THE SCAM Crooks are building websites that look exactly like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. The pitch: free AI tools that "optimize your ads" and "cut your spending." You click the login button to try them, and up pops a window asking you to sign in with Google. Except it's not a real window. It's a picture of a window drawn inside the webpage, with a little fake address bar showing accounts.google.com. You type in your password and your two-factor code, and on the other end a real human operator is watching — typing your codes into the real Google login in real time. If a code fails, they just tell the page to ask you for another one.

THE RED FLAG A real login window is its own separate window — you can drag it around your screen and close it with your browser's X button. The fake one in this scam can't move off the page. It's trapped inside the site, no matter how real the address bar on it looks. Be suspicious of any "AI tool" you land on from a search result that asks you to connect your Google, Meta, TikTok, or ad accounts just to try it. The real ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity have official apps and sites — they never need a mystery site to get you in.

THE RULE Go straight to the official app or type the real website address yourself — never click through a lookalike domain from a search result. And test any login window that feels off: try dragging it. If it won't move, it's fake, so close the tab and walk away. Use a passkey or an authenticator app instead of texted codes where you can — texted codes are the easiest kind to hand to someone else's operator.

Read it on the site: https://erawaeb.com/digest/daily/034-the-chatgpt-site-that-isn-t-chatgpt/

One scam. One red flag. One rule. Every day. — ERAWAEB