Cybercriminals Use ChatGPT To Create Dark Web Marketplaces, Plot Fraudulent Schemes: Report

A latest report underlines the fact that the revolutionary AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT by OpenAI is being utilised by hackers to recreate malware strains, create Dark Web Marketplaces and plot fraudulent schemes.

Check Point Research (CPR) analysis shows that cybercriminals are increasingly taking interest in the powerful AI chatbot ChatGPT for malicious activities. It is currently uncertain if the tool has been used to undertake any attacks.

The analysis observed that several major underground hacking communities were using OpenAI to develop malicious tools. In some cases, it was seen that many of these cybercriminals using OpenAI had no development skills at all. 

“Although the tools that we present in this report are pretty basic, it’s only a matter of time until more sophisticated threat actors enhance the way they use AI-based tools for bad,” Check Point Research said in its report.

CPR reports that a thread named “ChatGPT – Benefits of Malware” appeared on a popular underground hacking forum. The publisher of the thread disclosed that he was experimenting with ChatGPT to recreate malware strains and techniques described in research publications and write-ups about common malware.

Th report also found another use case on ChatGPT for fraudulent activity, which was posted on New Year’s Eve of 2022, and it demonstrated a different type of cybercriminal activity. The thread was named “Abusing ChatGPT to create Dark Web Marketplaces scripts.” In this thread, the cybercriminal showed how easy it is to create a Dark Web marketplace, using ChatGPT. 

“The marketplace’s main role in the underground illicit economy is to provide a platform for the automated trade of illegal or stolen goods like stolen accounts or payment cards, malware, or even drugs and ammunition, with all payments in cryptocurrencies,” explained the report.

To illustrate how to use ChatGPT for these purposes, the cybercriminal had published a piece of code that uses third-party API to get up-to-date cryptocurrency (Monero, Bitcoin and Etherium) prices as part of the Dark Web market payment system.