Aaron Lea received a temporary suspension from Facebook after he shared a fake ad featuring an AI-generated image of a flying car created using Midjourney v5.
The ad, promoting a non-existent 1976 Mohishwa JRR4 flying car, attracted a significant number of genuine buyers and garnered humorous responses, according to Lea.
The ad’s description reads: “Mohishwa 1976 flying car, one of the first flying cars available for consumers and only sold in Japan. Non-Functional! It requires parts and repairs, and the wing apparatus is missing. This is a unique rebuilding project suitable for an experienced mechanic. To be clear, finding Mohishwa parts is extremely difficult.”
After the fake ad for the non-existent flying car generated over 25,000 views, 1,000 shares, and 500 saves, Aaron Lea admitted to creating it as a prank. The ad even made its way to a Japanese car community on Reddit, where it got more than 1,000 upvotes and fooled many people.
Lea explained that he had used the Midjourney AI art program to create the image for the ad. “I received dozens of messages, and only three people called me out on it being fake. The rest were genuinely interested,” he wrote.
Despite the humorous nature of the prank, Aaron Lea encountered some trouble when he found himself locked out of his Facebook account and received a message from the social media company informing him of a permanent ban from the Marketplace.
Fortunately, Lea could request a review of the decision, and his account was restored within five minutes. Reflecting on the experience, Lea acknowledged the lesson learned and warned others against trolling Marketplace with fake AI listings.
“While it was amusing to me, the story’s moral is that you can get into trouble for such pranks,” he said.
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