A Reddit user who presented themselves as a whistleblower from a food delivery service has been exposed as fraudulent. This individual authored a widely-shared post accusing their supposed employer of systematically exploiting both drivers and customers. “You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories,” the alleged insider wrote. They described being intoxicated at a library, using public Wi-Fi to compose an extensive rant about the company leveraging legal gaps to unlawfully withhold drivers' tips and wages.

These allegations carried a ring of truth, particularly since DoorDash faced a lawsuit for tip theft and agreed to a $16.75 million settlement. However, in this instance, the entire narrative was fabricated. While dishonesty online is commonplace, it is less frequent for such posts to achieve significant traction. This one reached Reddit's front page, amassing over 87,000 upvotes, and was shared to platforms like X, where it gained an additional 208,000 likes and 36.8 million impressions.

Journalist Casey Newton of Platformer reported that after he contacted the poster, they communicated via Signal. The Redditor provided what appeared to be a photo of an UberEats employee badge and an eighteen-page “internal document” detailing the company’s alleged use of AI to assign a “desperation score” to drivers. As Newton attempted to verify the whistleblower's identity, he discovered he was the target of an elaborate AI-generated deception.

“For most of my career up until this point, the document shared with me by the whistleblower would have seemed highly credible in large part because it would have taken so long to put together,” Newton wrote. “Who would take the time to put together a detailed, 18-page technical document about market dynamics just to troll a reporter. Who would go to the trouble of creating a fake badge.”

The existence of individuals aiming to mislead journalists is not new, but the proliferation of AI tools now demands even more rigorous fact-checking. Generative AI models often struggle to identify synthetic images or videos, complicating efforts to authenticate content. In this case, Newton utilized Google’s Gemini, which detected the AI-generated image via Google’s SynthID watermark—a digital marker designed to persist despite cropping, compression, or filtering.

Max Spero, founder of Pangram Labs, which develops detection tools for AI-generated text, works directly on the challenge of differentiating real from fabricated material. “There’s companies with millions in revenue that can pay for ‘organic engagement’ on Reddit, which is actually just that they’re going to try to go viral on Reddit with AI-generated posts that mention your brand name.”

While tools like those from Pangram can assess whether text is AI-created, they are not infallible, especially with multimedia content. Furthermore, even when a synthetic post is proven false, it may have already spread widely. Consequently, navigating social media now involves a degree of constant skepticism, with users often questioning the authenticity of what they encounter.

This point was underscored when I mentioned to an editor my intent to write about the “viral AI food delivery hoax that was on Reddit this weekend.” She assumed I was referring to a different incident—because, remarkably, there was more than one such hoax circulating on Reddit that very weekend.