The latest online scam could use fake ChatGPT sites to lure you into handing over your Facebook login.
North Hollywood resident Jen Rock believes it happened to her.
The online marketing specialist, who moonlights as a DJ on the streaming site Twitch, woke up to her Facebook account hacked.
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“I had an email that said you changed your password on Facebook… and I was like no I didn’t… and then it said Lily Collins next to it and I said oh no, this is not good,” explained Rock, who was in the process of trying to regain her account access.
Although she isn’t exactly sure how it happened, she believes it could have been a fake ChatGPT like that she tried to log into. After that, the effects quickly snowballed.
In addition to not being able to access her Facebook account, she also lost access to her linked Instagram account. And, since she uses Facebook’s advertising tools for work, that was impacted too.
“My boss had to get involved… and that didn’t feel very good… so I was extremely frustrated… on the verge of tears,” explained Rock.
“Cybercriminals tend to keep track of rapidly evolving new emerging trends and then use those trends to create scams and phishing attacks to scam their victims,” explained Kaustubh Medhe, a cybersecurity expert with Cyble.
He says that right now scammers are especially interested in creating fake ChatGPT websites and apps. They use URL’s similar to a name you recognize to trick you into logging into them.
“Because ChatGPT is so colloquial and people tend to use it so loosely and freely, fraudsters tend to play on this problem and tend to fool people who are not really aware of what they should be looking for,” said Medhe.
To protect yourself, turn on two factor authentication and use unique, strong passwords. If you’re not actively using a password manager (which you should be!), you can generate a strong, one-time password using free tools from Bitwarden, Norton and others.
Rock spent days trying to recover her account, having to submit her ID and past passwords several times for Facebook to review. She says she’s learned a lot from the experience.
“Make sure that the websites that you’re going to are actually credible… if you see something or think something is too good to be true or suspicious don’t open it… don’t click on it,” concluded Rock.
After we taped our interview, she told me she was finally able to regain access to her account, but it took many tries. As a penalty, she can’t change her name, advertise, or go live on Facebook for at least a few weeks.
She used the special safety page facebook.com/hacked to regain access.
Keep in mind, the only way to access ChatGPT right now is through https://chat.openai.com. Any apps or other websites you see might be trying to take your money or information.
