Christmas is a time for family and friends, a time for love, and a time for scammers to try and catch you off guard.
Every year, as we buy presents, look to get insurance for our new tech, or look to make donations, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be caught out by scammers who want to catch you out.
It’s not always easy to avoid these scams, and some of them can be surprisingly well disguised. If you find yourself caught up in a scam or think you’re about to be hit by one, here’s how you can use chatbots, including ChatGPT and Gemini to deal with them.
Analyze suspicious messages
If you’ve had a suspicious email, text or order confirmation that doesn’t quite seem right, try feeding it into a chatbot and ask if this seems like a scam.
The chatbot can then flag any common red flags that might appear, including overly urgent language, requests for secrecy or unusual payment methods.
They can also easily identify repeated grammar mistakes or email names that don’t seem legitimate.
The same goes for texts or, if you have a phone call and can remember details from it, ChatGPT can help identify if it was real or not.
You can also try giving ChatGPT a URL or a screenshot of a website to see if it seems like a scam or a real legitimate website.
Break down complex offers
Often times, scammers are relying on confusion. If you have received a long or technical message, ChatGPT can translate it for you, highlighting if there are any truths or pointing out problems that suggest it isn’t real.
This can be especially useful for tech-related issues where a scammer might try and overcomplicate the topic to keep you confused.
Simply copy and paste (or screenshot) any complicated messages that sound like they might be from a scammer, and let ChatGPT interpret if it both true and something that you should be worried about.
Check claims
Have you had a message that sounds too good to be true? ChatGPT can be a helpful tool in this situation.
Pass the message through ChatGPT and ask it to access whether a claim seems realistic. This could be everything from investment opportunities to unexpected refunds or a bank being impersonated.
Not only can ChatGPT tell you when something sounds suspicious, but it can also explain why and tell you what to avoid in the future.
This will feel most relevant when you’re trying to decipher if a message has come from a legitimate organization, or someone looking to impersonate them. Banks, health insurance agencies and other important industries can be impersonated to look more concerning as a scam.
Draft a reply
While some scams can simply be ignored, some of them require you to reply to get them to move on, or if you’ve been unlucky and have already got caught in the scam, you’ll need to reply to get out of it.
Trying to come up with an effective response here can be challenging. You want to avoid giving away important information, but need to get the tone right to make it clear you aren’t someone you can be scammed.
Get that tone down by drafting a response with ChatGPT. This can be especially useful if the scam relies on a lack of knowledge, where ChatGPT can draft a response that suggests you’re clued up on the issue.
Learn common scams
Want to get ahead of the game? Ask ChatGPT what scams are common during the Christmas period. With its connection to the internet, ChatGPT has an inside-out knowledge of the popular scams going around right now.
I asked ChatGPT which scams to look out for this Christmas, and was given a list of fully described tricks, including fake delivery texts and emails, look-alike retail sites, gift card scams and secret santa schemes.
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