In July 2020, rumors were spreading on social media claiming the furniture store Wayfair is trafficking children using their services as a means of transportation. The outrageous claims do not have any supportive evidence from any trusted source. The allegations were mostly based on the fact that some of the company's items were listed at much higher prices than similar products.
Online child trafficking?
According to Snopes, the accusations began on the social media platform Reddit under its conspiracy section on July 9, 2020. The post that started the rumors complained about the company's utility closets which were priced at more than $10,000 each and accused the seller of trafficking children as a potential explanation for the exorbitant price tag.
The user's conspiracy theory, like many others, only offered the crime as a potential explanation and stated it would be horrifying if it were true.
The claim has led several other users to sift through Wayfair's website to find products with oddly extreme prices. One Twitter user found several pillows and shower curtains with $9,999 price tags. Due to other similar items being listed for only $99, the user assumed that the higher-priced items were being used for trafficking children.
The images that show the massive difference in price between similar items found on Wayfair's official website are real. However, the claims and allegations provide no other supporting evidence that these products are being used for child trafficking purposes.
The basis of using their official website to traffick children is also highly unlikely as anyone would have access to the services and it would be relatively simple for authorities to track the illegal activities if found to be true.
Denying the allegations
Wayfair replied to the claims by stating the products were of industrial grade and were priced accurately. In an interview, a spokeswoman for the company denied the allegations saying they were baseless and completely false, as reported by Daily Sabah.
The company official, however, acknowledged the lack of explanation for the high price tags of the items and moved to remove them from the website's listings temporarily. The spokeswoman said they would work on renaming the items and adding in-depth descriptions and photos to depict the products' cost accurately.
Some of the items that fetched high prices were also found to depict real women's names, some of which have been reported missing which reinforced the claims of Wayfair's alleged criminal activity.
According to Complex, the items in question were cabinets, pillows, and shower curtains which were named similarly to children who have previously been reported missing.
However, a previous report has stated that a girl named Samiyah Mumum, breaking the same name as one of Wayfair's products, was found in her hometown a month after she was reported missing.
Another child, Alyvia Navarro, was tragically found lifeless in a nearby pond in 2013 shortly after she went missing.
Before the claims surfaced, police officers have discovered two other children that were included in the list of alleged victims of Wayfair's trafficking scheme.
