For a week now, I am constantly getting emails from ChatGPT with verification codes for account creation on older email addresses that have been part of data breaches. The emails are sent by tm.openai.com, so they seem to be legit. My question is why would anyone try to create a ChatGPT account using my email addresses? The email accounts all have strong passwords and are secured with 2FA. So I’m fairly sure they aren’t getting those emails with those temporary login codes. So what is the point of this?
I’m guessing your email and some passwords were leaked recently. The scammers are hoping that you:
a) have a chatgpt account already
b) are lazy with your passwords and reuse them across services.
Or
c) will click on of the verification code links and let them in
If they get lucky, they get an openai account in your name that they can fraudulently abuse. It costs them basically nothing to try, and theyll be doing it across millions of accounts.
There is no verification code link though. It is just a TOTP-style code and a help center link.
The scammers may not know that, or they’re hoping that you’re using an unencrypted email server. I doubt anyone does that anymore, but it’s still possible.