Any major trends or world events, from pandemic caused by corona virus arrive crypto frenzy, will quickly be used as bait in digital phishing attacks and other online scams. In recent months, it is clear that same thing will happen because big language models and general AI. Today, researchers from security firm Sophos are warning that the latest incarnation of this is popping up in Google Play and Apple’s App Store, where rogue apps are pretending to provide access. enter openAI‘s chatbot service ChatGPT through free trials that eventually start charging subscriptions.
Have Paid versions of OpenAI’s GPT and ChatGPT intended for casual users and developers, but anyone can try the AI chatbot for free on the company’s website. The scam apps take advantage of people who have heard of this new technology—and perhaps the frenzy of those who are clamoring to use it—but without much additional context on how to try it out for themselves. Researchers first learned of the scam apps after seeing ads about them in news apps and on social media, but users can also come across them when searching in Google Play and the App Store. .
“I have seen many ads for these types of apps on social media platforms where the ads are cheap and they sometimes use tactics like misspellings in the name—calling the app ‘GBT Chats’ ‘ or other apps—to screen people who might be a little more knowledgeable,” said Sean Gallagher, a senior threat researcher at Sophos. “They’re trying to screen people who will try it for free and then cancel because it’s too bad. They want people who aren’t focused enough to know how to unsubscribe.”
As if scam is called fleece. And these apps, which cost victims a steady weekly or monthly fee, are difficult to get rid of, as they often don’t exhibit the invasive and technically malicious behavior that could make malware clearer startup. The researchers note that when scammers submit their apps to Apple and Google for review, they may not include all the details of the subscription price and when a user will have to pay to get it. keep getting function. They can then modify their requirements without changing anything about how the application is designed.
Google and Apple provide mechanisms for developers to offer in-app purchases, both one-time and recurring fees. And these companies get a cut every time apps in their app stores collect payments from users.
In the case of the Android Open Chat GBT app, users can download the app for free but quickly face huge amounts of ads and can only try the chatbot three times before losing access to it. its functionality and receive registration reminders. By default, users can sign up for a three-day free trial to continue using the app, which will then become a $10 monthly subscription. GBT Open Chat also offers a $30 annual subscription. Researchers have found another very similar app by the same name for iOS in the App Store.
