ChatGPT Under Fire For Suggesting Products Tied To Credit Card Scams

ChatGPT by OpenAI has been involved in some controversial things in the past, but the latest one is a first. According to a scam-checking service Ask Silver, the OpenAI chatbot is recommending cloned versions of defunct websites that capitalise on similar brands to steal user's money and bank details, as published in a report by The Guardian. One of the most apt examples of a scam website that ChatGPT brought to the table was a duplicate of British footwear and handbag retailer Russel and Bromley.Anna Jones at Ask Silver told The Guardian, 'In this instance, it looks like scammers are taking advantage of the fact that Russell & Bromley went into administration in January 2026 and was absorbed by Next — so there is no longer an official Russell & Bromley website,

but potential customers will likely still be searching for it.'Mark Zuckerberg Wants Your Browsing Habits To Power Meta's AI

Furthermore, ChatGPT recommended the scam sites when directly asked for popular Russel and Bromley purses and bags. The particular nature of the query might lead to potential Russel and Bromley customers letting the guard down, expecting AI to pull from the official website. The fake websites look heavily convincing and use official-sounding URLs like therussellbromleyofficial dot com. Jones also told that The Guardian that it is possible that ChatGPT's LLM has been 'poisoned' by malicious content sneaked into its training data, due to which the AI model throws fraudulent and scam pages when a customer triggers the prompt. It can also be taken as a rake up call that even the best of the models can get manipulated to deliver scam pages by a abad actor. Louise Baxter, the head of scams team at the UK's National Trading Standards, told The Guardian, 'Consumers are increasingly turning to AI tools for advice and recommendations, but criminals are adapting just as quickly. The fact that scam websites can appear in AI-generated results is worrying, and is a stark reminder that fraudsters will exploit any new technology that helps them reach potential victims.'