Netizen gets scammed through ‘AI-generated’ bank transactions

A netizen recently shared her experience of being scammed by a friend who used artificial intelligence tools (AI), specifically ChatGPT, to manipulate bank transaction screenshots.

MANILA, Philippines — A netizen recently shared her experience of being scammed by a friend who used artificial intelligence tools (AI), specifically ChatGPT, to manipulate bank transaction screenshots.

In a now-viral Facebook post, the netizen warned the public to be vigilant when doing online transactions.

Her story began when her batchmate, who owed her money, sent screenshots of bank payments, fulfilling her debt obligation.

And because she knew the sender, she was confident enough not to verify the payment immediately.

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“After ko mag-out of the country and inaudit ko, walang pumasok. One failed transaction is pwede pa pero 5 transactions? No!” the netizen said.

(After I went out of the country and I audited, nothing came in. One failed transaction is possible, but five transactions? No!)

“Mali ko is di ko nacheck right away,” she added. “Dapat chineck ko mabuti. Nasa galaan kasi ako niyan, pawala wala pa signal saka kakilala ko ung nagsend so tiwala pa ako.”

(My fault was that I didn’t check right away. I should have checked carefully. I went out at that time, there was no signal, and I knew the person who sent it, so l trusted the person.)

Eventually, she was shocked when she discovered that there was actually no payment made and the screenshots were generated using ChatGPT.

“Come on! I found out that AI, ChatGPT, can be used for fraud and bad faith!” she lamented.

She also said that the person who sent her AI-generated bank transactions had done the same thing to her other classmates.

To illustrate how such a deceptive screenshot was made, she shared in the same post a screenshot where she asked ChatGPT to “create a copy of the picture like this with a 25,000 PHP transaction.”

The copy was then instantly sent to her by ChatGPT.

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“Mag-ingat kayo, always check if pumasok ba sa account niyo yung transaction,” she urged the public.

(Be careful, always check if the transaction went through your account.)

The post has already garnered 37,000 reactions and 50,000 comments as of writing./coa