ChatGPT Phishing – How Scammers Are Spoofing AI’s Leading Player to Steal Data

AI is now a major part of modern life, and we have ChatGPT to thank for that. It was released in late 2022, ushering in the so-called “age of AI” and introducing hundreds of millions of people worldwide to the extraordinary capabilities of this technology.

Unfortunately, it’s also proven useful for scammers who are utilizing “ChatGPT phishing” to steal data from unsuspecting victims.

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How Do ChatGPT Phishing Scams Work?

There are several ways in which scammers have started using ChatGPT phishing to trick their victims.

The first is simply using ChatGPT to generate the content of their phishing emails. Since it’s able to create massive amounts of text content in seconds from basic text prompts, it’s a game-changing tool for scammers in terms of saving them time when writing their email content.

It’s also helpful for the many scammers who don’t have English as a first language and may make typos or other mistakes when writing phishing emails on their own. They can get ChatGPT to do it all for them and create content that flows more naturally and looks more official.

They can even ask it to write from specific points of view or include certain topics in its output text. Even though ChatGPT has been designed not to create malicious content, it’s quite easy for scammers to work around this and pretend they just want help creating legitimate business emails.

The other big way in which scammers are using ChatGPT phishing is by sending messages that seem to be from ChatGPT (or Open AI, its parent company), claiming that the recipient has missed a payment or needs to confirm their details to avoid losing their ChatGPT account.

All in all, reports of phishing emails have risen by over 1200% since the end of 2022, when ChatGPT came out. It’s a concerning trend, without a doubt.

Red Flags You Shouldn’t Ignore

Demands for Payment or Personal Information

The main objective for a scammer using ChatGPT phishing or any other sort of phishing is to trick you into giving something up – either your personal information or some money. Often, they’ll do this by insisting or demanding in the email that you provide some sort of info or pay a fee of some kind. Legitimate companies will almost never ask you for personal details over email.

Emails Containing Suspicious Links

ChatGPT phishing scam emails may also contain links that may appear legitimate at first but actually take you to fake websites. They might take you to a fake version of Amazon or PayPal, for example, or the Open AI website, and ask you to log in to your account. But, in reality, if you try to log in, you’re just handing your data over to the scammer.

Evidence That AI Was Used to Write a Message

AI writing can be very convincing, but sometimes has telltale signs that make it easy to distinguish from actual human writing. You might notice that certain points are repeated, for example, or in some cases, the scammers might accidentally copy part of their prompts or greetings from the AI into the email body. Either way, if something about the text doesn’t feel right, don’t trust it.

Messages From Unusual or Obscure Email Addresses

Phishing scammers often pretend that they’re emailing you from legitimate brands and big businesses, like Open AI or Amazon, but they’re usually just using their own private accounts, dressed up to look more legitimate. Check the exact address of the email that’s contacting you and look for any inconsistencies – scammers often use numbers instead of letters or add dashes and hyphens in their email addresses.