Facebook Crackdown On ChatGPT Scam Malware Explained

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Facebook said that scammers with fake ChatGPT apps had to be purged from its servers.

ChatGPT Malware Scams Detected On Facebook

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, revealed the information in its Q3 2023 security report. In the report, Meta said that it discovered 10 malware families posing as ChatGPT and similar AI chatbot tools. After downloading the malware, hackers can use the apps to launch attacks across the internet.

“Over the past several months, we’ve investigated and taken action against malware strains taking advantage of people’s interest in OpenAI’s ChatGPT to trick them into installing malware pretending to provide AI functionality,” Meta said in the report.

“We’ve detected and blocked over 1,000 of these unique malicious URLs from being shared on our apps, and reported them to our industry peers at file-sharing services where malware was hosted so they, too, can take appropriate action.”

Meta Chief Security Officer Guy Rosen told reporters in a call that “ChatGPT is the new crypto,” referring to AI scammers now adopting the techniques used by crooks who previously were involved with cryptocurrency.

Rosen said, “As an industry we’ve seen this across other topics that are popular in their time such as crypto scams fueled by the immense interest in digital currency.

Facebook Releases “Meta Work” Combat ChatGPT Scams

Facebook said it would release a new type of account for businesses to combat the problem of ChatGPT malware. “Meta Work” accounts will allow users to access Facebook’s Business Manager tools without using a personal Facebook account.

Facebook said this measure would prevent business accounts from being compromised if a personal account has already been accessed by scammers.

Meta said it would also release a new tool that is designed to help businesses using Facebook to detect and remove malware, including the ChatGPT scam clients that were available for download.