ZDNET’s key takeaways
- There is a new scam with ChatGPT.
- The scam starts with a sponsored Google link.
- The link leads to a custom GPT that provides malicious information.
A new scam with ChatGPT has emerged, and it can lead you to install malware on your computer if you’re not careful.
In recent days, reports have surfaced of users encountering a strange interaction when using ChatGPT. “Service Availability Notice,” read the message. “We are currently experiencing limited availability on the primary domain. Please select one of the following options to continue:”
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The chat presents an offer to upgrade to a Plus subscription or a link to a backup domain. Here’s how the scam works, why it’s so compelling, and what you can do to avoid it.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it violated Ziff Davis’s copyright in training and operating its AI systems.)
The custom GPT scam
The scam starts when you search “ChatGPT” on Google. Like almost all Google searches, you will see sponsored results, or paid ads, above the authentic search results. If you click on what appears to be a real link to ChatGPT, you will be taken to what appears to be the actual site.
Instead, you’ll land on a custom GPT, or a user-generated, specialized version of ChatGPT tailored for specific tasks. In this case, the task is to issue the availability notice response regardless of what is entered.
What is most convincing is that you are on the current ChatGPT domain and your account is logged in (if you were before). There is nothing at first to indicate that this is not authentic than the name “Plus 5.6.” If you’re not familiar with ChatGPT’s model naming conventions, however, this wouldn’t hold up.
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When you click the link in the response (it’s a free site hosted on Google Sites and obviously not a ChatGPT domain), you get a fake Cloudflare verification and instructions to paste and run a command in Windows/PowerShell. Running this command installs malware on your computer.
I tried the process myself and clicked on the first result after a simple search for ChatGPT. I landed on one of the scams. No matter what I wrote, I got the same “limited” response with a link. My editor here at ZDNET tried the same process and got the normal ChatGPT, so it doesn’t appear to be all sponsored results.
Google told me that it disabled some accounts associated with the specific ad campaign I saw, but of course that doesn’t mean this issue won’t pop up again, so it’s good to know.
How to stay safe
Here’s how to avoid this specific scammer, and some general advice for staying safe online.
- Type chatgpt.com directly into your browser instead of searching.
- Avoid clicking on (or at least highly suspicious) sponsored links on Google. These ads have a history of being malicious, so much so that Google even deployed Gemini to detect and block bad ads.
- Never paste and run a command on your computer if you are not sure what it will do, especially if a link or pop-up tells you to.
Roman Oliinyk, CEO and founder of PayCore Media Inc, a network security specialist who has spent 10 years building data leak protection systems for large US companies, notes that a real Cloudflare check would never ask you to do anything on your keyboard. “Mostly,” he said, “it asks you to check a box or press a button.”
Also: This simple ChatGPT trick will help you detect scams before you click or respond
Oliinyk also recommended treating sponsored results as ads (which they are) and treating a link from a chatbot as you would a link from a stranger.
I’ve contacted both Google and OpenAI for comment. OpenAI has not yet responded, but a Google spokesperson told me: “Malvertising has no place on Google. We have suspended several advertiser accounts to block this campaign and we are continuously updating our defenses to stop new threats.”
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