A sophisticated scam operation, known as AkiraBot, is overwhelming website comment sections and customer service chatbots with AI-generated spam to promote fraudulent SEO services, with 80,000 successful incidents across 420,000 targeted domains.
AkiraBot is a malicious program designed to clutter website comments and customer service chatbots with AI-generated spam messages. The primary goal is to entice users into signing up for an SEO scheme priced at around $30 per month, promising to boost website visibility on search engines like Google, but the scheme is entirely fraudulent.
A recent report by cybersecurity firm SentinelOne detailed the deployment of AkiraBot, its use of OpenAI-generated content, and its methods for evading CAPTCHA systems and network detection techniques. According to the report, the scammers operating AkiraBot use multiple names, often incorporating “Akira” or “ServiceWrap” into their SEO company names.
The AkiraBot tool specifically targets websites built with third-party software like Wix or Squarespace, as well as WordPress-based websites, by spamming their comments sections and automated chatbots with promises of achieving front-page visibility on various search engines. The messages crafted by AkiraBot are likely familiar to small business owners and operators of WordPress-based websites over the past 15 years.
SentinelOne’s findings highlight the extensive reach of AkiraBot, with the bot targeting 420,000 unique domains and successfully spamming 80,000 of them. The use of OpenAI-generated messages has enabled scammers to produce convincing content, further complicating detection efforts.
