After DeepSeek became popular, criminals are taking advantage of the public's eager expectations for AI technology to weave a double trap of trust and technology. According to statistics, in just two months after DeepSeek came out, the number of phishing websites counterfeiting DeepSeek has surged to nearly 3,000. Recently, The Paper reporter’s investigation found that some consumers who downloaded DeepSeek in the app store encountered the “Li Gui” APP that looked similar to DeepSeek, and were defrauded of 198 yuan by the “permanent membership”; some people mistakenly believed in the so-called “local deployment” and paid 49 yuan to download a fake installation package.
DeepSeek officials have stated many times before that all functions are completely free and any paid items are scams. The only genuine channel is the "DeepSeek-AI Artificial Intelligence Assistant" certified by the company's official website and app store, and the developer information can be traced to Hangzhou Deep Seek Company.
Technical experts remind that local deployment of DeepSeek has dual thresholds of computer hardware and computer knowledge. There is no need for ordinary users to deploy locally. Legal experts pointed out that many behaviors of "harvesting" consumers under the guise of DeepSeek may have violated multiple legal regulations, and consumers must be more vigilant.
This crisis of trust amid the AI craze not only tests technological defense capabilities, but also highlights the urgency of public science popularization.
A large number of consumers encounter "pitfalls" in local deployment
"The copycat website is so realistic! I was deceived and I was defenseless." Ms. Liu, a netizen, said in an interview with The Paper.
According to Ms. Liu, she saw bloggers on social media introducing the many benefits of local deployment of DeepSeek, so she searched for strategies in the search engine. The search engine gave many links, saying "genuine download", "quick installation" and so on. Ms. Liu selected one of the links to install and download. During the process, the software also popped up a payment window, and Ms. Liu paid the 49 yuan fee without thinking.
However, the final user interface puzzled Ms. Liu, "Mine said 'Chatbox', and I remembered that it didn't look like this in the picture introduced by the blogger. I searched online again, and after reading the experiences shared by other netizens, I realized that I had been fooled."
Ms. Liu encountered "wrong product" when purchasing DeepSeek's local deployment software.
Recalling her experience of being deceived, Ms. Liu said that the website was very similar. During the download and installation, related keywords such as "DeepSeek installation" appeared many times on the page. It was not until the nested software was downloaded after paying that it could be clearly distinguished that it had nothing to do with DeepSeek.
The copycat website "Deepsek" provides screenshots of the so-called "DeepSeek local deployment" page
Ms. Liu’s experience is far from unique. On complaint websites and major social platforms, it can be seen that a large number of netizens encountered similar scams when trying to locally deploy DeepSeek. They all mistakenly entered the copycat website after searching for DeepSeek local deployment on the web, and the amount of losses ranged from 49 yuan, 59 yuan, and 68 yuan respectively.
A large number of netizens on the complaint website encountered similar scams when trying to deploy DeepSeek locally.
A large number of DeepSeek copycat websites can be found in search engines.
The companies complained of include Hubei Yulegeyu Network Technology Co., Ltd., Wuhan Zhitu Information Technology Co., Ltd., Changzhou Shengyi Network Technology Co., Ltd., etc. A reporter from The Paper found in Tianyancha that the above-mentioned companies are all small and micro enterprises, or have been listed as "operating abnormally", or have multiple judicial cases.
Technical expert: There is no need for general consumers to deploy locally
While emphasizing that consumers should increase their awareness of prevention, industry experts generally point out that local deployment has hardware and technical thresholds, and there is actually no need for ordinary users to deploy DeepSeek locally.
Pan Helin, a member of the Information and Communication Economy Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, mentioned in an interview with The Paper: "Local deployment is to download the entire open source model of DeepSeek to the local server. Generally, professional users want to use the open source model to build their own large models. There are two ways for scammers to cheat money: one is to use Fake programs and fake algorithms pretend to be DeepSeek’s open source models and sell them to customers, or they can find free DeepSeek open source models and sell them to users for a fee; the other is to transform the DeepSeek open source models into their own large-model APPs to form applications and charge customers.”
Pan Helin said bluntly that under normal circumstances, ordinary users should not deploy locally. Local deployment of large models requires certain professional knowledge, including connecting to the database, setting parameters, and building a running environment. Local deployment has a high threshold for ordinary users. Generally, professional large model companies use DeepSeek to optimize their own models.
Hu Yanping, chief expert of FutureLabs, suggested that ordinary consumers do not need to deploy locally on their mobile phones or computers. They can directly use cloud services or open source DeepSeek inference model services connected to some apps. "There is no need to download or pay for these services."
