Generative AI

The newly registered domains and squatting domains related to ChatGPT, is one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history. The democratisation of fraud refers to the increasing accessibility and ease of use of technology, including generative AI, by individuals and groups to commit fraudulent activities.

Generative AI and more specifically AI based chatbots such as ChatGPT, have continued to dominate headlines and amaze consumers this year. The dark side of the popularity of ChatGPT is that it is also attracting the attention of scammers seeking to benefit from using wording and domain names that appear related to the site.

Generative AI can be used in various fraudulent activities, such as creating fake news articles, phishing emails, or social media posts. With their rise in popularity and usage, there are a lot of interesting and important conversations around AI. Unfortunately, one of those is their potential role in how to fuel fraud.

While OpenAI was beginning its rapid rise to become one of the most famous brands in the field of artificial intelligence, we observed several instances of threat actors registering and using squatting domains in the wild that use “openai” and “chatgpt” as their domain name.

The study sheds light on the diverse tactics employed by scammers to scam users into sharing confidential information or installing malicious software. The research also provides concrete instances and case studies to demonstrate these methods.

The reality of online crime and the weakest link is often a human one. Humans may be bored, worried, stressed, inattentive, desperate, and scared — and a clever fraudster can exploit all of these emotions. ChatGPT and its generative AI friends will inevitably become fraudsters’ latest weapon in the ongoing fraud battle.

Between November 2022 through early April 2023, we noticed a 910% increase in monthly registrations for domains related to ChatGPT. In this same time frame, we observed a 17,818% growth of related squatting domains from DNS Security logs. We also saw up to 118 daily detections of ChatGPT-related malicious URLs captured from the traffic seen in the Advanced URL Filtering system.

While generative AI has many potential benefits, its misuse in fraudulent activities highlights the importance of developing effective detection and prevention strategies to ensure the safety and security of individuals and society as a whole.