Spotted by PC gamer on Reddit’s /isthisAI, an Australian Airbnb host attempted to scam a guest out of AUD1,700 ($1,183) by creating an AI-generated image of the home’s blocked and overflowing toilet and sending it as “evidence” to support his claim that the renter had caused damage to the space. However, the image, showing the small coin just inches deep in the water, wasn’t exactly a masterpiece.
Claiming damages must be a constant chore for Airbnb hosts, and unscrupulous people like this will only make it more difficult. The unidentified host sent a photo claiming that guests blocked the toilet so that it spilled onto the seat and filled the room with toilet water.
Posting the image to the Reddit channel asking for help in identifying AI images, Reddit author FurinaDeFontaine suggested that there were some questionable inconsistencies, such as the fact that streams of water cascading from the seat didn’t leave a splash, and the larger problem of how water managed to stay confined to one room and not spread throughout the house.
“I didn’t even use toilet paper during my stay,” FurinaDeFontaine says in a perhaps equally worrying comment, adding, “but I wonder if anyone else could have done it and they are real.”
Other participants in the thread quickly identified that the photo was watermarked with Google’s SynthID, suggesting that it was most likely created using Gemini or another Google genAI tool. But many others pointed out how impossible the photograph was at first glance. Unless the bathroom is located a great distance from the rest of the house, the water obviously should have flowed into other rooms. Oh, and the room is on the upper floor of the building, so obviously if the water had pooled like this, it would have caused untold damage to the ceiling below, and certainly worth over $1,200.
Fortunately, the situation was resolved appropriately. “Good news everyone! » FurinaDeFontaine wrote the next day: “I had this case resolved and found it ineligible for the requested refund. »
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