Wayfair, an American store for selling households and furniture, is accused of being linked to a child trafficking group from 2020.
The hashtags (#Wayfair and #wayfairtrafficking) were trending for 3 days in a row after the claims were released last year.
- أول قصة معنا اليوم
— هانثل | HANTHL (@u2nd1) July 10, 2021
فيه هاشتاق اسمه (# Wayfair) ظهر فجأة قبل فترة واحتل الترند العالمي لمدة 3أيام متواصلة
تقول القصة ان متجر الأثاث والسلع المنزلية الأمريكي (واي فير Wayfair) والمعروف بأنه المنافس الأكبر لـ(إيكيا IKEA) متصل بحلقة إتجار بالأطفال pic.twitter.com/bOqAbA4ZGb
The conspiracy theory began after a person shared a post on Reddit complaining about the high costs of the stuff inside the website for example the price of a pillow or a small carpet can cost up to $10,000.
The user curiously shared the photo and wrote: “Who can afford buying a pillow at this price and why is it super expensive?”
الادعاءات خلف هذي القصة بدأت لما نشر احد المستخدمين على موقع ريديت صورة لأحد الوسادات التي تباع بالموقع وكانت معروضة بسعر 9,999دولار!
— هانثل | HANTHL (@u2nd1) July 10, 2021
كان المستخدم ناشر الصورة بإستغراب على السعر.. من بيشتري وسادة بهذا السعر وليش هذا سعرها؟ pic.twitter.com/jSgsQl6fFj
After the man’s post; people started to wonder and look at the company's extremely high prices. Not only pillows but most of the household items offered by Wayfair can’t be afforded by a normal person with a regular salary.
The huge shock which left people confused is that whenever they research any item that costs between $10,000 to $15,000, a name of a missing child appears on the item. People after that claimed that the price is not truly for the item shared by the American firm, rather it refers to the price of the child sold through the website.
wayfair def an undercover child traffic ring. i have never heard anyone shop at wayfair
— carl شينوبي 🥷🏻 (@returdalert) July 14, 2020
However, the conspiracy theory wasn’t only built on the high prices and the names of the missing kids appearing inside the Wayfair website; People tried to search the codes of some items on Google but couldn’t find any results; when they tried to search for them on Russian Yandex search engine, they got multiple photos for children, most of them in inappropriate poses.
What made the allegations even more believable is that the names of the books placed to decorate some of the items are super weird such as ‘Bloody Harvest’, ‘Anatomy of Evil’ and ‘No Witnesses’.
اللافت إن هذي الكتب معدلة بالفوتشوب، يعني عنواين الكتب أختيرت بعناية مو بعشوائية
— هانثل | HANTHL (@u2nd1) July 10, 2021
وحسب المدعين إن هذا العنواين بتعني اشياء مبهمة وإشارات لأشياء معينة في عمليات غسيل الأموال pic.twitter.com/iuZSf2FVJr
A photoshop expert proved that such books were photoshopped into the original picture deliberately to prove the claim that the company is in fact a cover up for a child trafficking ring.
On the other hand, officials in the American company, Wayfair which is based in Boston, have denounced the allegations against the company saying they are baseless claims.
They also announced the resignation of the firm’s CEO following the viral spread of a bizarre internet theory about the company’s involvement in child trafficking through high items’ prices.