Google AI Shows Fake Helpline, Real Estate Developer Falls for Scam

A real estate developer planning a cruise holiday ended up on the wrong side of technology. While trying to get in touch with Royal Caribbean’s customer care, he relied on Google’s new AI Overview. Instead of pulling up the company’s official helpline, the search tool highlighted a number that actually belonged to scammers.

When he called, everything sounded convincing. The person on the line talked knowledgeably about shuttle services in Venice and even promised to waive the fee as a kind gesture. Trusting the call, the developer handed over his credit card details.

The next day, he noticed suspicious transactions. That’s when he realized he had been tricked. Later reports revealed that the same number had been recycled online to impersonate multiple cruise companies, including Disney and Carnival’s Princess Line.

This isn’t a new scam. Fraudsters have been posting fake customer care numbers across websites, forums, and review sections for years. What’s changed is that AI systems, which pull from those sources, sometimes end up promoting these fraudulent contacts as if they were real.

Google has said it is improving its systems to catch such issues, but changes take time. OpenAI also acknowledged that while some fake listings have been removed, scam pages spread faster than they can be cleaned up.

In the end, the developer managed to cancel his card and recover the stolen money. But the experience left him shaken. “I can’t believe I fell for it,” he admitted, warning others to double-check helpline numbers directly from official websites.