Hu Yanping mentioned that in most cases, consumers face high hardware thresholds. "Even if you download and install smaller models such as 1.5B, 7B, and 8B, you actually don't have to pay. For models such as 14B, 32B, and 70B, the graphics memory or unified memory of the average user's computer is not enough to run it, so it is not recommended. The 671B model is even impossible to run on a consumer-grade computer."
He added, "In addition, some local deployments on the Internet that are not obvious scams are actually just accessing cloud services and providing buyers with an account. They do not actually deploy the model to the user's local area. Although it is not harmful, it is equivalent to cheating money."
"In short, DeepSeek is free to use. If you use it for a fee, you must be careful of scams." Hu Yanping emphasized.
There are endless traps. Lawyers remind: Many legal regulations may have been violated. Consumers must be more vigilant.
With the popularity of DeepSeek, there are not only the above-mentioned scams related to local deployment, but also a large number of fake accounts, phishing websites, fake courses, etc. that are digging holes for consumers.
There are many scams targeting consumers who don’t know much about DeepSeek. Mr. Bai reported to The Paper that after hearing about the popularity of DeepSeek, he searched for keywords similar to "DeepSeek official" in the mobile app store, downloaded the first-ranked app labeled as "advertising", and paid 198 yuan for a permanent membership. Then after exiting the application, he discovered that the application he downloaded was called "DreamDesk" and had nothing to do with DeepSeek.
DeepSeek official APP usage interface (left), as well as the counterfeit APP usage interface downloaded by Mr. Bai (middle) and payment interface (right)
It is worth noting that many consumers are still kept in the dark. The Paper reporter found on the review page of the DreamDesk mentioned by Mr. Bai that many consumers believed that the software was DeepSeek itself, and made comments such as "DeepSeek is too capable" and "The Light of China".
Qi’anxin XLab Laboratory report shows that through statistical analysis of domain name registrations from December 1, 2024 to February 3, 2025, it was found that a total of 2,650 websites counterfeiting DeepSeek appeared during this period, and the number is still increasing rapidly. These websites use similar domain names and interface designs to induce users to click, thereby spreading malware, stealing personal information, or defrauding subscription fees.
QiAnXin detects counterfeit DeepSeek domain name registration time distribution
In addition, according to a release on the website of the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, mobile phone Trojan viruses that imitate the official "DeepSeek" APP have appeared in my country, posing a greater threat to users' personal privacy and economic interests.
Malicious APP induces users to authorize them to use accessibility features
Lawyer Wei Feng, senior partner of Shanghai Dehe Hantong Law Firm, said that such behavior may violate many legal regulations.
According to Article 57 of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, websites and apps that counterfeit DeepSeek use DeepSeek's trademarks or similar logos to mislead consumers into thinking that these are DeepSeek's official products, which constitutes trademark infringement.
Charging fees in the name of "permanent membership" or "local deployment" without providing corresponding services or products is a fraud. According to Article 55 of the "Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China", this article stipulates that if an operator engages in fraudulent behavior in providing goods or services, it shall increase compensation for the losses suffered by the consumer at the request of the consumer. The amount of increased compensation shall be three times the price of the consumer's purchase of goods or the cost of receiving services.
In addition, various traps surrounding DeepSeek downloads also violate laws such as the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China and the Anti-Telecommunications Network Fraud Law of the People's Republic of China.
Wei Feng suggested that once consumers find that the downloaded APP is fake, such as a fraudulent application with "permanent membership" or "local deployment" as bait, they should first stop using it and uninstall it immediately. This prevents further financial loss or disclosure of personal information.
Secondly, consumers can report counterfeit DeepSeek APPs and phishing websites to market supervision and management, consumer protection organizations, Internet regulatory agencies or local police, and provide detailed information, such as the name of the fake APP, download link, payment record or URL of the fraudulent website, which will help relevant departments investigate and crack down on these illegal activities.
In addition, he suggested that if the amount of loss is large, or the leakage of personal information leads to more serious consequences, consumers can seek legal assistance and consult a professional lawyer to understand whether they can file a lawsuit to recover the loss and safeguard their legal rights.
Wei Feng emphasized that consumers must be vigilant. First, they must choose official channels to download, and carefully check the developer information when downloading APPs from the app store. Second, they must not trust unknown links and avoid clicking on links from unknown sources or downloading installation packages from unknown sources, such as so-called "locally deployed" fake installation packages.