“Obviously unlawful”: New gay app used fake AI Instagram profiles to “bait” new users

Goose is deploying AI-generated "friends" to recruit members, according to a new report.

Goose, a new gay dating app that launched last month, is using AI-generated Instagram “friends” to recruit members to the Grindr alternative, reporting from Wired alleges.

“On one hand, I’m flattered that I’m their target audience,” Ryan Cheam, a PR professional and a mark in the fake friends’ campaign, says. “But the need to essentially bait gay guys into signing up feels really sketchy.”

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Goose is the creation of model-influencer Derek Chadwick and former BeReal growth and community manager David Aliagas. The free app—described by one X user as “basically Pokémon Ho” for its Grindr-alternative appeal to gay men who want to build lasting relationships—has risen to #4 in the Apple App Store’s free lifestyle downloads category, and is now ranked 33rd in lifestyle app downloads globally, according to Wired. 

The app launched on June 25.

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Part of that demand may be attributable to a fake friends campaign deployed to recruit gay men. Multiple account holders on Instagram have been tagging eligible gays to their Stories or direct messaging them. But these account holders turned out to be AI-generated sock puppets, Wired reports.

The publication identified several accounts with AI-generated profile avatars who had reached out to prospective members with identical pitches.

The Instagram Close Friends Story for @ miles.sumrall is one example. The account includes a pic of “Miles,” with a mop of curly dark hair and trimmed mustache, grinning as he floats on water. “You’re receiving this because you’re exactly the type of person we’re building this for,” the caption says of the Goose app, with an exclusive invite code for the “members only community.”

Same goes for @danielmmulugeta, another cute, dark-haired “influencer” trawling for members with the exact same language. Both accounts were created weeks ahead of the app’s launch, and both have fewer than 10 posts, along with a high following-to-follower ratio—all signs of a potential fake account.

Using AI Image Detector software and Google Gemini’s SynthID, both profiles’ avatars  and other images were determined to be AI-generated. 

X user @pspthe2nd called out the fakes, in a post alleging Goose “use[s] AI models to promote fake interest.” But Wired has uncovered more.

PR professional Cheam heard from one of the allegedly fake AI Instagram accounts.

Cheam said he first noticed @alistaircrombbie, another PR flak supposedly representing an art gallery, a few weeks ago.

“I thought he was just a normal gay guy,” he said. Then Cheam got a direct message (DM) inviting him to join the “curated network of guys” at Goose, along with the same invite code shared with other marks.

Another fake friend hit up marketing professional Dalton Bauer, who got a DM from a user named @lucalepkowski.

“Hey! Okay this might feel random but felt you’d be interested :),” “Luca” messaged, sharing the same invite code.

Like “Miles” and “Daniel,” “most or all” of “Alistair” and “Luca’s” profile photos were generated using Google AI, Wired found. All four of those accounts have been disabled since Wired broke the story.

Their reporting uncovered more than two dozen similar accounts, many of which, spookily, frequently comment on one another’s photos with identical heart and fire emojis.

How automated the accounts are hasn’t been determined. Human “ambassadors” are likely behind some or all of them. As well as new members, app creator Chadwick has been recruiting staff to help manage various unspecified social media accounts.

“Need some help w my new app and you know I always give priority access to these opportunities to my OGs [original gangsters] here :)” Chadwick posted in June, listing details for an “ambassador role.”

Rob Freund, an advertising and e-commerce attorney, told Wired that using fake accounts to recruit members crosses a deceptive business practices line.

“If you are creating fake accounts for people who promote a product and explicitly creating a bunch of fake accounts that look like they are users of a product or a service to drive attention or sales to that product or service, that activity is very obviously unlawful under FTC [Federal Trade Commission] guidelines,” Freund said, regardless of whether or not the app is free.

Chadwick’s partner Aliagas posted another call for applicants for an “ambassador role” for his “new app” three weeks ago.

“We are going big :-),” he said.

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