UK Telecom Giant Deploys AI Grandmother 'Daisy' to Combat Phone Scammers

Carrier creates AI grandmother Daisy to waste scammers' time

UK mobile carrier O2 has created Daisy, an AI grandmother designed to waste the time of phone scammers by keeping them on the line as long as possible. Anyone can report a scam call or message by texting their number to 7722, where it will be checked and then added to the list of targets ... The longer you can keep a scammer on the line, the fewer innocent victims they will be able to call. The idea of using a bot to do this automatically was popularized by Lenny, a voice chatbot which picks one of sixteen pre-recorded audio clips of what appears to be a slow-speaking and technologically-challenged elderly man. Lenny has also been used as a tool against unsolicited telemarketing calls. Despite the limited number of responses offered, Lenny has sometimes succeeded in keeping unwanted callers on the line for an hour or more. O2 has now created its own AI-powered version, known as Daisy.

This 'lifelike' AI granny is infuriating phone scammers. Here's how - and why

At a time when AI scams are on the rise, one mobile operator is fighting back -- with an AI grandma. In a blog post, UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 introduced "Daisy," an AI granny whose sole purpose is to answer the phone and keep scammers busy. Also: AI songs are infiltrating Spotify - here's why it's an issue for fans and creators Here's how Daisy works. If a phone scammer happens to call one of the special numbers set up by the mobile company, an AI chatbot that's "indistinguishable from a real person" answers the phone. O2 says it trained the elderly-woman-sounding chatbot on several cutting-edge AI technologies and several AI models. In addition, well-known YouTube scammers like Jim Browning helped with the training. As the call progresses, the AI listens and transcribes the caller's voice into text. A response is immediately generated through a custom large language model with a character personality layer and then run through a custom AI text-to-speech model that generates a reply. Also: This Pixel phone feature listens in on calls to protect you from scams This happens in real time, with no additional input needed. Unfortunately for scammers, while she might sound vulnerable, Daisy isn't an easy target. She might tell meandering stories about her grandkids or hobbies, be incredibly tech-illiterate, or give out wrong banking information that leads nowhere. Either way, she's tying up scammer's time and taking them away from real victims. In a demo video, Daisy begins by not knowing what a website is and asks the person on the other end, "Three Ws then a dot?" She further explains that all she sees on her screen is a picture of her cat, Fluffy, and eventually trails off into a wandering story that prompts the exasperated caller to snap, "I think your profession is bothering people" and "It's nearly been an hour!" Daisy is so lifelike, as her creators explain, that she has successfully conversed with numerous fraudsters for 40 minutes at a time. Also: 1 in 4 people have experienced identity fraud - and most of them blame AI In addition to the main goal being wasting time, Daisy has another purpose, which is to show people that you're not always speaking to the person you think you are on the phone. O2 encourages customers to remain vigilant with any phone calls and report anything suspicious.

This 'AI Granny' Bores Scammers to Tears

UK-based mobile operator Virgin Media O2 has created an AI-generated "scambaiter" tool to stall scammers. The AI tool, called Daisy, mimics the voice of an elderly woman and performs one simple task: talk to fraudsters and "waste as much of their time as possible." Here's how Daisy works: O2 added phone numbers linked to its AI tool to the lists used by scammers to target vulnerable people. When a scammer dials a number linked to Daisy, the AI tool can have random conversations about its made-up family and hobbies or provide fake bank details to beat scammers at their own game. Daisy has been taking calls from fraudsters for the past several weeks, O2 says. "By tricking the criminals into thinking they were defrauding a real person and playing on scammers biases about older people, Daisy has prevented them from targeting real victims and, most importantly, has exposed the common tactics used." The telecom operator came up with the idea for Daisy after a survey revealed that 71% of Brits wanted to get back at scammers without wasting their own time. Multiple AI models were used to create Daisy, which was trained with the help of YouTuber and scam baiter Jim Browning. The tool now transcribes the caller's voice to text and generates appropriate responses using a large language model. All of this takes place without input from an operator. At times, Daisy keeps fraudsters on the line for up to 40 minutes, O2 says. "We're 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," says Murray Mackenzie, director of fraud at Virgin Media O2.

