Photo: CBS 12
Rideshare users beware: A Boca Raton man caught a driver in a scam attempt.
Bert Gor says his daughters were falsely blamed for damages inside a Lyft driver's car and the app tried to charge him a $75 cleanup fee.
"I looked at the pictures and my daughter, who's standing over my shoulder says 'Dad, this is not us. This is AI.'"
He tells CBS 12 News that the photos showed french fries and drinks spilled all over the back seat, but a close check at the bottom right shows a Google Gemini AI watermark.
Gor's advice?
"I would say you've gotta kind of watch the charges that are going on."
The charge was flagged by his bank, so it was never paid. Then, Lyft admitted it was a fake photo and reversed the charge while giving the driver the boot from its platform.
Should this happen to you, cybersecurity expert Jim Stickley tells CBS 12 News that ironically, you should employ AI.
"Go to an AI solution...like to go to like ChatGPT. Upload the image and say 'Please tell me all the reasons why this looks like it was AI-generated.' And it will literally go and do the whole Columbo thing and try to figure out, okay is this AI or not?"
Stickley believes this type of scam will become more prevalent as artificial intelligence continues to improve.