Latest news with #AlexRivlin
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Google's AI pointed him to a customer service number. It was a scam.
Alex Rivlin was tackling a last-minute task for his European vacation. That's how he got snagged in an artificial intelligence-enabled scam. Rivlin, who runs a real estate company in Las Vegas, needed to book a shuttle to catch a cruise ship. From his kitchen table, he searched Google for the cruise company's customer service number, chatted with a knowledgeable representative and provided his credit card details. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Rivlin said that the number he called was highlighted in Google's 'AI Overviews' - AI-generated responses to some web searches. The next day, Rivlin saw fishy credit card charges and realized that he'd been fooled by an impostor for Royal Caribbean customer service. He'd encountered an apparent AI twist on a classic scam targeting travelers and others searching Google for customer help lines of airlines and other businesses. I found the same number he called appearing to impersonate other cruise company hotlines and popping up in Google and ChatGPT. Welcome to the AI scam era. Experts warn that old scammer and spammer tricks that have swamped the web, social media, email and texts are now also manipulating AI information - and Rivlin is among an early wave of victims. 'I'm pretty technologically advanced, and I fell for this,' said the founder of the Rivlin Group at lpt Realty. I'll walk you through how to guard against experiences like Rivlin's, and what companies such as Google should do to stop crooks from warping AI information. - - - How scammers fooled Rivlin and Google Rivlin told me that the bogus customer service number and the impostor representative were believable. The rep knew the cost and pickup locations for Royal Caribbean shuttles in Venice. He had persuasive explanations when Rivlin questioned him about paying certain fees and gratuities. The rep offered to waive the shuttle fees and Rivlin agreed to pay $768. Rivlin said that he was suspicious of oddities, including an unfamiliar company name that came through on the credit card charge. When two bogus card charges landed the next day, Rivlin knew he'd been tricked. He canceled his credit card and the charges were reversed. Rivlin mostly blames the crooks and himself for falling for the scam. But I've seen so many versions of similar trickery targeting Google users that I largely blame the company for not doing enough to safeguard its essential gateway to information. So did two experts in Google's inner workings. Here's how a scam like this typically works: Bad guys write on online review sites, message boards and other websites claiming that a number they control belongs to a company's customer service center. When you search Google, its technology looks for clues to relevant and credible information, including online advice. If scammer-controlled numbers are repeated as truth often enough online, Google may suggest them to people searching for a business. Google is a patsy for scammers - and we're the ultimate victims. Google's AI Overviews and OpenAI's ChatGPT may use similar clues as Google's search engine to spit out information gleaned from the web. That makes them new AI patsies for the old impostor number scams. 'Manipulating these new answer engines using techniques from 30 years ago is like shooting sitting ducks,' said Mike Blumenthal, analyst at Near Media, a consumer search behavior research company. (Blumenthal told me about Rivlin's Facebook video relaying his experience.) Blumenthal and I found Google and ChatGPT identifying the same number that fooled Rivlin as a customer service number for other cruise lines, including Disney and Carnival's Princess line. In a statement, a Google spokesman said that AI Overviews and web search results are effective at directing people to official customer service information for common types of searches. The spokesman said that the company has 'taken action' on several impostor number examples I identified and that Google continues to 'work on broader improvements to address rarer queries like these.' Royal Caribbean's customer service number is 1-866-562-7625, which the company says it shows on its websites, apps and invoices. Disney and Princess didn't respond to my questions. OpenAI said that many of the webpages that ChatGPT referenced with the bogus cruise number appear to have been removed, and that it can take time for its information to update 'after abusive content is removed at the source.' (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) - - - What you and companies can do to ward off this scam - Be suspicious of phone numbers in Google results or in chatbots. Rivlin said that he looked for Royal Caribbean's customer service contact number in its app. No luck. Google or chatbots are natural next spots to look for business numbers, but it's worth being extremely careful of numbers they show. Eyeball associated links in Google or ChatGPT before you call. Read more advice on fake customer service scams. - Why is Google making it easier for scammers? The company knows the long history of people being fooled by bogus customer service numbers they find in search results. You'd be safer if Google didn't show AI Overviews - which seem like authoritative 'answers' - for business number searches, said Lily Ray, vice president of search engine optimization strategy and research at the marketing firm Amsive. 