A Reddit post had Sims fans talking after one gamer noticed something off about the tiny home section on a builder's website. At first, the images looked like clean digital mockups. However, a closer look revealed that they clearly came straight from The Sims 4.
Redditors quickly recognized familiar Sims details
The discovery came from Redditor u/youandyourfijiwater, who shared screenshots to the r/Sims4 Subreddit. Instead of photos or polished renders, the company appeared to use in-game builds. The OP wrote, "This company is using Sims4 screenshots to sell buildings. 😭"
"Their website [is] FULL of them. I’m wondering if they stole these from someone? Website itself seems super scammy," they claimed, although they couldn't confirm it.
The company in question was a prefabricated builder called Worldwide Steel Buildings. While prefab sellers often rely on models or staged photos, this one appeared to skip that step to utilize the Sims instead.
Once people knew what to look for, the details were obvious, from the clean edges to the building shapes pulled straight from the video game's build mode. Another Redditor, u/LaPete11, even noticed that the company used interior screenshots for its listings.
u/JasmineMilkBubbleTea joked, "I mean Sims 4 is basically the Temu version of AutoCAD. So this checks out."
Instead of feet or meters, the site also seemed to describe size using something else, as pointed out by Redditor u/ramenspoonz."The unit of measurement is… grids?" they asked. While that sounded funny, it also raised questions. u/wavesofcontrast replied, "The fact that they're using 'grids' for measurements makes me lean more towards... Yeah, this is someone trolling 🤔"
However, not everyone thought it was a joke. u/Rhiannon1307 suggested, "Or AI-generated, poorly written prompt by someone who's not an English speaker, results not checked and fed directly into the website."
Theories circulated in the Reddit comments
Some commenters leaned toward potential fraud; however, it is just supposition on their part. The builders may also be using the Sims screenshots as legitimate references for their tiny homes.
u/Federal_Priority2150 said, "Looks like a poorly thought-out scam, or someone who bought a GoDaddy site to troll."
Still, others argued that sloppiness could be intentional. u/red_fox_man explained why obvious mistakes sometimes stayed. "Actually, this is how scams become successful. If you're smart enough to realise this is clearly a scam they don't want you, if you're dumb/desperate enough to overlook the fact this is clearly not a real advert then you're probably not going to do preliminary research that would eventually out them as scammers anyways."
Later, u/Finnleyy shared a Facebook post from October 2024 that noticed the same site. They said, "Think it’s real cause they have actual buildings I think listed in other sections? Just the tiny homes are Sims houses lol." In an edit, they added, "But really weird cause the rest of the site looks fine. Gave me a good laugh regardless lol."
Finally, one Redditor admitted the tactic felt familiar. u/mustytomato shared, "My old apartment complex didn’t have floor plans […] so when I was selling mine, I actually used Build Mode."
Worldwide Steel Buildings did not respond immediately to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.
