AI shopping tips: Perplexity sent users to fake stores in 15% of answers
A study by Podqi found suspicious shop addresses in 15% of Perplexity answers, 8% of ChatGPT's and 4% of Gemini's. Here is what that does and doesn't mean.
SUMO· the number puzzle
Dialo· learn languages by speaking
ediviewer· read EDI files like documents
giftdetect· the right gift in minutesAsk a chatbot where to buy something and it may point you to a shop that doesn't exist. That is the takeaway from a study by Podqi, a company that works on protecting intellectual property, which looked at how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity handle shopping questions.
The researchers found fake online stores and dead websites in the answers of all three. Suspicious addresses showed up in 15% of Perplexity's responses, 8% of ChatGPT's and 4% of Gemini's.
What does the 15%, 8% and 4% actually mean?
The count is broader than it sounds. Podqi included not only cases where a chatbot recommended a dodgy site, but also neutral mentions and even warnings that a site was dangerous. So the figures show how often a suspicious address appeared in an answer, not how often a bot told someone to buy from a scam shop.
Still, the numbers are not zero for any of the three. A fake store that gets named in an AI answer gets a veneer of credibility it would not have in a random search result, because people tend to trust a tidy, confident reply.
Is it safe to buy from links given by ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity?
The study does not say these tools should be avoided. It does show that a link from a chatbot is not a vetted link. Before paying, it makes sense to check the shop yourself: how long the domain has existed, whether the site actually loads, and whether the seller has reviews outside its own pages.
Of the three, Gemini had the lowest share of suspicious addresses and Perplexity the highest. The source material gives no further breakdown, such as which products or countries were tested.
Apps worth a look
SUMO: the number puzzleTap the right tiles, add them up, hit the target. Easy to learn, hard to master. Free, for all ages.
Dialo: learn languages by speakingTalk to an AI conversation partner; every sentence comes back corrected and explained in your language. 9 languages, A1 to C2.
ediviewer: read EDI files like documentsOpen EDIFACT and X12 messages, see every segment explained, convert to JSON/XML, export PDF and Excel. Runs locally, no upload.
giftdetect: the right gift in minutesPick who it is for, the occasion and their personality. The search engine reads product descriptions from local shops and ranks what fits. Free, no sign-up.
More from this day
See all →
Rubik's Cube production returns to Hungary with a robot line
Telegram HTML widgets had an Android remote code execution bug
Starship Flight 15: SpaceX Will Try to Catch Both Stages