Phone network employs AI "grandmother" to waste scammers' time with meandering conversations

In brief: Human-like AIs have brought plenty of justifiable concerns about their ability to replace human workers, but a company is turning the tech against one of humanity's biggest scourges: phone scammers. The AI imitates the criminals' most popular target, a senior citizen, who keeps the fraudsters on the phone as long as possible in conversations that go nowhere, à la Grandpa Simpson. The creation of O2, the UK's largest mobile network operator, Daisy, or dAIsy, is an AI created to trick scammers into thinking they are talking to a real grandmother who likes to ramble. If and when the AI does hand over the demanded bank details, it reads out fake numbers and names. The software is designed to keep people on the line for as long as possible. Not only does this mean less time for the scammers to target real humans, but O2 is also using the conversations to learn the favorite tricks and techniques used in these schemes. As you can hear in the video, the tricksters aren't happy about being tricked - they become increasingly angry and sweary. The bot is so convincing that it has managed to keep some people on the phone for 40 minutes at a time. If you've seen any of the several YouTube channels that scam scammers, sometimes by using a voice changer to sound like an old lady, you'll know what to expect. Daisy has been trained with the help of one of the platform's most popular scambaiters, Jim Browning. "So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time" Daisy works by listening to a caller and transcribing their voice to text. Responses are generated through a custom LLM complete with a character personality layer, and are then fed back through a custom AI text-to-speech model to generate a voice answer. All of this takes place in real time. O2 customers aren't being given access to Daisy so they can wage their own campaign of vengeance against scammers. Instead, the AI tool has been added to a list of 'easy target' numbers used by scammers. Daisy is able to interact with callers 24/7 without any input from human controllers. Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, said: "We're 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. But crucially, Daisy is also a reminder that no matter how persuasive someone on the other end of the phone may be, they aren't always who you think they are." Daisy was created in response to research from O2 that found 71% of Brits would like to get their revenge on scammers that have tricked them or their loved ones, but most said they wouldn't engage in scambaiting as they didn't want to waste their time. While the work being done by the AI can be applauded, its ability to converse with someone so convincingly is unnerving. Ironically, similar technology is also being used by scammers to trick people into thinking they are talking to their relatives.

'Worst nightmare' AI Granny deployed to combat phone scammers in the best way possible

TL;DR: Phone scammers are becoming more sophisticated with AI, but AI can also be used against them. Virgin Media O2 has introduced an AI called Daisy, designed to impersonate a confused grandmother to waste scammers' time. Phone scammers are only becoming more frequent and sophisticated, especially with the rise of AI-powered tools that can manipulate a scammer's voice into sounding like a loved one. However, AI can also be used to thwart scammers, and the easiest way to get back at scammers is to keep them on the phone, as that costs them money. UK telecommunications company Virgin Media O2 knows the next best thing besides shutting down scammers completely is keeping them on the phone, as it means that the scammer isn't on the phone with a potential victim who could lose their life savings. In what seems like a stroke of genius, Virgin Media has unveiled a new AI entity designed to take on the persona of a confused grandmother. The AI sounds like a grandmother, responds like a grandmother, and is simply designed to waste as much of the scammer's time as possible with constant ramblings about topics that have nothing to do with what the scammer is trying to do. The beauty of using an elderly person's persona is that it is what a scammer would consider a prime target, which means they will likely stay on the phone for as long as possible. The AI granny is called Daisy, and according to the company behind the project, Daisy will automatically connect to likely scam callers across its network. "As 'Head of Scammer Relations,' this state-of-the-art AI Granny's mission is to talk with fraudsters and waste as much of their time as possible with human-like rambling. Created using a range of cutting-edge AI technology and trained with the help of one of YouTube's best known scambaiters, Jim Browning, Daisy is a lifelike AI Granny completely indistinguishable from a real person," wrote Virgin Media Daisy changes the subject from what the scammer wants to side stories about her family and love of knitting, and when she is asked for bank information, the AI provides a random set of numbers. Daisy has already been able to keep scammers on the line for as long as 40 minutes. "By tricking the criminals into thinking they were defrauding a real person and playing on scammers' biases about older people, Daisy has prevented them from targeting real victims," read the Virgin blog "But crucially, Daisy is also a reminder that no matter how persuasive someone on the other end of the phone may be, they aren't always who you think they are," Virgin fraud director Murray Mackenzie added

