Snake oil salesmen have been around as long as we’ve had snakes and oil. Conmen have been preying on our vulnerabilities for decades, if not centuries, and they find new ways to get us every year. Sure, maybe we’ve evolved past thinking a dubious «miracle elixir» that smells suspiciously like urine is going to make our hair grow back, but we’re not so immune to other kinds of wool-pulling. 

Since the widespread use of AI, there are millions more ruses and tricks that malicious actors can pull on us, and we’re none the wiser. Yes, if you’re a certain amount of media literate, you know that’s not Kanye West’s real voice covering Taylor Swift’s «Shake it Off,» but it’s easy to be fooled. Like in this example of AI used to some hilariously bleak real-world ends. Below is a hilarious almost Fyre Festival-level scam that left parents frustrated, children screaming, and Twitter users giggling.