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Telephone scammers may have found their match in Granny Daisy, a new human-like artificial intelligence capable of interacting with human callers and boring them to tears. Trained to fool scammers into thinking they’re talking to a real grandmother, Daisy answers calls from fraudsters, spending time with them to keep them away from their potential victims.
Virgin Media O2 unveiled Daisy in November through its AI creative agency, Faith, in collaboration with the London-based firm VCCP. O2 also worked closely with British scam baiter Jim Browning, who has been exposing scammers opening mostly from Asia, to create an AI bot designed to waste the scammers’ time.
A combination of sophisticated AI technologies enables Daisy to interact with fraudsters autonomously. The Artificial Intelligence “personality” listens to callers, transcribes voice into text, assigns responses, and generates voice answers in real time, creating the illusion of a real person communicating with scammers.
“We’re committed to playing our part in stopping the scammers,” said Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, “investing in everything from firewall technology to block out scam texts to AI-powered spam call detection to keep our customers safe.” Daisy is part of the “Swerve the Scammers” campaign and the latest member of O2’s fraud-prevention team.
Despite Daisy’s ability to work round the clock to prevent fraudsters from victimizing people, O2 urges its customers to report fraudulent phone calls and texts. “With scammers operating full-time call centers specifically to target Brits, we’re urging everyone to remain vigilant and help play their part in stopping fraud,” Mackenzie said.
Beating Scammers at Their Own Game
The UK has been facing a fraud epidemic, with reports citing the amount of fraud in the UK reaching $2.9 billion in 2023 and one in five British citizens experiencing scam attempts at least once a week. Although 71 percent said they would like to get back at scammers, they didn’t want to waste their time baiting fraudsters. That’s Daisy’s job—beating scammers at their own game and exposing their schemes. She tells them meandering stories of her family and hobbies and tricks them with false personal and financial information.
Reality TV personality Amy Hart, a fraud victim, worked with Daisy to produce a fraud awareness campaign video. “I know first-hand just how sophisticated nasty fraudsters can be,” Hart said. “That’s why I’ve teamed up with O2 and AI Scambaiter Daisy to take the fight back to them, keeping them busy with calls going nowhere.”