A new row of conspiracy theories have been running wild on social media platforms, which accuse renowned furniture seller Wayfair of serving as a cover platform for human trafficking. Conspiracy theorists have linked Wayfair to child trafficking based on a series of mere coincidences.
The discussions started on Reddit and then users on Twitter expanded on their Wayfair conspiracies. Pointing out the overpriced furniture on the e-commerce platform, netizens linked the names of the products to the missing children.
The child trafficking conspiracies
"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," redditor PrincessPeach1987 posted on Thursday. The user posted screenshots of the product listings of four storage cabinets with names Neriah, Yaritza, Samiyah and Alyvia that are priced between $12,699.99 and $14,499.99.
There are other products, including pillows, storage cabinets, shower curtains with exorbitant price tags. One Twitter user even pointed out that one $20,000 pillow on Wayfair had no description except for "no passport required" notification.
'There's no truth'
Reacting to the allegations of child trafficking, Wayfair has strongly denied it. The retailer has also removed the suspicious listings even after rubbishing the overpriced claim.
"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," Wayfair spokesperson said in a statement.
Launching an investigation
At this juncture, netizens also drew a connection to last year's incident when 500 Wayfair employees walked out of the company to protest the company's alleged practices of profiting off of selling beds to detention centers that held migrant children along the southern US border. This might all be a coincidence, but some users are not willing to let it go and even urged the US Justice Department to look into the matter.
"They deleted everything off their site an hour or two ago. My friend took screenshots of everything she could. Seems like they are absolutely scrambling at this point. Something is wrong here. Looks like the internet busted a child sex trade front. I really hope they go down," a Reddit user wrote, who said he called the trafficking helpline and "they're opening a case."
