Fake ChatGPT apps in Apple's Mac Store
You can have some fun with ChatGPT and even use it to help craft emails, recipes and essays, but there’s one thing you should never do with any chat app.
No surprise here: The hype around ChatGPT has made it a prime target for hackers and scammers. Several fake OpenAI/ChatGPT apps were found on the Mac App Store. The apps mimic the logo and color schemes used by OpenAI. Here’s what you need to know.
Cracks in Apple’s armor
Cybersecurity researcher Alex Kleber, aka, Privacy1St did some digging into fake ChatGPT apps on the Mac App Store (it’s not impervious!) and hit paydirt. The apps mimic the logos and color schemes used by OpenAI.
Here’s a list of what he found, but there are undoubtedly more out there:
- Chat Bot: Powered by GPT-4
- Chat Bot- AI Writing Assistant
- AI Chat Bot- Writing Assistant
- Chatbot Ai Powered by GPT-4
Notice the inconsistencies: Chatbot is written with or without spaces depending on the app, and the “I” in “AI” is written in uppercase and lowercase.
Holding you hostage
Here are some of the dirty tricks these apps are pulling off:
- The app demands you review it immediately after subscribing and each time you ask a question. This helps to rank it up faster in the App Store.
- There’s no close button. You hit a paywall that forces you to subscribe and the only way out is to force-close the application. This is especially dangerous to the less tech-savvy or elderly folks who don’t know how to do this.
- Some developers create multiple accounts to get around the App Store’s limits and pump out tons of malicious apps with the same functionality. Two app developers, Pixelsbay and Parallelword, share the same parent company in Pakistan and the apps have 99% of the same code. Imagine that!
Subscription scam
Let’s make this clear: ChatGPT is free to use. There’s a $20 subscription model that gets you faster response times and priority access, but it’s not mandatory.
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