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Title: Google's 'AI Overview' Pointed Him to a Customer Number. It Was a Scam

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/18/02232...

A real estate developer searched Google for a cruise ship company's customer
service number, reports the Washington Post, calling the number in Google's
AI Overview. "He chatted with a knowledgeable representative and provided his
credit card details," the Post's reporter notes - but the next day he "saw
fishy credit card charges and realized that he'd been fooled by an impostor
for Royal Caribbean customer service." And the Post's reporter found the same
phone number "appearing to impersonate other cruise company hotlines and
popping up in Google and ChatGPT" (including Disney and Carnival's Princess
line): He'd encountered an apparent AI twist on a classic scam targeting
travelers and others searching Google for customer help lines of airlines and
other businesses... The rep knew the cost and pickup locations for Royal
Caribbean shuttles in Venice. [And "had persuasive explanations" when
questioned about paying certain fees and gratuities.] The rep offered to
waive the shuttle fees... Here's how a scam like this typically works: Bad
guys write on online review sites, message boards and other websites claiming
that a number they control belongs to a company's customer service center.
When you search Google, its technology looks for clues to relevant and
credible information, including online advice. If scammer-controlled numbers
are repeated as truth often enough online, Google may suggest them to people
searching for a business. Google is a patsy for scammers - and we're the
ultimate victims. Google's AI Overviews and OpenAI's ChatGPT may use similar
clues as Google's search engine to spit out information gleaned from the web.
That makes them new AI patsies for the old impostor number scams. "I've seen
so many versions of similar trickery targeting Google users that I largely
blame the company for not doing enough to safeguard its essential gateway to
information," the reporter concludes, (adding "So did two experts in Google's
inner workings." The Post is now advising its reader to "be suspicious of
phone numbers in Google results or in chatbots." Reached for comment, a
Google spokesman told the Post they'd "taken action" on several impostor
numbers identified by the reporter. That spokesman also said Google continues
to "work on broader improvements" to "address rarer queries like these."
OpenAI said that many of the webpages that ChatGPT referenced with the bogus
cruise number appear to have been removed, and that it can take time for its
information to update "after abusive content is removed at the source."
Meanwhile, the man with the bogus charges has now canceled his credit card,
the Post reports, with the charges being reversed. Reflecting on his
experience, he tells the Post's readers "I can't believe that I fell for it.
Be careful."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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