This guy won 100 free meals at McDonald's thanks to ChatGPT!
Since its launch just over a year ago, ChatGPT has been used in questionable situations, but never, to our knowledge, for a large-scale McDonald's scam...until now.
This is the tale of a young British man, known for his podcast "All Things Podcast" and as the proprietor of the resale group "All Things Arbitrage". He recounts and boasts about the ingenious method he employed to get 100 free McDonald's meals by exploiting artificial intelligence services.
His narrative unfolds when he successfully gathers numerous receipts left on free tables at a local McDonald's eatery. Why are these seemingly ordinary receipts so crucial? Well, each one contains a unique code, prompting customers to provide feedback on their dining experience at the renowned multinational fast-food chain. Within this feedback, patrons can rate various aspects such as the quality of food, service, and cleanliness of the restaurant in question.
After gathering them and with this information in mind, the young man turns to ChatGPT to ask him to compose 1200-character messages of dissatisfaction to send to McDonald's. In less than 12 hours, a representative of the franchise contacts him to offer him a free meal. To this, the British man says wryly, "It's better because it's free." The young Englishman, who defines himself as a millionaire entrepreneur, spent nine months using this method and claims that this is how he got 100 free menus. However, he was eventually discovered by the nearby restaurant he was going to, which caught on to the whole scam.
Using this method is not recommended because, as an Internet user quoted by Le Journal de Montréal newspaper points out: "It hurts a lot of people. McDonald's clearly relies on customer reviews to determine whether its franchises are worth continuing to operate. If your reviews are too low, your restaurant risks closing." The English presenter then replied and defended himself: "No harm to anyone! I am not mentioning any names. I do this to get free meals."
This is just one example of how artificial intelligence has been exploited for fraudulent activities. It's important to note that an increasing number of cybercriminals are leveraging ChatGPT to craft phishing messages. Regrettably, AI can inadvertently mimic the writing style of a legitimate sender, making it difficult for victims to spot the scam. With this emerging threat, it's crucial to strengthen security protocols by verifying the identity of individuals you're communicating with or by directly visiting the official website of the company in question.