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The rise of AI has the potential to transform numerous aspects of our lives.
However, this powerful technology also poses new challenges, particularly in the realm of social media scams.
If you’re wondering what sort of scams I’m talking about, then read on.
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Take, for example, the below ad aboutthe Sora AI model from OpenAI.
Sora hasn’t been released to the public yet as of writing this.
Sometimes, you’ll find pages not posing as the company itself but third parties promoting the AI tools.
The technique is quite similar.
Here’s one I found the other day.
Another common instance is when any of these AI tools receive a major update.
Here’s an example of just that.
What’s more concerning is that some people are actually falling for these scams.
The engagement in such ads points to that.
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There was a time when people used to create bots for following and engagement purposes.
But you could easily identify them.
WithAI image generationcapabilities, anyone can craft realistic pictures of humans on a scale.
We now have AI influencers, virtual humans who don’t exist, with thousands of followers.
Imagine a supplement company using these AI influencers to promote their dangerous products.
People will fall into this influencer trap and buy them.
Some companies can go beyond and generate before-after images to show their product works.
Mass production of fake testimonials is another plausible use of AI social profiles.
These AI-generated profiles can also be engineered to engage in seemingly genuine conversations, building rapport with naive people.
Impersonation Scam
This punch in of scam takes AI-generated social profiles to the next level.
They do so by feeding real data of that person to AI models.
Celebrities and internet personalities are the biggest victims of this.
Scammers are using AI to develop remarkably convincing impersonations of real people.
They might use deepfakes and AI-generated photos of popular personalities, influencers, or even your friends and family.
These impersonations are then used to gain your trust and exploit you financially and emotionally.
Some AI technologies canclone human voices, which makes it more disastrous.
Selling AI-related Products Scam
This isn’t necessarily a scam specific to AI tools.
However, AI being a trendy topic, scammers can take advantage of people’s interests even more.
One kind of scam is advertising some kind of cutting-edge AI software.
Some other scammers offer you subscriptions to AI tools at a cheaper price.
What they really do is buy a subscription and share that account with multiple people.
Even worse, sometimes, after receiving your money, they’ll block you immediately.
If something on social media looks too good to be true, it probably is.
See this ad below promoting aChatGPT Plussubscription for only $8 per year.
In reality, the products only have surface-level information and nothing special worth paying for.
Funnily enough, they’re making money with AI by teaching people how to make money with AI.
Be wary of ads coming from unofficial sources.
you’re able to identify them by bad grammar, suspicious links, and unrealistic promises.
Be extra careful whenbuying online.
Only buy from trusted sellers with a good reputation.
If you find something cheaper than the official price, there has to be something fishy.
venture to do your own research.
This involves searching for reviews, checking the company’s website, and using fact-checking authorities.
Don’t take everything you see on social media at face value.
This helps social media companies identify and remove scams faster.
There will be doors of new opportunities as there will be new challenges to overcome.
