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Chat Bot Tricking Women into Disclosing Personal Information

by Terrence O'Brien on December 17, 2007 at 12:35 PM


Now we know how the robots are going to finance their revolution: Chat bots will seduce you into coughing up personal information. Cyberlover, one of these bots, is sold by a Russian company of the same name. The program targets women and convinces them to give up phone numbers, photos, and other personal info.

The program can track every target it talks to, building profiles, and managing several contacts at once. Supposedly the bot sells for only $24.95, but the front page for the software is simply a collection of dead links. According to the site, the whole operation will be back up and running by February 15.

Chat bots are primarily a nuisance, spreading spam and collecting contact information, but they are an important stepping stone on the road to true artificial intelligence. Creating a computer program that can hold a believable human conversation is the holy grail for bot creators.

The lesson to be learned is a simple one: Think twice before you give out information to a random chatty lover.

Not all chat bots are evil, though. Check out these helpful and fun ones:
  • Imified - not a real proper 'bot' but you can access notes, calender, and contacts with this service.
  • Smarterchild - This little guy knows just about anything you could ask, and can do so much we can't even begin to explain it here.
  • Virtual Secretary - like Imified with a more limited scope and packaged as a proper bot.

From BetaNews

Related links:

Tags: chat bot, ChatBot, cyberlover, identity theft, IdentityTheft, robot

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