Cryptocurrency scams set to intensify? What does artificial intelligence bring?

Author: FELIX ROEMER, COINTELEGRAPH; Compiler: Songxue, Jinse Finance

Discussions on the integration of artificial intelligence and the cryptocurrency industry have mainly focused on how artificial intelligence can help the crypto industry fight fraud, and experts have not noticed that it may have the exact opposite effect. In fact, Meta recently warned that hackers appear to be using OpenAI's ChatGPT to try to gain access to users' Facebook accounts. **

Meta reported blocking more than 1,000 malicious links masquerading as ChatGPT extensions in March and April alone. The platform even referred to ChatGPT as the “new cryptocurrency” in the eyes of scammers. In addition, searching for the keywords "ChatGPT" or "OpenAI" on DEXTools, an interactive encryption trading platform that tracks multiple tokens, will find a total of more than 700 token trading pairs that mention these two keywords. This suggests that scammers are taking advantage of the hype around artificial intelligence tools to create tokens, even though OpenAI has yet to announce its official entry into the blockchain space.

Social media platforms have become popular outlets for promoting new token scams online. Scammers use the wide reach of these platforms to attract a large number of followers in a short period of time. By leveraging AI-powered tools, they can expand their reach even further and create a seemingly loyal fan base of thousands. The interaction of these fake accounts gives their scam projects a semblance of credibility and popularity.

Many cryptocurrencies are based on social proof-of-work, which suggests that if a cryptocurrency or project seems popular and has a large following, it must be there for a reason. Investors and new buyers tend to trust projects with a larger, more loyal following online, assuming that others have done enough research before investing. However, the use of **artificial intelligence may challenge this assumption and disrupt social proof-of-work. **

Now, just because a project has thousands of likes and real comments doesn't necessarily mean it's a legitimate project. This is just one attack vector, AI will trigger many others. One example of this is the "kill the pig" scam, where an AI can spend a few days befriending someone (usually an elderly or vulnerable person), only to end up tricking them. **Advances in artificial intelligence technology allow scammers to automate and scale fraudulent activity, potentially targeting vulnerable groups in the crypto space. **

Scammers may use AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants to interact with individuals, provide investment advice, promote fake tokens and ICOs, or offer high-yield investment opportunities. Such AI scams can also be very dangerous, as they are able to mimic human conversations. Additionally, by leveraging social media platforms and AI-generated content, scammers can orchestrate pump-and-dump schemes to artificially inflate the value of tokens and sell their holdings for huge profits, exposing numerous investors to loss.

Investors have long been warned about deepfakes, a cryptocurrency scam that uses artificial intelligence technology to create highly realistic online content, swapping faces in videos and photos, and even altering audio content to make it look like Influencers or other well-known personalities are supporting scam projects.

A very prominent deep scam affecting the crypto industry is a video by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried that directs users to a scam that promises to flip their cryptocurrencies. times malicious sites.

Earlier this year, in March 2023, the so-called artificial intelligence project Harvest Keeper defrauded its users of about $1 million. Also, around the same time, a number of projects calling themselves "CryptoGPT" started popping up on Twitter.

On a more positive note, however, AI also has the potential to automate the boring, monotonous aspects of cryptocurrency development into a blockchain-expert-friendly tool. ** Every project involved, such as setting up a Solidity environment or generating basic code, is made easier by utilizing artificial intelligence technology. Ultimately, the barriers to entry will be significantly lower, and the crypto industry will focus less on development skills and more on whether one's idea has real utility.

In some cases, AI will, in surprising ways, democratize processes that we currently think are only responsible to an elite class (in this case, well-researched senior developers). But with everyone having access to advanced development tools and R&D platforms in the crypto space, the future is limitless. As artificial intelligence makes projects more prone to scams, users must exercise caution and conduct due diligence before investing in projects, such as keeping an eye out for suspicious URLs and never investing in something that appears to appear out of thin air.