An AI “granny”, mimicking an older victim of scam calls, has taken on fraudsters at their own game.
“Daisy”, the AI model created by Virgin Media O2, answers calls from scammers autonomously, wasting their time with lengthy stories and providing false personal information to frustrate them.
Deploying cutting-edge technology in this way, O2 reminded their customers not to always trust the caller and report any suspicious calls if they believe the person they are speaking to may not be genuine.
The AI model has fooled fraudsters for as long as 40 minutes, playing on fraudsters’ biases about older people to outmanoeuvre them, as part of Virgin Media O2’s ongoing “Swerve the Scammers” campaign.
The project has attracted support from Love Island’s Amy Hart, who was also a victim of a devastating scam. Whether the victim is young or old, “anyone can be a victim of a scam” she said, as nearly 7 out of 10 Brits (69%) reported that they been targeted by scammers.
The AI Scambaiter frustrates scammers telling stories at length about her family, passion for knitting and wasting their time with false personal information.
Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, said they are “committed to playing our part in stopping the scammers, investing in everything from firewall technology to block out scam texts to AI-powered spam call detection to keep our customers safe”.
O2 has invested heavily in fighting fraud, rolling out AI-powered anti-spam tools and new caller identification services free to all mobile customers. O2’s helpline to report texts and calls suspected to be fraudulent helped to block 89 million texts. Blocking services also intercepted over £250 million in suspected fraudulent transactions last year alone.
The business is encouraging them to leave scambaiting to AI bots, especially as 53% of UK residents indicate they do not want to waste their own time taking action.
