Alex Rivlin fell victim to an AI-enabled scam when he called a fake Royal Caribbean customer service number that appeared in Google's AI Overviews, resulting in fraudulent credit card charges of $768.
Alex Rivlin, a Las Vegas real estate company owner, needed to book a shuttle for his European vacation cruise. He searched Google for Royal Caribbean's customer service number and found a number highlighted in Google's AI Overviews feature. The number he called connected him to a scammer impersonating Royal Caribbean customer service who knew details about shuttle costs and pickup locations in Venice. The fraudulent representative convinced Rivlin to pay $768 for shuttle services and fees. The next day, Rivlin discovered suspicious credit card charges and realized he had been scammed. He canceled his credit card and the charges were reversed. The same fraudulent number was found to be impersonating multiple cruise lines including Disney and Princess in both Google and ChatGPT results. The scam works by bad actors posting fake customer service numbers on review sites and message boards, which Google's AI systems then reference as credible information sources.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed