Unscrupulous foreign firms are using AI-generated images and false back stories to pose as family-run UK businesses to lure in shoppers.

Customers say they feel “completely ripped off” after believing they were buying from independent boutiques in England but were delivered cheap clothes and jewellery, mass-shipped from warehouses in east Asia.

Among the websites is C’est La Vie, a shop purporting to be run by couple Eileen and Patrick for 29 years and based in Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter – but with a returns address in China.

Consumer guide Which? said the growing use of AI tools was making it possible for fraudsters to mislead the public on an “unprecedented” scale.

Another website appearing to use AI-generated images is Mabel & Daisy, a seemingly quintessential, mother and daughter-owned clothing firm, which claims to be based in Bristol but has an address in Hong Kong.

More than 500 one-star reviews for the companies appear on review platform Trustpilot, with customers complaining of paying high prices for cheaply-made goods and being charged extortionate return fees.

Shoppers told the BBC they were targeted by ads as they scrolled on Facebook.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), which recently banned ads by Marble Muse, a Chinese clothing company pretending to be based in London, said social media platforms also had their part to play in tackling the issue.

The BBC has contacted Facebook owner Meta for comment.

With their warm smiles, branded shirts and cabinets full of jewellery behind them, Eileen and Patrick are the perfect image of a successful husband and wife team.

Except, they are literally too perfect, according to a professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Birmingham, Mark Lee.

“Previously there were obvious clues, for instance AI had difficulty generating realistic hands with plausible finger placement,” he said after viewing the website.

“This seems well done but the images look a little bit too perfect and staged to be real.”

Recent adverts for C’est La Vie, which claims to be based in Colmore Row, Birmingham, stated the couple had befallen a tragedy – Eileen’s “beloved husband” Patrick had died and she was shutting the business down with an 80%-off clearance sale.

“I’ve battled to keep our handmade jewellery boutique alive but grief has drained my strength and I must close our doors,” it said.

But customers lured in by the sob story posted furious reviews on Trustpilot about receiving “lumps of resin”, “plastic junk” and “cheap metal rubbish”.

“If I could give 0 stars, I would – complete scam, no such company in Birmingham, can’t believe I fell for it,” one said.

Sunny Pal, who runs Astella Jewellery in Birmingham, said that the scams damaged the reputation of the city’s Jewellery Quarter and tarnished the hard work of local businesses.

“The lying ruins the distinguishing factor between different businesses. It takes the credibility away from family-run businesses that have been here for so long,” he said.

Within hours of the BBC’s first approach to C’est La Vie, its website stated all its products had sold out, the business was closed with a message from Eileen that said: “We’re carefully packing and shipping the final orders that were placed.”

The name of the business on its website then temporarily changed to “Alice and Fred” before returning to its C’est La Vie branding.

The company did not reply to a request for comment.

Justyne Gough spent £40 on a pink floral dress from Mabel & Daisy, a business that claims to have created “timeless clothing” in Bristol since 2022.

She realised it was a “complete scam” when the garment arrived weeks later looking nothing like the elegant dress on the website and made of an “awful material”.

“The website looked lovely, professional and authentic but I had to email a few times to say the items hadn’t arrived even though the money had been taken straight away,” she said.

When she tried to return it, Ms Gough was told it would cost another £20. She eventually managed to get a refund of £20.

Emma, from Birmingham, said she tried to send a £50 jacket back to Mabel & Daisy which was far too big – but was told to keep it and, for an extra £10, she could be sent a smaller size.

“There was no way I wanted to give them any more money – I realised it wasn’t based in Bristol when a load of Chinese symbols popped up when my initial transaction went through,” she said.

Mabel & Daisy did not respond to our questions.

Last month, in response to a complaint from BBC’s Watchdog, the ASA banned ads for a so-called “British” clothing firm that used images of roses, cobbled streets and the union jack when it was shipping goods from a warehouse in Asia.

The regulator said it was continuing to take action on misleading ads.

But their spokesperson added: “Other regulators and the platforms on which these ads appear all have a part to play in tackling this issue.”

Sue Davies, from Which?, said trading standards teams were “severely under-resourced and not well-equipped” to deal with the websites, meaning many could be going uninvestigated.

“Although the onus should not fall on consumers, there are steps they can take to limit the risk of ending up with poor-quality tat,” she said.

Shoppers should check reviews online to see how other people have found the company’s products and customer service.

It is also worth checking if the company is based in the UK – terms and conditions pages can reveal the location of businesses.

Prof Mark Lee said some things to look for were “images of the person in different settings, with different backgrounds and the inclusion of real, identifiable locations”.

But he warned: “AI is becoming better every day and soon the challenge might not be to prove whether the site is AI-generated but whether there’s actually a real human involved at all.”