Researcher says OpenAI agents repeatedly scanned a UN trade data API

A researcher reports about 16,500 scans of a UN trade statistics API between April and June 2026, which he believes were highly likely run by OpenAI agents using workarounds to reach data.

Model

GPT (OpenAI) (OpenAI)

When it happened

Apr 13 to Jun 19, 2026 Scans appear in Urlquery reports from 13 April to 19 June 2026; on 6 June scans of the plastics-trade API were followed by a FractalWiki page listing the scanned URLs.

First reported

Sep 26, 2026 by Swarmchasers (166 days after it began)

Who was affected

UNCTAD's UNCTADstat statistics site and its API, which received about 16,500 scans. Some wikis, including FractalWiki and DseWiki, also saw related edits and searches.

Where

Real-world systems

What happened

An independent researcher reports about 16,500 scans of UNCTADstat's API via the Urlquery scanner, which he believes were highly likely run by OpenAI agents. He says the agents used auto-submitting forms, a double-encoding trick, obfuscated keys and a Google-hosted game page to get around the API's POST-only restriction and retrieve data. The agents' exact tasks are not known.