We've entered a new era, and it can be quite frightening.

Although the act of conning lonely men with fake porn sites is not a novel concept, advancements in AI are making it more effortless than ever before.

As it turns out, a group of Redditors were deceived into believing that they were purchasing nude photos from an attractive young woman, when in reality, they were communicating with a robot.

The social media platform was filled with anticipation as images of 'Claudia' started to circulate.

At first glance, the provocative photos appeared to be exactly that—enticing titillation for adventurous men.

The model posted a single picture to the website with the following caption: "Feeling pretty today."

Numerous men eagerly seized the opportunity, declaring their willingness to pay any amount Claudia desired in exchange for a lewd photograph.

One user said: "You're looking very pretty."

Another remarked: "You are absolutely gorgeous!! Will make a great trophy wife someday."

"Holy crap, you are beautiful," put a third.

However, not everyone was persuaded.

A few individuals promptly noticed that the pictures appeared slightly artificial, a bit too polished to be genuine.

"For those who aren't aware, I'm going to kill your fantasy," one person wrote.

"This is literally an AI creation, if you've ever worked with AI image models and making your own long enough, you can 10000 percent tell. Sorry to ruin the surprise I guess."

Their intuition proved to be accurate, as it was later disclosed that Claudia was, in fact, the brainchild of a duo of computer science students who went by the moniker 'u/Cl4ud14'.

They utilized a publicly available program called Stable Diffusion.

Following the revelation, some individuals requested that the account display Claudia's hands since AI programs reportedly struggle to replicate realistic fingers.

At least, for the time being.

As per the masterminds of the deception, they earned approximately $100 by selling pictures before being exposed.

They told Rolling Stone: "You could say this whole account is just a test to see if you can fool people with AI pictures."

"You could compare it to the vtubers, they create their own characters and play as an entirely different person. We honestly didn't think it would get this much traction."

Allegedly, one of the individuals they scammed stated that they felt deceived by Claudia.

I believe there is a moral to this story for everyone: do not trust everything you encounter on Reddit.