We’ve written before about some of the problems with these AI observations, which regularly contain mistakes or nonsense, and certainly hinder the work of human writers who actually know the answers to the questions you ask in Google. There’s another problem, though—these AI answers could actually be dangerous.
Like every new technology in history, scams are now making their way into AI overviews, apparently injecting Google’s AI answers with fraudulent phone numbers that you should not trust. Here’s what’s happening and how you can make sure you stay safe.
How AI observation scams work
It’s a good idea not to trust AI for contact details.david neeld
The Washington Post and Digital Trends have both seen examples of scam support numbers appearing in Google AI observations, with reports appearing on Facebook and Reddit, respectively. Credit unions and banks are also warning their customers about these scams.
This doesn’t seem like a completely new problem, but the way Google Search works now has given it a new twist.
Here’s what happens: The unfortunate victim searches the company name in search of a contact number, then calls the number provided by the AI. This does not actually lead to the company in question, but to someone pretending to be that company, who then tries to collect payment information or other sensitive details from the caller.
It’s not clear exactly how these fake numbers are being planted, but the best guess is that they are being published in several low-profile places online, along with the names of major companies. Then the AI overview comes and collects the information, without doing proper checking to verify it.
Bad actors entering misleading phone numbers is certainly not a new threat; Misinformation has been a part of the web for a long time. But the design of AI overviews, which picks information from the web and presents it as fact rather than encouraging you to do research yourself, is making people more vulnerable to this kind of fraud.
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