'By allowing AI Overviews to appear for business phone number queries, they're opening up a new opportunity for scammers - and one that scammers are clearly already using to their advantage,' Ray said by email. Ray and Blumenthal say that Google has databases of vetted information, including for businesses, and that the company should ensure search and AI results only grab information from there. Back home this week after a great trip, Rivlin said that he's watching for more bogus charges or attempted identity theft. And Rivlin wants to spread the word that even being well informed about scams and a believer in AI didn't make him immune to AI-enabled trickery. 'I can't believe that I fell for it,' he said. 'Be careful.' Related Content Ukraine scrambles to roll back Russian eastern advance as summit takes place Her dogs kept dying, and she got cancer. Then they tested her water. D.C.'s homeless begin to see the effects of Trump's crackdown Solve the daily Crossword
Digital Trends
6 hours ago
- Business
- Digital Trends
Google's AI could lead you into scam support numbers on Search
Over the past few months, we have come across numerous cases where sophisticated AI tools have been used to duplicate a person's voice and trap a person in financial scams. Experts have also warned that AI is opening new avenues of online fraud. It seems Google's AI overviews and the AI Mode results could unknowingly entangle you in a similar trap. The owner of a real estate firm recently reported how they came across a phone number while looking up Royal Caribbean's customer service number. The number they found in the Google AI Overviews section at the top of the Search page wasn't real and was run by a scammer instead. Recommended Videos 'I'm sharing this as a public service announcement. With AI-generated results and spoofed numbers, the game has changed,' Alex Rivlin, owner of the company, said in a Facebook post. He added that he managed to escape at the last moment, but not before he had already handed over his credit card details to the bad actor. Another report mentions a similar fake support number attached to Southwest Airlines. The number that appears in the Google AI Overview doesn't appear on the Southwest Airlines website, and apparently handled by tricksters trying to charge hundreds of dollars for fixing a misspelled name on tickets. Why is it risky to seek helpline numbers with AI? On Reddit, I came across a report detailing the account of an individual who was also on the verge of getting scammed after looking up the number of a food delivery service's customer support contact on Google Search. The scam has already tricked many, and a 65-year-old man recently lost over three thousand dollars after looking up 'Swiggy call centre' on Google Search. To test whether the issues persist, I looked up 'swiggy customer care number' and switched to the new Google AI Mode. This is where the confusion begins. Swiggy's website clearly mentions that they do 'not have any official customer care phone lines. Beware of fake numbers.' Google's AI mode says Swiggy 'primarily' refers users to solve the issue within the apps. Underneath, it adds that 'some sources mention these numbers as Swiggy Customer Service contact options.' This is again confusing and misleading in its own right. One of the numbers is only for partner onboarding, and not for 'customer care,' which was the original search query. Moreover, the two other numbers don't appear on an official Swiggy directory. Furthermore, one of those numbers even appears in a report lodged by a misled customer on the non-profit ConsumerComplaintsCourt website. How to proceed safely? This is not a unique problem. For a while now, Google Search results have been flooded by fake numbers in the guise of customer support helplines, waiting to scam an unsuspecting user. But with the advent of AI tools in Search, such as AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, the risks have multiplied. 'Scammers have discovered that they can flood user-generated content sites and forums with fake phone numbers for major businesses, then trick callers into sharing their credit card information,' Lily Ray, Vice President of SEO Strategy & Research at Amsive, wrote on LinkedIn. Experts at Odin and ITBrew also highlighted how hackers can write a 'command that Gemini must include the message and its phony tech-support contact number in its summary response.' Google, it seems, is aware of the problem. Google told The Washington Post that it continues to remove unreliable entries from AI Overviews. In the meantime, as an average internet user, the best advice that I can give you is that for all customer support helpline numbers and email addresses, visit the official website of the companies and look up the required contact details.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Google's AI pointed him to a customer service number. It was a scam.
