How do you recognize a malicious chatbot?

More and more companies are using chatbots to answer questions about services and products. Chatbots are often used to support the ordering process, answer questions about the product, and handle complaints.

Companies expect to be able to handle the high number of customer contacts automatically. In addition, companies would like to process recurring customer concerns that have already been answered for other customers (e.g., where can I find the product flyer on the website?, what are the opening hours?) efficiently and automatically. This is because chatbots can respond to messages significantly faster than a human.

Today, anyone who makes a complaint or wants to find out about a product via chat does not always know whether a company employee or a chatbot is sitting on the other side. However, there are a few ways to tell if it’s a good or malicious chatbot.

How do I recognize a malicious chatbot?

First, it should be emphasized that chatbots are not inherently malicious, but can be programmed by humans to behave maliciously. This is especially true for social bots with a political background. However, in the internal corporate context, this is rarely an issue, as companies want to take advantage of chatbots for their employees. However, for external chatbots for customers, this can sometimes lead to a problem if the communication is done via instant messengers.

Activity

If you receive messages in a high frequency and many messages are sent through the same account, this is usually a good indicator that it is a malicious chatbot.

Anonymity

If you receive unsolicited messages or the account from which a message was sent is unknown to you, this is another indicator of a malicious chatbot. Basically, the less personal information an account provides, the more likely it is a malicious chatbot. Companies usually flag a chatbot and use a profile photo of an artificial/virtual person.

Penetrative Behavior

When you receive messages from an account or have a dialog, there should be no penetrating behavior in the content of the message. Messages are often sent repeatedly and they do not respond directly to the message you sent. This is especially noticeable with social bots, where word-for-word quotes from a particular political camp are continuously repeated.

Zeitgleiche Inhalte über verschiedenen Messenger

If messages reach you via various instant messengers and also with the same content, this is usually also an indication of a malicious chatbot. Good chatbots give you the option of which instant messenger to use for contact. Furthermore, duplicating the content on different channels is counterproductive, as there is no advantage to reading the same message containing the same content multiple times.

Conclusion

Chatbots with malicious behavior are usually not programmed by reputable companies. The indicators described in this article can be used to distinguish chatbots and block malicious chatbots. Always verify the chatbot name and profile information before disclosing sensitive data to a chatbot. You should block unsolicited messages from a chatbot if the source seems unknown to you.

Would you like to know more about the topic and how the Business Bot platform supports you? Learn more here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *