Warning: The below contains AI-generated and enhanced videos.
The blonde woman with an Australian accent beams at her millions-strong audience in this Instagram video. She is surrounded by smiling African children holding lollipops.
Loading..."Alhamdullilah! The orphanage is now open!" she exclaims, using an Arabic phrase meaning "all praise be to God".
Lily Jay has documented her conversion to Islam on social media, with nearly 3 million followers on Instagram alone.
Her blonde hair, often framed by a hijab, combined with energetic videos discussing her beliefs about Islam, has earned her a loyal following among Muslims around the world.
Loading...The foundation she recently established, the Lily Jay Foundation, also has a massive following.
Its logo often adorns banners that appear in her videos, usually fixed behind her.
In one of those videos, posted in February, viewers are introduced to "our newest children in Africa".
They wear white T-shirts, adorned with the same Lily Jay Foundation logo and the Ugandan flag.
"We washed them, gave them new clothes, everything a child needs to grow up in a positive environment," the voiceover says, over images of happy children.
But an ABC NEWS Verify investigation has uncovered a trail of AI-generated fakery that casts doubt over some of the foundation's charitable endeavours.
Loading...The woman who appears at the start of the video, enthusiastically announcing the establishment of the orphanage, is not the real Lily Jay.
This blonde woman is a fabrication, made with artificial intelligence. So too are the children with lollipops, and the foundation's banner behind her.
It is not the only shot in this video that appears to be AI-generated. At one point, an extra L appears on the back of the shirt of a Lily Jay Foundation worker.
Untangling the Lily Jay Foundation
In Uganda, it is illegal to operate an orphanage without registering it with the government.
The Ugandan Registration Services Bureau initially confirmed to ABC NEWS Verify that there was no orphanage registered under the Lily Jay Foundation name, or "Ada Nur", the name Lily Jay has given to the orphanage on her website.
ABC NEWS Verify sent questions to the Lily Jay Foundation about the orphanage, but it did not respond.
Several days after our questions were sent, a registration was lodged for a "Lilly [sic] Foundation Limited." Its status on the Ugandan Registration Services Bureau website is listed as "not compliant".
It is unclear if this registration is related to the Lily Jay Foundation.
Verify has been unable to find any independent material corroborating the existence of this orphanage or find any aid operators or government officials in Uganda familiar with the foundation.
The former CEO of World Vision Australia and Micah Australia director, Tim Costello, said orphanages were frequently used to exploit the public's goodwill.
"Pictures of kids in orphanages tug at a donor's heart like nothing else," he said.
Fakery abounds
The Lily Jay Foundation's website and social media accounts have churned out regular content claiming aid initiatives in Nepal, Gaza, Uganda and Sudan since at least September last year.
It claims it has built a mosque, given out food, provided education and distributed Qurans.
She invites the public to donate money to support these initiatives.
In May this year, a press release was published announcing that Lily Jay had won a humanitarian award.
"Lily Jay Honored [sic] with 2026 Austral-Global Excellence Award for Humanitarian Leadership," it said, including two images of Lily Jay receiving the award.
Analysis has confirmed that both images carry ChatGPT's imperceptible SynthID watermark — indicating that these pictures were generated by its tools.
The press release came from a PR company called Real Media Group. It posted the announcement on its website and referred to Lily Jay as its "client".
But also on Real Media Group's website is a page displaying photos of its team.
Lily Jay's photo is displayed there — referred to as its "co-founder".
ABC NEWS Verify was unable to find any mention of the Austral-Global award not connected to the foundation or Real Media Group.
Blurring the line between real and fake
While the award is a clear-cut instance of generative AI fakery, the way AI is used on the foundation's Instagram account can make it genuinely difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.
In the Ugandan orphanage video, fake footage appears to be interspersed with real clips.
It is a similar situation in videos purporting to be from Gaza featuring aid workers wearing the Lily Jay Foundation logo.
Some scenes are clearly manipulated or generated by AI, while others appear to be real.
In one clip, it is obvious that the Lily Jay Foundation sign has been added to a truck, as it flickers over her arm.
The foundation claims to have opened a bakery in Gaza to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid; however, ABC NEWS Verify was unable to geolocate the bakery or find any corroborating evidence that it exists.
Humanitarian sources who conduct work in Gaza said they had not heard of the Lily Jay Foundation, nor the bakery it claims to run.
ABC NEWS Verify's questions about this to the Lily Jay Foundation went unanswered.