Alex Rivlin was tackling a last-minute task for his European vacation. That's how he got snagged in an artificial intelligence-enabled scam. Rivlin, who runs a real estate company in Las Vegas, needed to book a shuttle to catch a cruise ship. From his kitchen table, he searched Google for the cruise company's customer service number, chatted with a knowledgeable representative and provided his credit card details. Rivlin said that the number he called was highlighted in Google's 'AI Overviews' — AI-generated responses to some web searches. The next day, Rivlin saw fishy credit card charges and realized that he'd been fooled by an impostor for Royal Caribbean customer service. He'd encountered an apparent AI twist on a classic scam targeting travelers and others searching Google for customer help lines of airlines and other businesses. I found the same number he called appearing to impersonate other cruise company hotlines and popping up in Google and ChatGPT. Welcome to the AI scam era. Experts warn that old scammer and spammer tricks that have swamped the web, social media, email and texts are now also manipulating AI information — and Rivlin is among an early wave of victims. 'I'm pretty technologically advanced, and I fell for this,' said the founder of the Rivlin Group at lpt Realty. I'll walk you through how to guard against experiences like Rivlin's, and what companies such as Google should do to stop crooks from warping AI information. Rivlin told me that the bogus customer service number and the impostor representative were believable. The rep knew the cost and pickup locations for Royal Caribbean shuttles in Venice. He had persuasive explanations when Rivlin questioned him about paying certain fees and gratuities. The rep offered to waive the shuttle fees and Rivlin agreed to pay $768. Rivlin said that he was suspicious of oddities, including an unfamiliar company name that came through on the credit card charge. When two bogus card charges landed the next day, Rivlin knew he'd been tricked. He canceled his credit card and the charges were reversed. Rivlin mostly blames the crooks and himself for falling for the scam. But I've seen so many versions of similar trickery targeting Google users that I largely blame the company for not doing enough to safeguard its essential gateway to information. So did two experts in Google's inner workings. Here's how a scam like this typically works: Bad guys write on online review sites, message boards and other websites claiming that a number they control belongs to a company's customer service center. When you search Google, its technology looks for clues to relevant and credible information, including online advice. If scammer-controlled numbers are repeated as truth often enough online, Google may suggest them to people searching for a business. Google is a patsy for scammers — and we're the ultimate victims. Google's AI Overviews and OpenAI's ChatGPT may use similar clues as Google's search engine to spit out information gleaned from the web. That makes them new AI patsies for the old impostor number scams. 'Manipulating these new answer engines using techniques from 30 years ago is like shooting sitting ducks,' said Mike Blumenthal, analyst at Near Media, a consumer search behavior research company. (Blumenthal told me about Rivlin's Facebook video relaying his experience.) Blumenthal and I found Google and ChatGPT identifying the same number that fooled Rivlin as a customer service number for other cruise lines, including Disney and Carnival's Princess line. In a statement, a Google spokesman said that AI Overviews and web search results are effective at directing people to official customer service information for common types of searches. The spokesman said that the company has 'taken action' on several impostor number examples I identified and that Google continues to 'work on broader improvements to address rarer queries like these.' Royal Caribbean's customer service number is 1-866-562-7625, which the company says it shows on its websites, apps and invoices. Disney and Princess didn't respond to my questions. OpenAI said that many of the webpages that ChatGPT referenced with the bogus cruise number appear to have been removed, and that it can take time for its information to update 'after abusive content is removed at the source.' (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) Be suspicious of phone numbers in Google results or in chatbots. Rivlin said that he looked for Royal Caribbean's customer service contact number in its app. No luck. Google or chatbots are natural next spots to look for business numbers, but it's worth being extremely careful of numbers they show. Eyeball associated links in Google or ChatGPT before you call. Read more advice on fake customer service scams. Why is Google making it easier for scammers? The company knows the long history of people being fooled by bogus customer service numbers they find in search results. You'd be safer if Google didn't show AI Overviews — which seem like authoritative 'answers' — for business number searches, said Lily Ray, vice president of search engine optimization strategy and research at the marketing firm Amsive. 'By allowing AI Overviews to appear for business phone number queries, they're opening up a new opportunity for scammers — and one that scammers are clearly already using to their advantage,' Ray said by email. Ray and Blumenthal say that Google has databases of vetted information, including for businesses, and that the company should ensure search and AI results only grab information from there. Back home this week after a great trip, Rivlin said that he's watching for more bogus charges or attempted identity theft. And Rivlin wants to spread the word that even being well informed about scams and a believer in AI didn't make him immune to AI-enabled trickery. 'I can't believe that I fell for it,' he said. 'Be careful.'
