Attention, there is an old MEV bot scam making a comeback in a new guise. According to research by a blockchain security company, criminals are rebranding their scam schemes to exploit the hype around artificial intelligence and ChatGPT.

The mechanism is simple but effective. Where you previously saw advertisements for 'Uniswap Arbitrage MEV Bot,' now you find 'ChatGPT Arbitrage MEV Bot.' The idea is to convince you that the bot was generated by ChatGPT, making it appear more credible and sophisticated. Users are attracted by the promise of automatic profits by monitoring new tokens and price fluctuations on Ethereum.

How does the scam work? You're asked to create a MetaMask wallet and click on a fraudulent link on a development platform. You copy the MEV bot code, deploy it, and then are told to deposit ETH to 'activate' it. The more funds you put in, the higher your supposed profits. But when you start the bot, the ETH vanishes directly into the scammer's wallet, transferred through a hidden backdoor in the smart contract code.

The numbers are alarming. Three scammer addresses using this technique have been identified. One has stolen 30 Ether (over $78,000) from more than 100 victims since August. The other two have stolen 20 Ether (over $52,000) from 93 victims. The strategy is what experts call a 'broad network approach': stealing small amounts from many people, counting on the fact that not everyone will bother to recover a few dollars.

Many videos promoting this type of scam MEV bot circulate on YouTube. Watch out for warning signs: unsynchronized video and audio, recycled footage, or hundreds of comments at the start praising the bot, followed by messages from users exposing the scam. These are clear red flags.

The lesson is always the same: if something promises easy and automatic profits, it’s likely a scam. The MEV bot remains a tried-and-true scheme, only now it’s being sold with a trendier label.