AI & ChatGPT Threats and the arrival of Fleeceware
Scammers are in rare form these days, especially with arrival of mass news coverage of AI and ChatGPT. In today's blog, Todd answers questions about new scams, what are the biggest threats with AI and ChatGPT. Todd also addresses the question of using AI or ChatGPT for business purposes.
What are the biggest threats to each of us right now?
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Scammers are using AI and ChatGPT as a tool to create even cheekier scams than normal!
THE ARRIVAL OF FLEECEWARE
One of the more irreverent scams is called Fleeceware, a type of mobile application (or website) that comes with excessive subscription fees you may quickly forget you’re paying. The ones oriented around these AI apps have catchy names like Genie – AI Chatbot. It can also be a website that looks like a legitimate site or uses a similar name to a trusted site to give a false sense of legitimacy.
The goal of these apps or websites is to get your to complete a sign up for a weekly/monthly subscription for what you’ll quickly find out is pretty useless.
HOW WELL DOES THE SCAM WORK?
Sophos reports that the people who publish the Genie AI Chatbot app (still available in the Apple apps store btw) are raking in $1 Million a month in subscription fees for something better, and free if you go to the source, https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt
IS THERE AN OFFICIAL OPEN AI IPHONE OR ANDROID APP FOR CHATGPT?
There is only one official app released as an iPhone app for ChatGPT and there is not one for Android, yet.
If you search the app store for ChatGPT, you’ll see dozens (maybe hundreds of apps) but only one is the official Open AI ChatGPT app. There isn’t an official app for Android yet, but there are more than a few pretenders available.
The only official app OpenAI has published, download it here for the iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/openai-chatgpt/id6448311069
SHOULD I BE SUSPICIOUS OF EMAILS RELATED TO CHATGPT?
The scams wouldn’t be complete without using the headlines to send phishing emails. The current hearings in Congress are news, and news means new subject lines for phishing emails.
There are new domain names popping up related to ChatGPT, many of which are common misspellings of legitimate domain names. BE EXTRA SUSPICIOUS of any email or text messages you receive with subjects or links related to ChatGPT. If you intend to use ChatGPT, be sure to access the service through the official OpenAI site, https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt
SHOULD I USE CHATGPT FOR BUSINESS?
For businesses, these tools bring the added risk of your employees inputting sensitive information into these tools. Your best protection is to have a policy around the use of these AI tools, similar to what you probably already have to social media usage.
If you have a legitimate business use for these AI tools, great – review their privacy policies and terms of use. You’ll have better privacy and control over your data usage is you pay for a subscription vs. using free ones.
Be sure to know how the service will use any data you give it before committing.