AI Chatbots Serve Fake Retail URLs in 15% of Shopping Queries
A study by IP protection firm Podqi found that ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity recommended risky or counterfeit retail websites in up to 15 percent of shopping-related conversations across 6,795 tested answers. The findings highlight a systemic risk where AI chatbot outputs act as an inadvertent distribution channel for phishing and fraud infrastructure targeting consumers. This represents a concrete instance of insecure output handling and AI overreliance, where users trust chatbot-generated URLs without independent verification.