Snopes Says “False” and Wayfair Denies Allegations of Illegal Child Trafficking

And here is just a small sampling of what you'll find on Twitter....

Many people saying none of this makes sense.

Many people investigating.

Many people connecting dots.

Many people thinking with basic common sense.

Many people awake and questioning the world we live in.  

Take a look:

Wayne Dupree posted the following analysis:

I woke up this morning, made my coffee, and fed my dogs, and then sat down in my oversized comfy chair and started looking online to see what news unfolded while I was asleep…and boy, oh boy, did I get an “eyeful.”

I looked on Twitter and saw that ‘Wayfair” was trending.

I have serious issues with Wayfair…a couple years back I bought thousands of dollars worth of furniture and accessories to furnish a big brand new house and nearly everything I got was total junk.

So, when I saw that it was trending, I was secretly hoping those junk-peddlers were going out of business…but what I found out when I looked in the hashtag was waaaaaaaay crazier than that.

Apparently, there’s a very popular conspiracy theory floating around that Wayfair is actually a “front” for a child sex trafficking ring.

I know…I was like, “what the heck???”

So I started reading what people were saying and sharing. As I go through the tweets, I see these screenshots of average, crappy-looking pillows for sale on Wayfair for nearly $10k. One pillow in particular shared the same name as a girl in Southfield, Michigan, who went missing.

Okay, this was getting weird…I needed more coffee and I had to look into this a bit more.
I decided to go on Wayfair and see if this “pillow” was really for sale at that absurd price.
And much to my surprise, it was actually there – a pillow named “Duplessis” that is being sold for a whopping $9,999.00 by a third-party international company called “Bungalow Rose.”

Maybe it was just a typo? Maybe the cost was supposed to be $9.99?

I mean, that seems very logical to me.

Well, not according to the online conspiracy theorists, because they say the unique name of the overpriced pillow matches the name of a missing girl from Michigan.

And apparently, it’s not just the pricey pillow…there are other very high-priced items on Wayfair – many of these items named after females, which conspiracy theorists believe are part of this “online sex trafficking” ring.

They believe third-party companies are using furniture and accessories as a front to advertise children for sale on Wayfair.

Sounds wild, right?

I found a few of the more detailed tweets to share with you.

I’ll let you look at them and draw your own conclusions.

A few years ago, if you’d have told me this I would have laughed it off and never even gave it a second thought.

Today though, while I don’t really buy into this, I still wouldn’t it put it past our illuminates to do something so outrageous.

I have realized there are some really wicked, wealthy, and powerful people out there in this world that do a lot of sick and twisted things…I just think these types of people have a much more sophisticated network than junk-peddler “Wayfair.”

Fox News reports Wayfair has denied any wrongdoing (ohhhhhh ok then, why didn't you just say so?  INSERT Frank Drebin GIF saying Nothing to see here folks!):

Wayfair denied Friday that is selling expensive furniture on its website as a front for human trafficking.

A Reddit user on Thursday posted a screengrab of Wayfair’s website showing armoirs that cost five figures with human names for the products, which lead to the user to speculate whether the pricey cabinets were, in fact, people for sale.

A screengrab of Wayfair's alleged website posting cabinets with human names being sold for upwards of $12,000 each.

“There is, of course, no truth to these claims," Susan Frechette, a Wayfair spokeswoman told FOX Business in an email Friday. "The products in question are industrial grade cabinets that are accurately priced.”

The post to Reddit’s user-submitted conspiracy theory thread, which features accusations often with little proof, questioned if Wayfair's expensive new cabinet collection was evidence of child sex trafficking. The thread set off a wave of commentary on social media Friday.

"Is it possible Wayfair involved in Human trafficking with their WFX Utility collection? Or are these just extremely overpriced cabinets? (Note the names of the cabinets) this makes me sick to my stomach if it's true," one Redditor user named PrincessPeach1987 posted.

Believers in the Wayfair conspiracy theory have also prompted people to use a Russian search engine to search for the stock keeping unit number (SKU) that corresponds with Wayfair products that allegedly return image results with children in bathing suits, Newsweek reported.  But the SKU searches don't show images of a single child, which don't align with the allegation that Wayfair SKUs maintain data associated with a child being purchased, the outlet explained.

