"These days, rather than showing you the traditional list of links when you run a search query, Google is intent on throwing up AI Overviews instead: synthesized summaries of information scraped off the web, with some word-prediction magic added, and packaged together in a way to sound as accurate and reliable as possible. We've written before about some of the problems with these AI Overviews, which regularly contain mistakes or nonsense,"
"Here's what happens: The unfortunate victim Googles a company name looking for a contact number, then calls the number thrown up by AI. This doesn't actually lead to the company in question, but rather to someone pretending to be that company, who then tries to take 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're being published in multiple low-profile places online,"
Google now shows AI Overviews instead of traditional link lists, synthesizing web information with word-prediction to present concise answers. These AI Overviews frequently contain mistakes or nonsense and use content produced by human writers without proper attribution. Scams have begun appearing in AI Overviews, where fraudulent support numbers are surfaced and promoted to searchers. Victims who call those numbers reach impostors posing as legitimate companies who attempt to extract payment information or other sensitive details. The fake numbers appear to be published across multiple low-profile websites alongside major company names, allowing AI Overviews to scoop them up without verification. Banks and credit unions are warning customers about these scams.
Read at WIRED
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