Meet 'Daisy' an AI bot that wastes phone scammers' time

The spammers. The scammers. And you. Telemarketers and junk mail has evolved in the digital age to a behemoth of persistent trickery. In Scammed, we help you navigate a connected world that's out for your money, your information, or just your attention. Scammers beware, there's a new AI ready to waste your time on the phone -- and it's intentionally programmed to sound like someone's proud grandma. Developed by UK provider Virgin Media O2 and announced on Thursday, "Daisy" is an AI-fuelled call answering service that aims to keep scam callers on the line as long as possible, meaning less time spent with potential human victims. It's the same idea we've seen in a fair few time-wasting bots in the past -- and it's the signature strategy adopted by scam fighter Scamalot aka James Veitch. O2 worked on the AI with YouTuber Jim Browning, whose scambusting work has seen him track and expose many a fraudulent scheme using various strategies. Described by the company as "head of scammer relations", the Daisy AI is programmed to give rambling stories to callers -- and I'm not going to lie, the details sound a little bit like age-based stereotyping of elderly women but who am I to say what a scammer will believe? According to O2, Daisy has told "meandering stories of her family, talked at length about her passion for knitting and provided exasperated callers with false personal information including made-up bank details." The company claims Daisy "has successfully kept numerous fraudsters on calls for 40 minutes at a time." According to O2, Daisy is the result of multiple AI models that listen to the caller and make a live transcription. Then, the program generates an appropriate response from its language model, delivered in a human-like voice embedded with Daisy's personality. This is the ad: Why make the AI sound like the social stereotype of an elderly woman? The prevalence of telephone fraud in the UK is particularly felt by the elderly, with scammers targeting people over the age of 75 -- and a huge majority of these scams are conducted by phone. This is not unique to the UK -- according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), impersonation scams caused over $1.3 billion in losses for people in the U.S. in 2023, with call centres targeting older adults -- "almost half the complainants report to be over 60 (40 percent), and experience 58 percent of the losses (over $770 million)." Scam callers use social engineering techniques to try and convince people to hand over their personal details like banking, social security, and other ID details -- so having an AI chat right back to them without the risk of losing real money seems like a pretty smart technique. You won't be able to interact with Daisy yourself (unless you're a scammer). When I reached out to the company for further information, an O2 spokesperson told me, "The purpose of creating Daisy was to both waste scammers time and to create a campaign to educate the public on the danger of scam calls. The tool was purpose built to interact with scammers and so is optimised to do that rather than have general conversations. Opening the tool up to everyone would also require a huge amount of computing power, so right now this isn't something Daisy is able to do." In the case that the scammer makes it through to you instead of Daisy, you can forward suspected scam calls and text messages to O2's existing blocking service at 7726. Unfortunately, the sheer, sinister creativity of scammers has no limit, so companies need to think equally if not more creatively to combat them. In the meantime, go call your actual grandma and don't dismiss her stories as "waffle". She's not Abe Simpson or an AI bot.

Phone Provider Deploys "State-of-the-Art AI Granny" to Waste Scammers' Time

UK telecom company Virgin Media O2 just revealed a fascinating AI entity: an audio chatbot that takes the persona of a confused grandmother, fine-tuned to do nothing except make phone scammers angry. "As 'Head of Scammer Relations,' this state-of-the-art AI Granny's mission is to talk with fraudsters and waste as much of their time as possible with human-like rambling," Virgin Media wrote of the bot. "Created using a range of cutting-edge AI technology and trained with the help of one of YouTube's best known scambaiters, Jim Browning, Daisy is a lifelike AI Granny completely indistinguishable from a real person." Daisy seems like the rare noble application of AI chatbots, which have more often been used to perpetrate scams than fight them -- a clever reversal that just might help the vulnerable people, including flesh-and-blood grandmothers, on whom scammers tend to prey. To keep scammers occupied, Daisy -- to which the company says it automatically connects likely scam callers -- deploys confusing digressions about her family and love of knitting. When pressed for bank information, she'll provide scammers with random numbers. She's kept scammers on the line for as long as 40 minutes, O2 says. "By tricking the criminals into thinking they were defrauding a real person and playing on scammers' biases about older people, Daisy has prevented them from targeting real victims," read the Virgin blog. "But crucially, Daisy is also a reminder that no matter how persuasive someone on the other end of the phone may be, they aren't always who you think they are," Virgin fraud director Murray Mackenzie added.

Telecom Builds AI 'Grandmother' Bot to Talk to Phone Scammers and Waste Their Time

Called Daisy, or "dAIsy," the voice-based AI mimics a senior citizen to hold meandering conversations with phone scammers. For all of AI's faultsâ€"like encouraging people to eat deadly mushroomsâ€"sometimes it can be used to good ends. O2, the UK's largest mobile network operator, has deployed a voice-based AI chatbot to goad phone scammers into meandering, fruitless conversations. Called Daisy, or "dAIsy," the chatbot mimics the voice of an elderly person, the most common target for phone scammers. The purpose of Daisy is to automate "scambaiting," or the practice of intentionally wasting phone scammers' time to keep them away from potential real victims as long as possible. Scammers use social engineering to exploit the naivety of the elderly, convincing them, for instance, that they owe back taxes and are about to be arrested if they don't wire funds immediately. When a scammer gets Daisy on the phone, however, they're in for a long conversation that ultimately won't go anywhere. If they do reach the point where the scammer asks for personal information, like bank details, Daisy will make up fake information. O2 says that it's able to reach scammers in the first place by adding a phone number for Daisy onto "easy target" lists that scammers use for leads. In a video demonstrating Daisy, soundbites from real conversations show scammers becoming increasingly exasperated, being kept on the phone for upwards of 40 minutes, and holding out hope they will get a credit card number or bank details. The AI model that O2 made sounds very convincingâ€"it's doing all the processing in real-time, but thankfully that's made easier as the elderly tend to speak quite slowly. Of course, the concern with a chatbot like Daisy is that the same technology can be used to opposite endsâ€"we have already seen instances where real people, like CEOs of large companies, have had their voices deepfaked in order to trick others into sending money to a scammer. The elderly are already vulnerable enough. If they get a call from someone who sounds like a grandchild they are almost certain to believe it's real. Ultimately, blocking fraudulent calls and shutting down the organizations that run these scams would be the ideal solution. Carriers have gotten better at identifying scammers and blocking their numbers, but it remains a cat-and-mouse game. Scammers take advantage of automated dialing tools that allow them to dial numbers in rapid succession and are alerted by the tool only when it gets an answer. An AI bot that frustrates scammers by answering and wasting their time is better than nothing.

