A 23-year-old Portuguese man, identified only as João, is set to stand trial for creating WormGPT, a malicious ChatGPT clone available on the deep web without guardrails, which could generate phishing emails. João, who began hacking at age 10, was motivated mostly by learning until other hackers contacted him to create tools for serious acts like cloning credit cards. He decided to remove the program, prompting the FBI to alert Portugal’s Criminal Investigation Police (PJ), who found a letter on his computer offering to sell it for €55,000. Arrested at the start of 2025 and released on bail with an initial internet ban, he has cooperated fully, reducing charges to three counts of computer sabotage. Authorities hope he will help identify users of the platform; in August 2023, 70 hackers from Australia, the US, South Africa, Singapore, Israel and other countries used WormGPT. A source linked to the investigation said João’s mother’s unemployment contributed to his decision to sell subscriptions, and it is claimed he made €24,290.