WITH its celebrity clients and income of £1billion-a-year in Britain alone, Vinted is a massive success story.
The online trading platform allows second-hand items to be sold or swapped. But bizarre adverts for toys priced as high as £26,000 have sparked fears of child trafficking.
Vinted confirmed the bizarre listings for £26,000 toys have been removed and accounts have been suspended Credit: M-A-U
A plushie toy up for sale on Vinted for over £10,000 Credit: TikTok
Specialist cops in France – where Vinted’s market is bigger than in Britain – now fear paedophiles may be placing coded advertisements.
Police are probing screenshots of stuffed animals priced extortionately – with details such as weight, height, age, and personality traits in the listings, despite supposedly referring to inanimate objects.
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Screenshots of the disturbing posts have since gone viral on social media – with users calling for a thorough investigation.
A senior Paris detective told The Jattvibe: “The allegation is that criminals are using codes to describe real-life children who are up for sale.
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“The kids are smuggled around the world from developing countries, and very evil people use these online sites to find equally evil customers to buy them.”
But the true nature of the unusual listings remains unclear.
Vinted said users created fake listings to catch suspected wrongdoers, or posed as buyers and threatened to report retailers to the police.
The company vigorously denies any wrongdoing and confirmed the posts were removed and accounts suspended while it continues to cooperate with authorities.
Cops in France are now investigating into whether there are children being trafficked on the site Credit: Getty
Cops fear there may be a criminal network using Vinted for human trafficking Credit: Vinted
But the allegations are being taken seriously in France, where Sarah El Haïry, France’s High Commissioner for Children, has launched an enquiry, led by prosecutors and judicial police.
Ms El Haïry was disturbed by an ad for a “stuffed bunny rabbit” described as “small, blonde, blue-eyed and obedient”.
It was being sold for €1,000 (£865) and was described as a three-year-old female weighing 2 stone, and measuring just under 3ft (91cm).
Other posts were for lifelike toys costing €6,000 (£5,180), and all of them contained sexualised language.
One toy was said to be “13, shy, anxious and noisy”. Another listing was a teddy bear for €30,000 (£25,890) – described as a six-year-old girl who “doesn’t scream”.
And a simple PlayStation console was advertised for a staggering €30,000 (£25,900) while being described as “10 years old, healthy and blonde”.
Ms El Haïry said: “If our suspicions are confirmed, there may well be a human trafficking network behind this.
“This possibility serves as a reminder that digital platforms can sometimes be used for criminal purposes. No one is safe today”.
Specialist forces in France – where Vinted is hugely popular – fear the platform may be being exploited by paedophile gangs Credit: Getty
Social media users shared screenshots of the disturbing adverts Credit: Facebook / @JayFenix
Confirming a “suspicion of a paedophile criminal network”, Ms El Haïry added: “The threats against children are evolving, but the demand for protection remains the same. This is the reason for the fight I have been waging since day one.”
Many fear there may be a criminal network using a peer-to-peer marketplace selling pre-loved vintage garms to bargain hunters.
Concerns about Vinted being a marketplace for paedophiles were first raised three years ago, but there was no evidence to support the concerns, and authorities did not take any action.
There were also complaints that the site was being used to promote sexually explicit content, including OnlyFans pages, but these claims were also dismissed by police.
The Jattvibe can reveal claims that a 13-year-old girl was being “sold” on Vinted for the equivalent of £11,000 sparked the investigation into the online marketplace.
This raised particular concern because the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was said to have sourced very young girls though Paris, where he had an apartment up until his death in August 2019.
One credible witness said 12-year-old twin girls were “recruited” on a greater Paris housing estate and sent to America for Epstein’s birthday.
French prosecutors issued a public appeal to try and find the pair, who were said to be Eastern Europeans living in the French capital, but they were never found.
A PlayStation and control listed for €30,000 (£25,890) and described as blonde Credit: Vinted
Vinted has denied that the ads are related to child trafficking
Epstein – who was a friend of the then Prince Andrew before he became Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – was said to have raped and sexually abused numerous girls who were “sourced” for him in France, according to prosecutors.
The French are also reeling from recent claims that predatory paedophiles have infiltrated their public education system, at nursery school level.
It’s alleged that youngsters have been sexually abused by nursery staff.
Groups such as #MeTooSchool (#MeTooEcole) have been set up in response to the growing scandal, as investigations by local councils continue.
However, a senior investigating source in Paris revealed to The Jattvibe that there is “no credible evidence” that the “13-year-old girl for sale” exists – and it’s understood to be a hoax.
They said: “Instead, a student posted a fake advertisement on Vinted to see what the response would be. He admits he did something stupid and has apologised.
“He still faces prosecution but insists he was acting as a whistleblower.”
The privately owned Vinted was founded in Lithuania in 2008, and launched in the UK in 2014.
Britain is now its second-largest market after France, and it is particular popular because it does not charge sellers any commission, meaning they keep the full sale price.
However, this means that frauds can easily post nonsense for next to nothing, so giving rise to urban myths.
Vinted does not require age verification.
A spokesman for Vinted said it was removing all fake listings that had been deliberately created to “fuel this conversation”.
Authorities in European countries outside France, including Britain, are maintaining a cautious approach, and no enquiries are expected.
A spokesman for Federal Police in Germany said: “There are an increasing number of reports of listings of this nature, but there are strong indications that these are fake listings.”
Vinted said some social media users have bombarded sellers with abuse and others have posted fake listings in a bid to trap suspected offenders or posed as buyers before threatening to report sellers to police.
The compayn said: “While we understand the concern behind this, this kind of behaviour amounts to harassment, makes it harder for us to moderate the platform effectively, and can interfere with genuine investigations, putting members at risk.
“We do not tolerate harassment of any kind, and we take action against members who violate our rules.
“If a listing or a member’s behaviour goes against our rules, we have a number of procedures in place.
“This may include banning accounts and carrying out further investigation, in coordination with the competent authorities where appropriate.”
Hundreds of users said they would quit the app altogether after the posts went viral.
Meanwhile, Vinted has turned off comments on its social media channels amid the firestorm.