The company has since removed the product images from its website and said it plans to rename the products.

The screenshot, which was shared through social media, shows four storage cabinets with products named Neriah, Yaritza, Samiyah and Alyvia ranging in price between $12,699.99 and $14,499.99.

“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," Frechette said.

And here is the full Snopes "analysis" (if you can even call it that):

In July 2020, some social media users accused the furniture store Wayfair of trafficking children. This gravely serious accusation was not based on police reports, firsthand accounts, financial records, or deep investigative reporting. Rather, it was based on the fact that some items on Wayfair were listed at exorbitant prices compared to other, similar items.

This rumor appears to have originated on the “conspiracy” section of Reddit on July 9, 2020. That post noted that Wayfair was selling utility closets from WFX that were priced at more than $10,000, and offered child trafficking as a possible explanation. That post, like so many other conspiracy theories, offered this notion as a mere possibility and said that it would be stomach churning “if … true.”

Is it possible Wayfair involved in Human trafficking with their WFX Utility collection? Or are these just extremely overpriced cabinets? (Note the names of the cabinets) this makes me sick to my stomach if it’s true 🙁
This post led to other users combing the Wayfair website in search of other oddities. One Twitter user, for instance, found a set of pillows and showers curtains that were listed for $9,999. As similar items on the website were listed for only $99, this person assumed that the only logical explanation was that the higher priced item was being used to traffic children.

The Twitter user wrote:

If you search bungalow rose a bunch of shower curtains and pillows show up priced at $9,999. Wayfair is fucking trafficking children what the FUCK

Same with other things. They all have big price jumps to like 10 grand. Wayfair also supplies the furniture at ICE detention centers, where children are going MISSING from
Generally speaking, the images showing expensive cabinets and large price differentials on pillows, shower curtains, and other items on Wayfair’s website are real. However, it takes quite a leap in logic to arrive at the conclusion that this is evidence that the store is engaged in child trafficking.

In fact, the more we pondered this claim, the more nonsensical it appeared. Would a large business really use their official website to allow people to purchase children online? As these items are available to anyone with internet access, wouldn’t it be possible for someone to accidentally become involved in child trafficking? Why would a child trafficking operation use a method that would be so easy to track?

This claim is largely based on the idea that $10,000 is simply too expensive for a cabinet, and that there has to be some other explanation — child trafficking — to justify its cost. In a statement to Newsweek, however, Wayfair noted that these were industrial grade cabinets, and that they had been accurately priced. Wayfair said that they temporarily removed these items, as the accompanying descriptions did not accurately explain the reason for the price point.

Wayfair told Newsweek in a statement:

“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.”
We reached out to Wayfair for more information about the expensive pillows and shower curtains, but have yet to receive a response.

As this rumor circulated on social media, people chimed in with additional “evidence” of Wayfair’s supposedly nefarious activities. For instance, some claimed that searching for the stock keeping unit number (SKU) associated with these items preceded by the term “src usa” on the Russian search engine Yandex returned images of young female children. This is, bizarrely, true. However, searching for just about any random string of numbers preceded by the “src usa” returns similar results. We reached out to Yandex for more information about the “src usa” search term, and will update this article accordingly.

Others claimed that these products carried the names of children who had gone missing. One cabinet, for instance, appeared on Wayfair as the “Anabel 5-shelf storage unit.” This, according to proponents of this theory, corresponded with an Anabel Wilson who had gone missing in Kansas. While this may seem suspicious to those seeking a pattern, it should be noted that roughly 800,000 children are reported missing every year. In other words, the fact that some of these product names were the same as the first names of children who had gone missing could easily be nothing more than a coincidence.

Furthermore, some of the missing children cases this theory attempted to connect to Wayfair have already been solved. The “Alyvia” shelf, for example, was supposedly connected to Alyvia Navarro. This autistic child went missing at the age of 3 in 2013 and, unfortunately, was found dead shortly after she went missing, having drowned in a nearby pond.

The claim that Wayfair is trafficking children is based almost entirely on one person’s confusion over an expensive cabinet. This conspiracy theory, like so many conspiracy theories, started with a wild and unfounded assumption that would be sickening if it were actually true. As of this writing, absolutely no credible evidence has been offered to back up this accusation.