Ways to prevent issues by determining whether a message was sent to you by a human or a bot
These days, it's not always easy to know whether a message was sent by a human or a bot. In this article, we'll provide some tips to help you determine this. Technology has advanced greatly, and the use of automation has become very prevalent. This makes it very common to receive messages that weren't actually sent by a human. It could be a business trying to contact customers, but it could also be someone pretending to be someone on social media or even a hacker automating messages to trap victims.
Identifying potential threats and potential phishing bots will be essential. If you fall into their trap, they could steal your passwords, personal data, or take control of your equipment. Therefore, it's essential to distinguish between talking to a person and when you're interacting with a computer program.
You may be viewing a conversation, but it could also be a message you received on a social network, for example. In either case, you may be interacting with a bot without realizing it. It may look like a real person is typing, but there are signs that alert you to a programmed program, as follows:
- Notice the way it is written.
The first thing you should do is observe the way they write this message. You may notice strange patterns, a suspicious way of speaking, or the use of poorly translated words. All of these could indicate that this is a bot, or computer software designed to send mass messages, rather than a real person.
However, keep in mind that artificial intelligence plays an important role for cybercriminals and now allows for the creation of more realistic messages, making it more difficult to identify scams. However, there are small details you can look at to determine if you're dealing with a bot.
- Response time
You can monitor response time. In a conversation where messages are exchanged, it's not normal to receive a very long text response within a few seconds. It will take longer for a real person to respond because they will have to read what you sent, write the response, and send it.
If you notice that you're receiving very quick, almost instantaneous, responses, be wary, as this is a clear sign that you're dealing with a bot. You can take this into account when exchanging messages, not just in any single message you receive.
- Check profile
If the message is via social media, what you can do is take a look at the profile they're writing to you from. You can see if the account was recently created, if it has followers, photos, and posts that prove it's real, etc. If the account was just created and has no photos or posts, this might be a concern worth investigating.
Hackers can create social media profiles in large numbers to target potential victims. To avoid problems, it's important to identify these fraudulent accounts.
In short, these are some questions to consider if you want to identify a message and determine whether it was sent by a bot or a real person. This will help you improve security and avoid problems.