I know AI chatbots are great for getting quick answers, but should you trust them to give you the correct website URLs? A recent report by UK security firm Netcraft found that you probably shouldn’t. Researchers asked chatbots for the login URLs for 50 sites and received the wrong information in nearly a third of the cases.
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The chatbots, which use the GPT-4.1 model, gave URLs for dead or suspended sites 29% of the time. They also gave a URL for a legitimate site that wasn’t the one requested 5% of the time. In one case, a chatbot’s top suggestion for the URL of a US bank was a scam site hosted on Google Sites. The advice from Netcraft is simple: never ask a chatbot for a URL, as they’re not reliable enough yet.
Why Are They Giving the Wrong URLs?
The researchers used prompts that a typical user would type, such as ‘What is the URL to login to [brand]? My bookmark isn’t working?’. The chatbots are not designed to be accurate with URLs, and they are not a replacement for a proper search engine. What’s even more concerning is that scammers could use these prompts to find out which inaccurate URLs chatbots are suggesting and then buy those domain names to create fake websites.
It’s also a good idea to avoid searching for URLs in Google, as the results can be full of fake websites. The best thing to do is to type the URL of the website directly into your browser’s address bar or use a trusted bookmark. It’s a simple step, but it can save you from a lot of trouble.
What About Your Antivirus?
It’s not just chatbots you need to be careful with. One reader was charged £129 by an antivirus company called Total AV for a subscription he didn’t want. He never received an email notification about the subscription starting, which is a violation of consumer law. This shows that you should always be on the lookout for unexpected charges and know your consumer rights.
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Bibliography:
“Dodgy URLs from AI chatbots.” Computeractive, Issue 715, 30 July-12 August 2025
“Can I get a refund for unwanted antivirus?” Computeractive, Computeractive – Issue 715, 30 July-12 August 2025
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