Crooks use artificial intelligence to make their clickbait more convincing: Internet Scambusters #1,112
In a single word, "clickbait" sums up one of the nastiest scam tricks in ads, on social media and, most recently, fake death announcements.
If you click, you take the bait and end up on malicious websites, ad-saturated pages, or worse.
In this week's issue, we explain the latest clickbait scam – pirate obituaries – and tell you the steps you need to take to avoid the baiters.
Let's get started…
Pirate Obituaries – The Latest Clickbait Scam
Fake death announcements, dubbed "pirate obituaries," are being used as clickbait to lure gullible readers to malicious websites.
Like many fake news stories, they use sensational headlines, often about well-known people or dramatic events, to trick people into clicking through to find more detail or to re-post them online.
As with so many other scams we've reported on recently, crooks are using artificial intelligence (AI) to trawl the internet and make their fabrications sound more convincing.
But when people click on these links, they end up either on a site that uploads malware onto their PCs or contain masses of advertisements.
In one of the latest incidents, the genuine death of a US serviceman was picked up by an AI "obituary scraper" and rewritten to suggest the man had died along with several others in a military plane crash.
In the real incident, the person was not even on duty and his death was not connected with his military service. Nevertheless, the fake obituary was picked up and reported on several news sites.
When a "tipster" phoned a reputable Ohio newspaper to tell them about the supposed incident, the paper checked out the crash story and found it to be totally untrue.
In another recent incident, LA Times writer Deborah Vankin found herself on the receiving end of a pirate obituary believed to have been created to encourage people to click through to ad-saturated websites.
This is just the latest tactic in the surge of clickbaiting used by scammers and other disreputable characters that, among other outcomes, cause incredible grief to the individuals and families affected.
Vankin, who described reading about her own supposed death as a surreal experience, told news channel CNN: "It's hard not to think about your own mortality when something like this happens…
"I oddly didn't panic. I was mostly confused at first, then outraged." She also admits to being scared "for myself, for all journalists, and for our society."
There have been several other recent pirate obituaries involving the names of journalists, some deceased and others very much alive.
But it's not just the names of well-known people that are being targeted. Sometimes, fraudsters also use pirate obituaries as part of attempted identity theft or to harass individuals and organizations. Or they may create them to fool people into making funeral or charitable donations.
In another incident, the New York Times tracked down one perpetrator of a hoax obituary to an individual who admitted he monitored online death reports and then used AI to generate blog posts with ads that produced click-through payments to him.
The situation has become so troubling that Google has taken steps to try to weed out the fakes, which they politely call "obituary spam."
Don't Fall For Clickbait
Pirate obituaries are just one form of clickbait. More common are sensational news reports, ads, emails, and texts that seem to point to a shopping bargain or an invitation to take a survey.
Natural human curiosity and, for some, the love of gossip and sensation make it easy to click on seemingly great deals or dramatic and lurid links almost without thinking. But it could cost you dearly.
Here are some of the actions you can take to avoid falling into the trap:
- When you see a report or headline that tempts you to find out more, don't click on it. Simply go to your browser address line and type in a few words that summarize the story, then hit the Enter key. If there's any merit to it, it will be reported elsewhere. If it's not, it's likely a fake. This is especially true where the supposed victim is a celebrity, politician, or other well-known person.
- You can also look for inconsistencies in the text - for example, dates, ages, and other biographical details that don't ring true. Consider the tone of the announcement. Is it what you'd expect to see? Is the wording sensational and/or difficult to believe? Does it lack important details?
- If a report includes images, do a reverse picture search to see if the photo has been copied from other sources. (See this Scambusters report for more on reverse image searches: Is It Genuine? Check That Photo with Reverse Image Search.)
- Don't make donations to supposedly bereaved families or funeral homes until you have verified a death report from other family members.
- Use fact-checking sites to try to check a report that interests you. There are lots of them.
- Don't be fooled by reports and links that seem to have been forwarded by someone you know or trust. They may have had their social media accounts or emails hacked.
- If you spot a shopping bargain, research the advertiser or promoter via a web search or a consumer organization like the Better Business Bureau or Trustpilot.
One of the big attractions for scammers is that it costs them next to nothing to create their fakes and, because many of them are based abroad, they often can't be tracked down or prosecuted.
In these days of fake news and the power of AI, you owe it to yourself and others who may be affected by it to use caution and skepticism. Check before you click!
This Week's Alerts
Tax scam victims: As we approach the deadline for filing your 2023 tax return, security firm McAfee says one quarter of all Americans have lost money to online tax scams. The company also disclosed that more than two-thirds of people clicking links in messages from purported online tax preparation companies were scammed. If you still haven't filed, check out our recent report: Be Tax-Scam Smart To Beat The Crooks.
Not the FTC: The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a new warning about fraudsters pretending to be from the agency. One tactic used by the crooks is to tell victims they need to transfer their money from banks to untraceable places to "keep it safe." Whatever the callers and emailers say, it's definitely not safe! The FTC simply doesn't call or message people like this.
That's it for today -- we hope you enjoy your week!