The scam is simple. Fin too. In the last few days it has become a video on TikTok goes viral done with three photos. The most important is the first. An elderly man who photographs himself in front of the mirror. A superimposed writing: “Forgive me if I’m embarrassing myself but my only dream is to be able to sell my book, dedicated to my missing dog, before I leave”.
The video was published at Christmas. In the space of three weeks a lot has been shot. Millions of views, almost 370,000 likes and over 14,000 shares. In the next photo it is there Josephor at least a man who looks like him, with a dog. In the last one the cover image of Memories of a four-legged lovethe book by Giuseppe Rossi. The cover is clearly made with artificial intelligence. But even the dog doesn’t seem so real.
What’s behind Giuseppe Rossi’s account
The profile links directly to one web page created with Payhip.coma platform for generating sites linked directly to an e-commerce system. Here you can find the book, on sale for 7.70 euros. So we read in the description: “Each page holds memories, the silence of the house, the walks, the barks and the faithful company of those who were next to him in the good days and in the difficult ones”.
Are you ready to let Personal Intelligence enter every space of your life? Not so much me
We recovered the book. It’s a small volume of 33 pages in A4. Obviously there is nothing of what was promised. There is no story of Giuseppe Rossi and his dog. There are no memories. There are no walks and faithful company. It’s a text written by an artificial intelligence or by a human writing like an AI. Not only that. It’s not a real personal story but a short essay on how to grieve the loss of a pet.
The best part is perhaps the last one. In what should be the back cover of this ebook we find the synopsisthe summary of the book that readers normally need to get an idea of what they are buying. Here we read: “The synopsis of Memories of Four-legged Love explores the deep bond between a man and his dog”. Well, not exactly the conclusion of a book written by a human being.
The video disappeared from TikTok
Although Giuseppe Rossi’s video has proliferated for three weekshas disappeared from social media in recent days. The journalist Charlotte Matteini and the creator Vfor.Truth they talked about the case, probably diverting dozens of commenters to the video. At the moment Giuseppe Rossi’s profile appears to be on TikTok closedprobably removed by its author once it was spread his story.
A very well-known strategy that starts with the elderly
We have already addressed other similar cases. In recent months we have been seeing several cases of products being sold on TikTok marketing campaigns built from scratch. Many also play on the emotions linked to the elderly. In April we told you what was behind the campaign father-craftsman. The videos began “No one buys the objects my father makes, he works so hard” and then ended up selling luminous spheres of dubious origin.
