ChatGPT-related scams are on the rise, as fake AI chatbot apps surge in the market. A report on Thursday mentioned that despite OpenAI offering users a free version of ChatGPT, scamsters were leading them to fraudulent websites, claiming users need to pay for these services.
Apart from the risk of being fleeced, ChatGPT-related scams are also a threat to user safety, as the chatbots could be used to collect and steal user input, be it bank details or confidential information.
Researchers from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 have observed a startling increase, with 910 percent more domains related to ChatGPT in the month of November 2022 to April 2023. They even detected more than 100 daily detections of malicious URLs from ChatGPT traffic from their Advanced URL Filtering system. The growth of squatting domains from DNS security logs was expectedly high, with nearly 18,000 percent increase in the same duration.
OpenAI has been the victim of crypto frauds, with scammers exploiting Elon Musk’s name to attract potential victims with giveaways and more. Unit 42 has advised people to stay away from services offering GPT-3 (which was released in June 2020) services, as it is far less effective than its latest versions.
OpenAI is the official platform to access ChatGPT, and users should make sure not to access its services through any suspicious links or email.
As the CEO of OpenAI, Elon Musk has been a notable figure in AI research and the development of chatbots, striving to bring forth AI-driven products. However, much to his dismay, scammers have taken advantage of the new technology and have been trying to exploit users in various ways.