Forbes, Vice and Glamour were among the outlets that quoted "Dr. Eleni Nicolaou" more than 30 times, as the in-house expert of a paint-by-numbers kit seller, Press Gazette found.
Dr. Eleni Nicolaou says she is an art therapist from Cyprus. Press Gazette, which investigated her, found that her photo and much of her output appear to be AI-generated, and it could not confirm that she exists. Forbes, Vice and Glamour all ran her comments; Press Gazette's count of more than 30 appearances in recent months also takes in Netmums, Parade, AOL and Yahoo. Her subjects ran from crying as emotional release to the wall color that calms an anxious dog.
Her title varies from article to article: clinical psychologist, art therapist, creative wellness expert and, in many cases, practicing psychiatrist. No therapy practice of hers turns up online, and her Facebook and LinkedIn accounts lead only back to her page on Davincified, a paint-by-numbers kit seller. The Art Therapy Credentials Board, which lists thousands of certified art therapists, has no record of her.
On the detection tool Pangram, her Davincified profile scored 100% AI-generated, as did an anecdote she told about a grieving client who finally cried during a session. Her photograph fared no better, rated 10 out of 10 for artificiality by the image detector Identifai. She claims a long career, yet her LinkedIn account dates only from late 2025. Almost all of her online presence appeared in the past two years, the same stretch in which she started answering reporters' requests for comment.
Qwoted, which matches reporters with experts, removed her profile for breaking its authenticity rules. It also removed a second Davincified expert, a supposed business specialist named Jacob Elban, whose LinkedIn photo got Identifai's top score.
Asked about the profiles, Davincified, a real Wyoming business, replied by email that it was reviewing them and the related outreach and would correct any inaccuracies. Pangram scored that email 100% AI-generated too, and both personas were still live on Davincified's own site when the investigation ran.
Marketers and SEO specialists often invent experts like these, Press Gazette notes, to win links from newspapers and other high-reputation sites. Those links push an online shop up Google's search results.