Fake statistics generated for $30 kept being cited by ChatGPT for seven months
11/10/2026 — 11/10, 16:21·1 sources (all)·1 reports (all)
Key takeaways
- Metehan Yesilyurt of Peec AI spent about $30 with GPT-4.1 to generate 50,000 fake statistics and publish them on a website. Google removed t…
Background & analysis
On October 7, 2026, Metethan Yesilyurt of Peec AI published an experiment. He built stateglobe.com, a website populated with 50,000 fake statistics generated by GPT-4.1 for about $30. According to his account, Google soon deindexed the site. Seven months later, however, ChatGPT was still citing it. He reported that the fabricated figures had made their way into an academic paper, an investment research report from Qatar's largest bank, and an Indian economics publication. More than 330 domains, including Shopify, DHL, and Bluehost, linked to the site. Yesilyurt coined the term "citation laundering" for the pattern he observed. As of the report, the episode stands at the point where a deindexed, fully fabricated statistics site continues to be cited by ChatGPT months after its removal from Google's index.
AI-generated from 1 reports · updated 3 days ago
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An experiment by Peec AI's Metehan Yesilyurt used GPT-4.1 to generate 50,000 fake statistics for about $30 and published them on a site; Google deindexed the site, but ChatGPT still cites it seven months later. The fabricated data has appeared in an academic paper, investment research from Qatar's largest bank and an Indian economics publication, a pattern the author calls "citation laundering."
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