic," "feels like a dish rag," "a total piece of garbage."

Searching for ornaments

The site pushing the acorn animal ornament ad is called Enjerr.

Do an Internet search for Enjerr and "acorn animal ornaments," and you'll see plenty of results, links and images. But they lead only to the Enjerr homepage displaying shoes, no acorn animal ornaments on the site.

This may be all for the best, because Enjerr gets terrible ratings on the review site Trustpilot, mostly one out of five stars.

Numerous reviewers cite complaints like very poor-quality products, items that don't look anything like the ad pictures, false advertising, and inability to do a return or get a refund.

Good news & bad news

We tracked down the acorn animals on a different site, called Tisselix.

But Tisselix, it turns out, has a connection with Enjerr, the site with all the complaints.

The contact on both sites is Wo Lin (Hong Kong) International Trading, with an address in Hong Kong.

Ornaments for sale

On Tisselix, the acorn ornaments are on sale, the set of six for about $45.

If you look closely at the images, you'll see delicate tufts of fur and tiny features like the fuzz on the acorn shell.

Tisselix describes them as, "beautifully handcrafted with intricate details," and "a forest creature nestled within a textured acorn."

But is this what you're really getting?

Ampyx News contacted Tisselix to find out. But the company gave zero response.

Reviews

We turn to reviews for what look like the exact same ornaments on the Walmart site.

The sellers use the same descriptions as Tisselix, including the "beautifully handcrafted" and "textured acorn" lines. The company is listed as Runskmd.

Here, unhappy customers show us what they really received: not three-dimensional, fluffy animals, but small, flat printouts in thin plastic. Some appear to be made of cardboard in the reviewers' pictures.

"The advertising for these is so deceptive!" said reviewer Stephanie in a post titled 'Bald-faced deception.' "I cannot express how disappointed I am in this purchase."

"Don't be fooled like I was,” wrote reviewer Kurt. "They are just flat cutout images and nothing like they appear in ad."

“Buyer beware," wrote reviewer Brent.

Tiny clue

Going back to the Tisselix site, we see one tiny clue. In one spot, buried amongst the flowery descriptions and the images, the site mentions that they are 2D, which stands for two-dimensional.

But the pictures and the rest of page tell an entirely different story.

Reviewers on the Walmart site take issue with this kind of advertising.

"The item as displayed on the Walmart site clearly shows these adorable stuffed animals nestled inside an acorn," wrote reviewer Florence. "What you get are flat plastic ornaments with photos of the animals on them!!!! VERY NASTY FALSE ADVERTISING!!!"

Money back?

Let's say you ordered the ornaments from Tisselix. You feel deceived and you want a refund

Some Tisselix customers have tried --- unsuccessfully --- with other products.

One complaint to the Better Business Bureau says after 8 rounds of emails to customer service, the customer finally received an offer to get only 15% of their money back.

Another customer told the BBB, Tisselix sent them the wrong size shoes, but offered them only a 15% refund, which they didn't actually get.

Unhappy customers

That matches up with customer complaints from other sites connected to Wo Lin (Hong Kong) International Trading.

Not just Enjerr, but also Bninoshops where customers reported broken products and problems with returns.

"The boots are not as described and they smell like cat urine," a customer told the BBB, adding that Bninoshops offered only a 15% off coupon for future purchases on the site in return.

Also, Spinpaper, with a mass of one-star reviews on Trustpilot.

Customers described low-quality products that didn't look anything like the ads, and paltry refund offers as low as 8% or coupons for more purchases.

“Ordered stained glass plant, received and it was a picture of stained glass,” wrote a customer. “What a joke, will give me a discounted credit. 8% or 10% off next order.”

With this kind of record, it's possible that you would pay $45 for deceptively-advertised ornaments but receive only $3.60 back. If the company responds to your email.

How do the companies respond?

The only contact for Enjerr and Tisselix appear to be their generic customer service emails. That also appears to be the only way to reach Wo Lin (Hong Kong) International Trading.

We sent our news questions to the Enjerr and Tisselix email addresses.

The Enjerr email was rejected as undeliverable. Tisselix did not respond to multiple messages.

This is about the same level of customer service reported by some customers of sites connected to Wo Lin (Hong Kong) Trading Company, after receiving a deceptive product and trying to get their money back.

"They took my money and sent me the wrong item and then won't respond to my emails!" said a Spinpaper customer on Trustpilot.

Protect yourself

With so many shops selling misleading products, many of them connected, you might want to take steps to protect yourself:

Watch out for AI images or AI-enhanced images in ads and on websites.
Check the company names for complaints.
Look out for stores with very limited contact info.
Be careful about buying based on the store's return policy. Some stores make return claims that are fake.
Don't accept partial refunds like 8% or 15%. Instead, dispute the charge with your payment company. Shady stores may respond differently when their payment processors get complaints.

Shady companies count on you being excited about a picture or a price. If you learn to tame that FOMO, that fear of missing out, you can prevent many online shopping disasters.