AI-Powered Scams & Risky Bots: Tech Turns Treacherous!

Moltbot, an open-source AI assistant, has rapidly gained popularity, while a legitimate Microsoft email address was reportedly used to deliver scam spam, and Western Sugar's early adoption of SAP Cloud ERP is enabling its move to AI-driven automation.

Moltbot, formerly known as Clawdbot, created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, has become one of the fastest-growing AI projects of 2026, reaching 69,000 stars on GitHub in a month, according to Ars Technica. The tool allows users to run a personal AI assistant and control it through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. While praised for its proactive communication, Ars Technica noted that running the tool as currently designed comes with serious security risks.

In a separate incident, Ars Technica reported that a legitimate Microsoft email address, no-reply-powerbimicrosoft.com, was being used to send scam spam. The address is tied to Power BI, a Microsoft platform that provides analytics and business intelligence. Microsoft documentation states that the address is used to send subscription emails to mail-enabled security groups and advises users to add it to allow lists to prevent spam filters from blocking it. According to an Ars Technica reader, the address was compromised.

Meanwhile, Western Sugar's decision to move from on-premise SAP ECC to SAP S4HANA Cloud Public Edition ten years ago is now enabling its transition to AI-driven automation, VentureBeat reported. Richard Caluori, Director of Corporate Controlling at Western Sugar, described their previous ERP system as "a trainwreck: a heavily customized ERP system so laden with custom ABAP code that it had become unupgradable." VentureBeat noted that Western Sugar is uniquely positioned to take advantage of SAP's rollout of business AI capabilities across finance, supply chain, and HR due to its early cloud adoption.