AI Incident Database: AkiraBot Reportedly Used OpenAI to Spam Website Chats and Contact Forms at Scale
SentinelLabs reported that unknown operators used AkiraBot, a Python framework, plus OpenAI's chat API to generate customized SEO spam and bypass CAPTCHAs, posting via SMB websites' contact forms and Reamaze-style chat widgets. Researchers assessed >400k domains were targeted and ≥80k successfully spammed since 09/01/2024. OpenAI said the API key was disabled after disclosure.
AI Incident Database · Incident 1365Operator lens (medium): inspect D8 (provider fallback).
Event summary
SentinelLabs reported that unknown operators used AkiraBot, a Python framework, plus OpenAI's chat API to generate customized SEO spam and bypass CAPTCHAs, posting via SMB websites' contact forms and Reamaze-style chat widgets. Researchers assessed >400k domains were targeted and ≥80k successfully spammed since 09/01/2024. OpenAI said the API key was disabled after disclosure.
Linked entities
- unknown-akirabot-developers
organisation | 70%
- OpenAI
vendor | 70%
- unknown-malicious-actors
organisation | 70%
- unknown-akirabot-operators
organisation | 70%
- wix-sites
organisation | 70%
- victims-of-akirabot
organisation | 70%
- squarespace-sites
organisation | 70%
- small-business-owners
organisation | 70%
- shopify-sites
organisation | 70%
- medium-sized-business-owners
organisation | 70%
- godaddy-sites
organisation | 70%
- customers
organisation | 70%
- business-website-users
organisation | 70%
- business-owners
organisation | 70%
Related graph edges
| Edge | Type | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d1 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d1 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d1 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-vendor-openai to ent-psf-d2 | maps to | 60% |