How scammers can leverage ChatGPT to find your personal information

AI tools like ChatGPT have transformed how we manage everyday tasks. 

Whether you’re planning an event, learning something new, or brainstorming ideas for your home, these platforms provide quick and efficient support; all you have to do is ask a question.

The impact is clear: what used to take hours can now be handled in minutes. Having a virtual assistant available around the clock is an incredible convenience. 

But it’s easy to forget that these resources aren’t private.

And that’s where things can get sketchy.

Anyone can access tools like ChatGPT. That includes scammers

It’s surprisingly simple for someone to use a so-called AI, like ChatGPT, to dig up and piece together a bunch of details about you. 

Often, it’s info you’d rather keep private.

With just a basic prompt, scammers can quickly collect information like your date of birth, current and past addresses, phone numbers, emails, and even your familial connections.

If the data is online, AI can help find it and organize it into a single, easy-to-read cheat sheet.

Add to this the fact that your other sensitive data—like your Social Security number—is likely already on the dark web, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

And we’re not talking about some rare events.

According to some experts, a case of identity theft happens every 22 seconds in the US alone. 

The threat is real, and AI makes crimes like this even easier to pull off.

But there’s some good news.

There’s a way to take back control of your personal data.

It’s called Incogni—a data removal service that works across the entire web.

It automatically deletes your information from 270+ data brokers, but what really puts you in control is its Custom Removals feature.

With it, you can clean up Google search results, public directories, anywhere your data shows up and doesn’t belong.

But first, let’s talk about how your data ends up online in the first place.

How does this happen?

Here’s the deal — 

AI doesn’t magically invent details about you. It pulls from what’s already out there online.

Tools like ChatGPT don’t break into your private accounts or files. What they excel at is quickly searching, summarizing, and consolidating data that’s already in the public domain.

That efficiency is exactly what makes them so potentially risky. 

If an AI-powered platform can surface your personal information in seconds, it only takes asking the right questions to have all that information delivered on a silver platter. 

Now, there are rules built in so these tools won’t intentionally cough up sensitive personal info. Creative prompts, however, can bypass these controls.

How to protect your personal information

Let’s start off with some good news —

You have more power than you might realize when it comes to limiting what’s available about you online. 

While you can’t prevent others from using AI, you can make it much more difficult for your data to be discovered and misused.

Most personal details that turn up through AI prompts or internet searches come from people search sites, like Whitepages, Spokeo, and BeenVerified. 

These sites aggregate any information they can find about you—like address history, phone numbers, employment, and relatives—into searchable profiles.

As unsettling as they are, people search sites aren’t the root of the problem.

Like AI, these sites mostly scrape what’s already available online—you need not have given them your data directly.

But there are countless websites where you did share your information deliberately.

They may not expose it intentionally or profit from it the way people search sites do, but your data can still end up publicly accessible.

That exposure becomes fuel for data brokers.

Data brokers, in turn, become fuel for AI.

Here’s how to protect yourself at the source.

1. Start with the sites you gave your info to

Before your data ends up with brokers or on people search sites, it usually leaks from websites you’ve used, where you entered it yourself.

Most of these sites don’t have an easy “opt-out” button, so removing your data can be a pain.

That’s where Incogni’s custom removals come in.

If you find your info on a site, just send Incogni the link—they’ll handle the rest for you.

2. Clean up people search sites

Next, go after sites that collect and publish your info—people search sites.

They usually have opt-out pages, but the procedure often consumes a lot of time.

But, again, Incogni can handle this part too, saving you the hassle.

Just subscribe to Incogni and have your personal information removed from 270+ data broker sites.