DoorDash customer orders food and it’s marked delivered in seconds, then they realized the horrifying reason why nothing was on their porch

DoorDash just confirmed they permanently banned an account responsible for using artificial intelligence to completely fake a food delivery, forging an image of a completed order just seconds after it was placed, as per Dexerto. That’s right, AI is already being weaponized for petty delivery fraud, and honestly, it’s a little terrifying to see how quickly bad actors have adopted the tech.

This wild story began when X user Byrne Hobart ordered a meal through the service. They didn’t even have time to put their wallet away before their phone buzzed. The app instantly marked the meal as having been delivered. If you’ve ever ordered food or cooking pans through DoorDash, for that matter, you know that’s basically impossible, so Hobart was immediately suspicious.

When they checked the app, there was a picture that looked incredibly close to their front door, complete with a bag of food sitting right there on the porch. The only problem was that the image wasn’t real. The picture had been generated by Artificial Intelligence. In the real world, only seconds had passed, and no food was even close to the customer’s door.

It’s a real shame that we have to worry about AI faking our dinner now

While the now-viral post initially drew some skeptics questioning if it was actually legitimate, DoorDash put those doubts to rest by confirming the events. A spokesperson confirmed the incident when speaking after the matter exploded online. “After quickly investigating this incident, our team permanently removed the Dasher’s account,” the spokesperson said. “We have zero tolerance for fraud and use a combination of technology and human review to detect and prevent bad actors from abusing our platform.”

How did the driver manage to pull off this sophisticated digital heist? Hobart shared a compelling theory, though we have to remember it is pure speculation right now. They suggested the driver might have used a jailbroken phone, which would have given them unauthorized access to a DoorDash feature that stores images of earlier deliveries to that specific address.

If that’s the case, the driver could have then used one of those existing pictures as a reference point. They could have fed it into an AI program and instructed it to instantly generate a new, fake image showing a bag of food sitting at the correct location. This is a disturbingly clever way to scam the system out of a delivery fee and the food itself.

What’s even worse is that this wasn’t an isolated incident. Another user on X, known as Dave, claimed they experienced the exact same scam on the very same day, also in Austin, Texas. Dave even shared two images of their house: the real exterior and the AI-generated fake with a food bag waiting out front. If this technique is already being deployed in multiple locations, you can bet this method of fraud is going to spread fast among bad actors looking to make a quick buck without doing any actual work.