I published 50,000 fake stats and ChatGPT still cites them, earning 10k+ AI sessions
metehan777 · x · 2026-10-11
GEO researcher Metehan Yesilyurt revealed an experiment: 7 months ago he launched a website with 50,000 entirely fabricated statistics. ChatGPT keeps citing the fake numbers, sending 10,000+ AI sessions to the site, which now has 330+ referring domains (including Shopify, Bluehost, and DHL). The made-up data even ended up in an academic paper and a bank's investment research.
The mechanism: as teams use LLMs to write time-sensitive content, models search for seemingly reliable statistics to fill knowledge gaps — stat pages sit exactly in that gap.
The insight: most GEO advice focuses on getting brands into AI answers; this experiment studies what happens after — users copy AI output into decks, lists, and their own sites, amplifying the spread.
Notably, Google has deindexed the site, but ChatGPT still cites it — suggesting AI search data pollution is harder to fix than traditional SEO.
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