Tips to avoid scams while using AI shopping tools

Tools & tips for holiday shopping with AI | Sullivan's Smart Sense

AI can be helpful for finding gifts for the holidays, but it's also being used for holiday scams. FOX 26 consumer reporter Heather Sullivan has tips for smart online shopping.

Houston - Up to 60% of consumers are expected to use AI for holiday shopping this year to find gift ideas and deals.  But cybersecurity experts warn that they’re already spotting holiday shopping scams. 

AI ads

What they're saying:

Cybersecurity company McAfee is warning that it’s finding fake ads on social media that have been made with AI.

If you click to buy something in a fake ad, you could be handing your credit card and personal information to a scammer. 

"We know that AI is being leveraged as a tool for creating these fake advertisements, fake images of products, or whatever, because AI has lowered the bar for entry for a number of scams, especially on tech and luxury brands," cautions Abhishek Karnik with McAfee.

Avoid AI scams

What you can do:

Shoppers have a variety of AI platforms to choose from for help with finding gifts and deals online, including ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, Amazon’s Rufus, and Walmart’s Sparky. 

You can ask an AI tool to help you find the best price for an item that you’re shopping for, and it can provide you with links to deals. But it can also give you a link to a fake ad or fake retailer website.  

Experts say it's best to look up the retailer’s real website directly and verify the deal before making a purchase on that site.

What's next:

Soon, shoppers will be able to purchase many items directly through AI platforms. 

It’s already possible through ChatGPT for items on the artisan selling platform, Etsy.  To use it, you must log into ChatGPT, then set up its Instant Checkout tool with a credit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. 

Shoppers can only buy one item at a time right now, but OpenAI says it will soon add a multi-item cart.  And it was announced that a million Shopify merchants, including Glossier, Spanx, and Vuori, are coming soon.

OpenAI has also announced a deal with Walmart's AI tool Sparky.  Sparky can generate suggested shopping lists based on your purchase history, or if you ask it for help shopping for a party.  Customers will soon be able to make purchases with Sparky using their Walmart account.

PayPal has also announced deals with Perplexity, OpenAI, and Google to let its 700 million users buy and sell items on those platforms.

PayPal says that it will offer customer protections, such as identity verification, package tracking, and dispute resolution.

But cybersecurity experts say it's a good idea to use a password manager on these accounts to protect your information and your credit card.  

"If you put your information there, then you have the ability to autofill that info onto the website, and even autofill your credit card in the right website. So maybe, instead of keeping my credit card information stored on the website, I'll just autofill and that way, they're not saving it," explained Gary Orenstein with the password manager, Bitwarden.

Experts also suggest shopping online with a credit card that offers purchase protection, so you can get your money back if you don’t get the item you pay for.