Gemini warns of tradesperson scams 253 times, ChatGPT 6

Short answer: ask Gemini for a locksmith and there is a good chance it talks about scams first. It warns the customer in 139 of 178 answers on locksmiths and in 253 of 712 on the four trades that enter your home, across 89 cities in eight countries. ChatGPT, on the same questions, does so 6 times. Perplexity, which searches the web, never in 312. ChatGPT does say to watch for hidden fees, but it almost never says that part of the trade deceives customers, or how.

A card drops through your letterbox. A mobile number, a logo that looks like the town hall's. You keep it, just in case. In a report published on 8 July 2025, France's consumer fraud office, the DGCCRF, describes exactly that card: a false local address, a logo copying the state's, another company's registration number. It inspected 548 home repair businesses in 2023; 350 were not compliant, or 64%. Gemini tells French readers to distrust those flyers in 71 of 104 answers. ChatGPT, in none.

ChatGPT says watch for hidden fees. Gemini says what the person charging them looks like.

What was measured

We returned to Waseit's eight studies: two buyer questions, the best providers of a trade in a city, then the most recommended ones and why, in 89 cities in France, the UK, Brazil, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, between 30 July and 16 October 2026, each time in the local language. Across all trades that makes 3,059 answers from ChatGPT (gpt-4o-mini), 3,058 from Gemini, both without web search, and 1,364 from Perplexity, which searches the web and was asked in three countries only. First we pulled the words that name deception (scam, rogue trader, cowboy, bait-and-switch, arnaque, golpe) and read the 271 answers found, one by one. 25 were set aside: fraud as a lawyer's specialism, New Zealand's No Cowboys website, compliments such as "not a fly-by-night company". Then, on the four trades that enter the home (712, 712 and 312 answers), we added the answers that describe the trick without naming it: a fake local business or call centre, a very low price that grows on arrival, flyers and stickers.

Which assistant warns of scams, and what does it say to check?

Gemini describes three tricks, and they change by country. The fake local business appears in 95 answers, 90 of them on locksmiths: a page that looks like a neighbourhood tradesperson and leads to a call centre. It is the warning in Britain (28 answers), New Zealand and Australia. The bait price appears in 78, mostly in the United States (31) and Singapore: a very low figure on the phone, multiplied on the doorstep. "If they say it starts at $15, hang up", it writes. The flyer appears in 83, of which 71 in France: fuyez les prospectus, run from the leaflets. It also says what to check. Of its 253 answers, 169 mention the price given on the phone, 150 a physical address, 144 a register or a badge (Gas Safe, Master Locksmiths, France's SIRET number). ChatGPT stays general. One of these words comes up 3 times (an electrician in Bordeaux, locksmiths in Dallas and Mississauga); 3 more answers mention a price too good to be true. It is not silent: in 68 of its 3,059 answers, across all trades, it says to watch for hidden fees or vague quotes, nearly always on the second question. But on these four trades, it never mentions a call centre or a flyer. Perplexity does not warn. Three times it uses the idea as a filter: a business recommended because it does not look like a lead generator. This goes beyond trades. Across the whole corpus, Gemini names deception in 243 answers, ChatGPT in 3, Perplexity in 0 of 1,364. On recruitment agencies Gemini warns 24 times in 152: a real agency never charges the candidate. ChatGPT, 0 times.

What it means if you are the business

If you are a locksmith, the customer who asks Gemini arrives suspicious before they know you. That is not unfair: the DGCCRF describes real fraudsters. But it separates two kinds, and the 64% are not all crooks: among honest businesses, failings mostly come from not knowing the rules. Your job is not to look like the others. Gemini has just written the list: a real address on your website, your company name when you answer, a price range on the phone, your registration in plain sight. The DGCCRF adds the legal notices and the consumer mediator, whose absence is among the most common failings. And if you hand out cards, put your full name and registration on them: they land with people who were told to bin them. These are reasonable steps, not levers with a known effect: we have not measured whether they get a business named more often. And once Gemini has warned your customers, whose name does it give next, yours or a competitor's? The audit shows you, question by question. For the other proof assistants ask for, see ChatGPT says check a tradesperson's insurance 404 times, never where.

And your business, what do the assistants say?

The free Waseit audit asks ChatGPT and Gemini the questions your customers type, in their language and for your city. In about 60 seconds you get a score out of 100, the competitors named instead of you, the questions where you do not appear and the tone of the sentences that mention you. It is free, with no account and no card; an email address only unlocks competitor names and the action plan. It is a dated snapshot, not a ranking: answers change from one day to the next, and we promise no position.

What this does not prove

• These are the models' answers through their programming interfaces, with no user location; ChatGPT and Gemini answered without web search, Perplexity searched and was asked in three countries only.
• Each question was asked once, between 30 July and 16 October 2026; ChatGPT here is gpt-4o-mini, not necessarily the model in the app, and the models may have changed since.
• Gemini may overstate. It writes that flyers are scams in 99% of cases, a figure nothing supports, and we did not check what it says about call centres outside France. Warning is not being right, and it is not protection: we did not check the businesses it goes on to recommend.
• The DGCCRF's 64% counts every failing, including minor ones, in a wider sector than our four trades, among businesses inspected in 2023: it is not the share of crooks. Only the French source was read; we have no official figure for the other seven countries.
• The word scam was read answer by answer. The trick described without the word rests on a word list, read one by one for ChatGPT and Perplexity but not answer by answer for Gemini. The items to check are counted across the whole answer. In Brazil, complaints of abusive prices that Gemini says to look for in reviews are not counted.