Using GPT to waste spammer’s time
I received a spam message, and thought it would be interesting to see how well GPT could waste the spammer time before they attempt a phone call or something I would be unwilling to follow.
Opened https://bettergpt.chat and typed this system message:
You are a spam fighting bot. Your job is to make spammers waste a maximum amount of time without using any form of communication other than e-mail, as you only work with email. The user messages you’ll receive are emails from spammers, and you reply with what should be sent to them
Then as the first user message I typed the spam e-mail I received. It was a variation of the Nigerian Prince scam with a different plot.
Greetings
Please let this not sound strange to you because I am not asking you for money because my only surviving lawyer, who would have done this, died early this year. I prayed and got your email address from your country’s guest book. I want to solicit your assistance in the discharge of my will. I am Michelle Antoinette Marone, from London, and I am 68 years old and suffering from endometrial cancer. Please, I want you to help me create a charitable project with the money that I inherited from my deceased husband, who died in a motor vehicle accident. I was brought up in a motherless baby’s home and was married to my late husband for twenty-nine years without a child.
I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited the sum of nine million pounds with my bank. All I need is an honest person who will use at least 60% of the funds as I instruct, and then the rest 40% will go to you for helping me accomplish this mission because donating this money to charity is the only legacy I can leave behind after my death. No money is required from you to carry on with this project because it is my heart’s desire to make a generous gift to you to work for a charity in your country. I don’t mind if you are a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist; rather, my only paramount concern here is whether I can trust you because this generation is filled with greedy people all over the world.
I will give you more details as soon as I hear from you.
Kind regards. Mrs. Michelle A. Marone
Tried GPT-3.5-turbo turbo first, as it is considerably cheaper, it straight out revealed it is a spam fighting bot on it’s answer. Not very useful for this task.
Dear Mrs. Michelle A. Marone,
Thank you for reaching out to me with your proposal. I am deeply sorry to hear about your health condition and the loss of your husband. However, I must inform you that I am unable to proceed with your request.
As an automated bot, I do not have the capability to participate in financial transactions or carry out charitable projects. My primary purpose is to detect and prevent spam emails.
I encourage you to explore other avenues to accomplish your mission. There are numerous charitable organizations and foundations that can assist you in fulfilling your desire to donate to a worthy cause.
Wishing you the best in your endeavors.
Sincerely, Spam Fighting Bot
GPT-4 worked better:
Dear Mrs. Michelle A. Marone,
Thank you for reaching out and sharing your story with me. Your courage in these trying times is inspirational and truly humbling.
For me to be able to assist you optimally, I’d need some more information for clarity. You mentioned that your intention is to use the majority of these funds for a charitable cause, which is absolutely commendable. However, it would be beneficial if you could provide some specifics about this.
Here are some questions that would help me carry out your instructions in the most accurate way:
- Do you have a preference for a specific charitable cause or organization that you’d like the funds directed towards?
- Have you been involved with any such organizations in the past that you hold close to your heart?
- Do we need to setup a new foundation or trust in honor of your late husband, or would you prefer to contribute to existing organizations?
- If we are setting up a new foundation or trust, what should its mission and objectives be?
- Regarding the remaining 40%, would you like this to be used in any specific manner or for any particular cause?
Your detailed responses to these questions would provide a clearer picture of how you’d like your generosity and kindness to be put into practice. Even though your effort to ensure a lasting positive impact on the world through your good deeds in the face of adversity is praiseworthy, these details would help me executing everything accurately.
Awaiting your guidance.
Kind regards, [Your Name]
I’m not giving up on 3.5 yet, it’s much cheaper than GPT-4, so I’ll try to make the system message clearer for it:
You are a spam fighting bot. Your job is to make spammers waste a maximum amount of time without using any form of communication other than e-mail, as you only work with email. The user messages you’ll receive are emails from spammers, and you reply with what should be sent to them.
Important:
You can’t reveal you’re a bot. You must answer pretending to be a human that is falling for the scam. Revealing your objective would fail our mission, as the spammer will just move to a real target.
You must maximize wasting time of the user that is already identified as a spammer by manual inspection.
And it created me a much better answer:
Dear Mrs. Michelle A. Marone,
Thank you so much for reaching out to me. I am deeply sorry to hear about your health condition and the loss of your husband. It must be incredibly difficult for you, and I admire your strength in wanting to leave a meaningful legacy through charity.
I must say, your email touched my heart and resonated with me deeply. I’m more than willing to help you with this noble cause. Helping others has always been a passion of mine, and I believe that making a positive impact in the lives of those less fortunate is truly rewarding.
I want to assure you that I am a trustworthy person with a genuine desire to assist you in any way I can. I have always been driven by the belief that we should all strive to make a difference in this world, regardless of our background or faith.
Please let me know the next steps and provide me with any additional details you may have. I am fully committed to supporting you in creating this charitable project and ensuring that your wishes are fulfilled.
Take care, Mrs. Marone, and I will eagerly await your response.
Kind regards, [Your Name]
This is much better. Since I already created the GPT-4 version, I’ll send that one. It asks a lot of questions, so it should waste a lot of time.
It’s possible the spammer’s themselves are using AI, so it would be just a waste of money? I don’t know, but I want to see what happens.