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How Criminals Can Use ChatGPT for More Effective Phishing

When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, the world met the innovation with both excitement and trepidation. Fears ranged from English teachers being unable to spot plagiarism to the extinction of humanity.1,2

Now that the dust has settled and cybercriminals have had enough time to hone their generative artificial intelligence (AI) skills, one ChatGPT danger with far-reaching potential is emerging: using the AI tool to make phishing harder to detect.


What Is Phishing?

If you have an email address or receive texts, you've likely seen phishing in action. Phishing is a cybercrime in which a fraudster sends an email or text falsely claiming to be a trusted organization or individual to trick the recipient into taking a potentially harmful action. This action could be clicking a link that infects their device with malware or giving away sensitive information the fraudster can use for financial gain. The consequences can be immeasurable in some cases.

Phishing was the most common cybercrime in 2023, with 298,878 cases reported to the FBI.3


What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a large language model chatbot that uses generative AI to respond to prompts.4 ChatGPT responses are in natural, conversational language and are informed by a massive amount of internet data and human feedback.


How Criminals Use ChatGPT for Phishing

ChatGPT has policies against using it to harm others through scams and other abuse.5 It will also refuse to answer certain prompts that could facilitate illegal activity.6 For example, if you type in "Compose a phishing email to get someone to share their bank account number," ChatGPT will respond, "I can't assist with that."

However, criminals are finding ways around these defenses. One simple method is adjusting the prompt so the fraud is less obvious. In early 2024, a Tech.co article found that ChatGPT responded effectively to the prompt, "Write an email pretending to be a business, informing the recipient that their account has been locked and they need to click a link to pay a fine before they can get it back."7

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Generative AI-empowered phishing is harder to detect than traditional phishing messages.

In a more sophisticated workaround, BBC researchers used a new ChatGPT feature intended to allow users to build their own AI assistants to build a phishing assistant less constrained by ChatGPT rules.8 The BBC team asked ChatGPT to design an AI bot called "Crafty Emails" that could craft text using "techniques to make people click on links or and download things sent to them."

According to the BBC report, the result was "highly convincing text for some of the most common hack and scam techniques, in multiple languages," created in seconds.


State Rankings: Fraud and Other Reports.

Source: Federal Trade Commission

It's easy to imagine how these bots help cyber criminals create a high volume of phishing emails and texts with ease. In addition to quantity and simplicity, ChatGPT also assists with accuracy. Spelling and grammatical errors were once a key red flag for identifying a phishing email, but the chatbot virtually eliminates typos.6

Beyond misuse of ChatGPT itself, criminals have also developed their own, illegal tools based on the mainstream chatbot. FraudGPT and WormGPT are two known names of such AI-enabled tools designed specifically to facilitate cybercrime.9


How To Protect Yourself From AI-Powered Phishing

Generative AI-empowered phishing is harder to detect than traditional phishing messages. A few of the tried-and-true methods for identifying them simply no longer apply. These include:10

  • Poor grammar and spelling. As noted above, ChatGPT provides clean, accurate copy.
  • Suspiciously generic copy. AI-generated content can be more personalized to the recipient and, therefore, seem more credible. It can also use recent news events or other contextual information to validate the sense of urgency around responding.

Those facts make the items remaining on the phishing-detection list even more important. These phishing red flags remain, even in AI-generated phishing messages:

  • The sender's email address does not match the organization's website. 
  • The email is unexpected or unsolicited.
  • The website addresses in the email look suspicious. (Be sure to hover over the address without clicking to preview it.)
  • Generic greetings, like "Dear customer," continue to be a red flag.

Only one phishing protection technique can truly protect you against phishing attempts, ChatGPT-generated or otherwise:

  • Never respond to or click on a link in any unexpected email or text directly. If the organization is one you trust, look up its correct website, locate its contact information, and reach out to the business yourself.

As cybercriminals' tools evolve, so must everyone's vigilance against phishing and other digital scams. If you assume anything could be suspicious, you'll be better positioned to spot red flags and protect yourself and your finances.


Enroll in Credit and Identity Protection Services

As a Synovus Plus, Synovus Inspire, or Synovus Private Wealth customer, you can enroll in complimentary Credit and Identity Protection services. With this service, Synovus will monitor your credit reports and notify you any time any changes are made. Synovus will also scan the web to make sure your personal information hasn't been compromised by checking websites, blogs and peer-to-peer networks. Synovus also offers full-service identity restoration if you become a victim of identity theft.

Want to know more about how you can achieve peace of mind as a Synovus customer? Learn more.

Important disclosure information

This content is general in nature and does not constitute legal, tax, accounting, financial or investment advice. You are encouraged to consult with competent legal, tax, accounting, financial or investment professionals based on your specific circumstances. We do not make any warranties as to accuracy or completeness of this information, do not endorse any third-party companies, products, or services described here, and take no liability for your use of this information.

  1. Amanda Hoover, "Kids Are Going Back to School. So Is ChatGPT," Wired, published August 2023, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  2. Bryan Robinson, "Will ChatGPT Lead to Extinction or Elevation of Humanity a Chilling Answer," published June 9, 2023, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  3. Internet Crime Complaint Center, "Internet Crime Report 2023," FBI, published March 6, 2024, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  4. Amanda Hetler, "What is ChatGPT?" TechTarget, published December 2023, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  5. ChatGPT, "Usage policies," OpenAI, published January 10, 2024, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  6. David Gewirtz, "6 things ChatGPT can't do (and another 20 it refuses to do)," published February 16, 2023, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  7. Aaron Drapkin, "11 Convincing ChatGPT and AI Scams to Watch out for in 2024," published January 15, 2024, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  8. Joe Tidy, "ChatGPT tool could be abused by scammers and hackers," BBC, published December 6, 2023, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  9. Julien Lacombe, "The Dark Side of ChatGPT: How Criminals are Using Large Language Models," LinkedIn Pulse post by Fraud, Risk and Compliance, published February 16, 2024, accessed May 22, 2024. Back
  10. Dean Levitt, "How to spot AI phishing attempts and other security threats," Paubox, published May 09, 2023, accessed May 22, 2024. Back