Wayfair Accused Of Human Trafficking
#WayfairGate is trending all over social media after what one Reddit user thought seemed like suspicious postings on the popular home goods site.
It all started when a Reddit user noted severely over-priced items, like cabinets and pillows–that also happened to have the same name as recent missing children. It should be noted that Snopes, and several other fact-checking sites, have already proven the claims false.
An Instagram account was created that posted some of the similarities:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCfSizjHWLs/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCfNJcbn3e5/
Wayfair issued a statement to Newsweek saying “There is, of course, no truth to these claims. The products in question are industrial grade cabinets that are accurately priced. Recognizing that the photos and descriptions provided by the supplier did not adequately explain the high price point, we have temporarily removed the products from site to rename them and to provide a more in-depth description and photos that accurately depict the product to clarify the price point.”
Several people on social media pointed out more than just the cabinets were alarming, as pillows and shower curtains and wall decor had crazy pricing. Wayfair told Mashable “That is a glitch and something we’re working to address.”
However, users began noticing identical “glitches,” in which severely over-priced items shared names with missing children on other third party seller sites, including Amazon & Walmart.
The plot thickened when people noticed that when the items numbers were keyed into Yandex (a Russian search engine) with the prefix ‘SRC’, what was seemingly a database of underage children popped up.
Several people also jumped up to point out that many of the conspiracy elements behind the theory, are in fact too good to be true. NBC News reporter Ben Collins shared a Tweet from one of the young women thought to be trafficked through the suspicious posts, who was angry the accusations were being made. Collins also pointed out that virtually any search with the letters “SRC” put into the Yandex search engine returned pictures of young girls.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCfOICanxwe/
Some people decided to try and order the over-priced items to see if there was anything suspicious, and were very disturbed by what they were told on the customer service line.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCgky0XDBYF/
Just my two cents: there might not be anything to this, but at some point, maybe it’s too sketchy and there are too many coincidences – and if there’s even a remote chance that even one innocent child is being trafficked in this situation, it’s worth looking into.
Let me know what you think…join the conversation on Facebook & Instagram!
