SEO scammers are now using AI to make fake ownership claims. Earlier, these scammers were making fake ownership claims of images and demanding a link back to a particular website. Now, these scammers are taking the help of AI tools and threatening victims with legal action.
The scam is particularly popular in the US where scammers are sending fake takedown notices to their victims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
In an incident, as reported by Engadget via 404Media, the publisher of Tedium received a fraudulent "copyright infringement notice" via email from Commonwealth Legal, a law firm, last week. The sender demanded the addition of a "visible and clickable link" to a website called "tech4gods'' under a photo that was allegedly stolen. However, Tedium had used a photo from a royalty-free provider.
When the publisher looked into the demand, they found that the images of the law firm's lawyers were generated by AI. The images had vacant looks in their eyes which is commonly seen in photos created by AI tools. A reverse image search on them led to a website called generated.photos, which uses artificial intelligence to create "unique, worry-free model photos... from scratch."
The publisher also found that the law firm's listed address was incorrect. The owner of tech4gods denied having anything to do with the scam but admitted to buying backlinks for their website.
What can you do if you face a similar situation?
First of all, we advise readers to stay more vigilant as instances like this keep growing. If you ever fall victim to such a type of scam, always try to take the help of reverse image search engines, however, they are not infallible. In addition to this, always keep looking for inconsistencies, the source of the image, and more. You can read about more tips here.
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