Crypto scammers are taking advantage of the investment hype surrounding artificial intelligence technology to deploy fraudulent tokens designed to appear affiliated with the popular chatbot ChatGPT, according to data from blockchain security and analytic firms.
See related article: Head of crypto, FX trading platform EminiFX pleads guilty to US$248 million fraud charges
Fast facts
- As of press time, about 175 ChatGPT-branded tokens are being traded on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap, according to data from DEXTools first spotted by CoinDesk.
- Among these suspicious cryptocurrencies, blockchain security firm PeckShield has identified dozens of so-called “BingChatGPT” tokens which appear to consist of honeypot scams, tokens with abhorrently high sales taxes, or pump-and-dump schemes.
- The fake BingChatGPT tokens are aimed at capitalizing on the new ChatGPT-powered Bing browser from Microsoft, which combines the AI technology with its search tool. Microsoft will also invest US$10 billion in ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI, fueling further investor enthusiasm about the technology.
- Blockchain projects looking to integrate AI and blockchain technology, such as Numerai, an AI-run hedge fund, and Ocean Protocol, a blockchain-based marketplace that sells tokenized data, have also seen their token prices grow in the past months with more companies looking to join the bandwagon.
- Fake cryptocurrency and NFT projects have been a growing issue within the blockchain space, with over US$25 billion lost in fraud schemes to date, according to data from software and technology information site Comparitech.
See related article: Crypto hackers stole record US$3.8 bln in 2022, mostly from DeFi and cross-chain bridges: Chainalysis
