Am I the only one who didn't know

The dark web exists, it doesn't really stand up to much scrutiny that crimanls are infiltrating cat toy websites.

I have no idea what you're talking about the cat wheel. However if you think human trafficking isn't happening in strange and creative ways because 'the police would be all over it' then you're very naive

You didn't know because there isn't anything to know 😁

My first thought was are they human sized ones so people held in captive can exercise...

I've come across this. I learned about it when I looked into how an item could be many many thousands when it was a bog standard item from Dunelm.

I understand what it means but don’t believe it happens. Anyone looking for that kind of thing will do it on the dark web and not a mainstream website.

This must be why m&s pay she’d loads to advertise items on instagram etc….only for them never to be in stock!

I think that you will find that this is just a conspiracy theory along the same lines as the pizza menus.
People who traffic children and women into prostitution don't need these elaborate disguises as if they are that scared about being caught they just use the dark web

Slightly more boring but more realistic suggestion here. I experienced something similar on eBay once- a very cheap item listed for a huge amount of money so nobody bought it. I actually messaged the seller and ask what it was all about. He said that he did it when eBay offered a promotional free listing/ no fees event (back when selling usually incurred a % fee). It meant that, if he had nothing at the time to sell, it essentially secured a free listing for when he did have stock.
Perhaps Amazon do something similar for their business sellers?

There is a thread at the moment trotting out the Wayfair rubbish again.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/ninety_days_only/5486871-wtf-is-this?reply=150369330

Its a load of rubbish. The reason they boost the price so much is because they dont have it in stock but dont want a resisting fee of taking it off and putting it on again (i think also impacts their algorithms) so they wack it up to a stupid price that no one will buy until it comes back into stock, then just put back to normal price.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole of the conspiracy, search Wayfair scandal but just remember it's already been debunked. No one is ordering a pillow for £30k and ending up getting a random child delivered.

Not me thinking people get transported out of the country in a giant cat wheel

P.S. I didn’t know either!

I’m so glad I didn’t spend my 4k on a cat wheel this morning, I really could have done something very stupid there. Thanks for the heads up!! These scammers are the worst.

@Agespot ive just read a comment like this on another MN post on the Epstein files .

They were saying about wayfair . A few years ago when they would be selling a cheap unit for 12k and you could only purchase with a promo code. These items were listed with different names of girls who had went missing.

My friend showed me (a few years ago now) these kids' dressing up outfits that were on ebay for several hundred to several thousand pounds...apparently a cover up for adverts selling kids?

Yes this. This is the theory people have

(on a different note - if you’re looking at getting a cat wheel, you need a bigger one that you think!!)
cat wheels can cause spinal issues if too small.

It’s exactly this

It wasn't targeted at the OP, as you say, she realised pretty quickly what a load of tripe it is.

More her colleague and the posters on the other similar thread who are quite convinced of the truth of it all and aggressively accusing naysayers of gaslighting and telling them to 'do their research'.

So apologies @Agespot if you thought that was aimed at you!

Eh?

I've ordered a couple of items of clothing, delivery due today - hope I don't end up with a couple of extra mouths to feed! I'd have to get some more bread in. 🙂

So you seriously thought that a random person you work with was privy to some special information that the internet didn't know?

Is it MI5 where you work?

OP has already admitted she feels a fool for believing it, so there’s no need to stick the knife in further. People have all sorts of life experiences, backgrounds and education, and there’s plenty of awful hard-to-believe things in life which turn out to be true, so some people may find it hard to know what it and what isn’t.

This is the second thread about this utter buffoonery in as many days, do people really believe this?

I remember when it was first being talked about and my utter incredulity that anyone would entertain such nonsense, it seems nothing has changed!