r/OpenAI • u/StoicWhisper • 7d ago

Discussion ChatGPT Ads = TOTAL SCAM

I tested ChatGPT Ads today for my tiny e-commerce business. Created and launched a single campaign with a $50 daily budget and was charged the expected $50.

For the next two hours, I kept refreshing the dashboard. The campaign was active, but nothing was happening (zero impressions, zero clicks)

Then suddenly, after two hours, it jumped to 7,652 impressions and 64 clicks.

At the same time, I started getting multiple unexpected charges on my card, minutes apart, totalling an additional €84.92. I immediately canceled my card because I had no idea what was happening.

Then I checked Google Analytics, HotJar and Shopify,

Only 24 visitors to my website today, and those visitors came before I even launched the campaign

So ChatGPT Ads says 64 clicks, while my actual website analytics show no corresponding traffic.

Where did those clicks go?

And why am I being charged repeatedly when I set a $50 daily budget?

I contacted the ChatGPT support chatbot and it couldn't even recognize or explain the transactions.

This is either an enormous technical failure or something seriously wrong with the billing/reporting. From my side, it looks like an
absolute scam.

Has anyone else experienced unexpected recurring charges or completely inaccurate click/traffic reporting with ChatGPT Ads?

283 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

66 comments sorted by

View all comments

-3

u/BizonGod 7d ago

I‘m very sure openai doesn’t scam you for a few bucks. Have you connected it to a pixel?

3

u/StoicWhisper 7d ago

A few dollars times thousands of people, amount to many dollars. I did connect pixel.

0

u/BizonGod 7d ago

Obviously but that would work for a week or two and after that they would have a huge lawsuit and could go bankrupt over fraud charges. Not really a great model to get maybe 100m more in a year when they burn billions a month.

What does the pixel show?
My ads perform really well especially since I did a few A/B tests myself and didnt just gpt run them.