Researchers logged 1,258 fake AI tool scams in six months. Many ask you to paste a command that quietly installs software to steal logins, code and accounts.
Fake websites posing as Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Gemini and other AI tools are tricking people into installing software that steals data. Security firm ANY.RUN tied 1,258 public test analyses to these scams between April 15 and October 5, 2026. The US ranked second after India as a source of those submissions.
The fake pages look like real download or sign-in pages. Many tell you to copy an install command and paste it into PowerShell or Terminal, the text windows that control a computer. The researchers found that at least 45% of the analyses came from campaigns that use this trick. Others use fake installers or fake sign-in windows.
Claude and ChatGPT are the names scammers use most. Claude made up 601 of the analyses, or 48%. ChatGPT and Codex made up 418, or 33%. Together that is 81%.
You are the one who runs the attack. Because you paste the command yourself, some security tools may not stop it. The lures also sit on well-known sites, including GitHub, Google Sites, Cloudflare Pages, and even claude.ai and chatgpt.com. They reach people through:
The researchers say the outcomes include password-stealing software, remote-control software, stolen browser sessions and phishing of business accounts. On a work computer, that can expose source code, cloud and AI keys, ad accounts and billing.
Developers and marketing teams are the most exposed. Developers often hold code and cloud keys. Marketing teams often hold ad and billing accounts. Any employee who searches for and installs AI software on their own is also at risk. The US made up 69 of 422 country records, or 16%.
People who only get AI tools from the vendor's official site, and never paste commands from a page they do not trust, avoid the main trick described here.
The alert box above lists the steps. The short version: go to the official site yourself, do not trust ads or search results, and tell IT right away if you ran something suspicious.
The 1,258 figure counts analyses submitted to a public testing service. It is not a count of victims, and the material does not say how many people were infected or how much was lost. It also does not name the specific stolen-data programs involved. What is clear is that the campaign ran every month from April to September, with more than 100 analyses each month.
Get AI tools only from the vendor's official site, and never paste an install command from a page you do not fully trust.
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