Humanitarian group Red Crescent told ABC NEWS Verify that, generally speaking, it has observed an increase in online campaigns and entities claiming to conduct humanitarian work on the ground in Gaza.
"The proliferation of unverified or unregistered humanitarian claims poses a significant challenge," a spokesperson said.
"It risks complicating coordination on the ground, potentially misdirecting resources, and can ultimately impact the public trust and reputation that legitimate, established NGOs work tirelessly to maintain.
"Transparency and official coordination remain vital to ensuring that aid effectively reaches those in need."
The Lily Jay Foundation registered its first ABN in 2025, but at the bottom of the foundation's website is the admission that it is not an actual charity.
"Lily Jay Foundation is a next-generation social enterprise and high-speed humanitarian logistics firm executing rapid aid deployment in global crisis zones," it read.
"To maintain absolute speed and independence, we operate as a private commercial structure funded by voluntary project sponsorships, which fuel our high-speed supply chain and are currently not tax-deductible."
Mr Costello said generally speaking an organisation's unregistered charity status could raise significant concerns. He said the formalities around registered charity status existed for a reason.
"It is required under statutory law to declare all receipts of money and expenditure of money so the public can have confidence in that when they give."
It is unclear how much money has been donated to the Lily Jay Foundation since it began, and there is no transparency about exactly how and where it has been spent.
The real Lily Jay
Lily Jay — real name Lily Jay Hinson — does not appear to currently reside in Australia and details about the 31-year-old's life are difficult to pinpoint.
Her social media account shows a life of jet-setting luxury, business class travel and expensive-looking jewellery.
Clues online indicate she is originally from the Sunshine Coast and had attempted a career in music and dance before pivoting to become an Islam influencer.
She has a profile on Triple J Unearthed, and her YouTube account still features one of her songs.
Transparency information on Instagram indicates her personal account is run out of Cyprus, while the foundation's account is based in Kosovo.
She does not appear anywhere in the foundation's corporate records.
ASIC documents list Syed Ahmed Mohsin, Christine Hinson and James Bracher as the directors of Lily Jay Foundation Int Ltd.
Syed Ahmed Mohsin is listed as the sole director of Lily Jay Foundation Pty Ltd.
Mr Mohsin also appears to be linked to Real Media Group.
A "Syed Moshin", which appears to be an incorrect spelling, is listed as the tech contact for the website.
When ABC NEWS Verify spoke with Mr Mohsin over the phone, he confirmed he was a director of the Lily Jay Foundation but terminated the call without answering further questions.
He did not respond to further enquiries, including questions about Real Media Group.
The group's website went offline shortly afterwards.
Christine Hinson did not respond to repeated requests for comment. It is not clear whether she and Lily Hinson are related.
James Bracher did not respond to a detailed list of questions.
ABC News Verify does not suggest that Christine Hinson or James Bracher are in any way responsible for Lily Jay or the foundation's social media activities or fundraising efforts.
Neither Lily Jay nor her foundation responded to questions about why she was not a director.
'Our aid is still active'
ABC NEWS Verify attempted to contact Lily Jay and her foundation via Instagram. A detailed list of questions was also sent to the support email listed on the foundation's website.
She did not respond or acknowledge receipt.
After questions were sent, Australian visitors to the international URL for the website were redirected to the Australian URL, where the options to donate were removed and replaced with a statement.
"Our aid is still active! We will never stop trying to help those who desperately need our help. No matter the challenges or the obstacles, our dedication to delivering vital aid directly to the field remains absolute.
"View our updates right here on the website to witness the real-world impact, Inshallah. Stay tuned …"
The disclaimer, which indicated the foundation is not a charity, was also removed.
However, the international domain with the donation options is still available to non-Australian users overseas, which ABC NEWS Verify tested using a VPN.
Many pages featuring material the ABC had questioned, including the Ugandan orphanage and the fake award, have been stripped from both Lily Jay websites.
Most of Lily Jay's content remains on her Instagram and Facebook pages, but the video of the orphanage, as well as select other videos, have been removed.
Mr Costello said people should be wary of donating their money for aid to entities that are not registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
"That is … the safeguard that your monies are being dealt with honestly and by law, and there can be sanctions applied if a charity doesn't get its financial statements in order," he said.
He said the misuse of public trust damaged the reputation of legitimate NGOs.
"When people voluntarily give, they're showing love. So, you never want to abuse that, ever."
Additional reporting by Flip Prior.