Meet Daisy -- the AI-generated granny helping to trap scammers

Scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, turning to artificial intelligence to better con their victims out of money. This includes using deepfakes to present themselves as someone else. Now, AI is being used in the fight back with telecom company O2 deploying an AI-powered granny in the battle. Named Daisy, it is a new AI tool with the voice of a grandmother designed to talk with fraudsters and "waste as much of their time as possible". Basically, she rambles on about anything and everything to keep them away from real people. According to O2 67% of British people are worried about falling victim to fraud and a quarter experience some degree of fraud every week. Daisy gives them a way to fight back and it has kept scammers on the phone for up to 40 minutes at a time. Daisy has taken scammers on "meandering stories of her family, talked at length about her passion for knitting and provided exasperated callers with false personal information including made-up bank details." Daisy was built by the team at O2 using a custom-trained large language model with a 'character personality layer' to produce personalized responses. It listens to the caller, transcribes it into text, sends that the LLM which generates the response and sends it back to the caller using text-to-speech. This is similar to the way Google Gemini Live works or the earlier version of ChatGPT Voice. If you've ever had a conversation with Gemini Live or Meta AI Voice the experience will be fairly similar. It happens in real time with no noticeable delay. The goal of the project is to keep the scammer on the phone for as long as possible by engaging them in a lifelike, but meandering conversation. This is done without any input from humans other than the responses from the scammer. A video shared by O2 of Daisy in action suggests the scammers very quickly become frustrated and angry at the way it responds. This includes giving out fake bank account information and personal details. Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, explained that Daisy is "turning the tables on scammers -- outsmarting and outmaneuvering them at their own cruel game simply by keeping them on the line." He recommends anyone in the UK worried about fraud to forward any call or text they suspect of being from a scammer to 7726 for free so it can be investigated.

'AI granny' scambaiter wastes telephone fraudsters' time with boring chat

Telephone scams are nothing new, but with the advent of AI, it has become harder than ever for people to know whether the person they're speaking to is in fact who they say they are. But U.K. mobile network O2 is turning the tables, creating what it calls an "AI granny" to keep scammers on the line for no good reason. Daisy, as the bot is called, embraces "human-like rambling chat" to keep the scammers talking, with the express purpose of wasting their time with stories of family, knitting, and divulging entirely made-up personal information including bank details. Made with help from YouTuber, software engineer, and renowned "scambaiter" Jim Browning, Daisy combines various AI models to listen and respond to calls. But it's not something you'll be able to use yourself (as fun as that would be) -- O2 says it managed to get some of its own phone numbers added to lists used by scammers for this exercise. Designed to mark International Fraud Awareness Week, the company says it has kept "numerous fraudsters on calls for 40 minutes at a time.

This Grandma AI Bot Will Waste Scammers Time by Staying on the Phone for Hours

Artificial intelligence is a much-maligned technology with many asking if we really need it at all but a British telecommunications company may have found a useful application for it. O2 has come up with an AI grandma called "Daisy" which is designed to waste scammers' time by keeping them on the phone for as long as possible -- keeping the crooks away from real people. Daisy is trained on "cutting-edge technology" and O2 says Daisy is indistinguishable from a real person. Scammers, believing they have found the perfect target, are unable to tell they are speaking with an AI. 02 added Daisy's phone numbers to the list used by scammers to target vulnerable people. When the scammers call Daisy, the bot is able to maintain random conversations about made-up family members or fake hobbies. Daisy will even provide false bank details to keep the scammers occupied. Scam calls are a significant problem in the U.S. and in the U.K. Million of Americans receive scam calls every day with older adults targeted disproportionately by the criminals. O2 put out a video about Daisy where the bot reveals that "seven in ten Brits" have been targeted by scammers. The video features clips of Daisy talking to scammers who are audibly frustrated. "I think your profession is bothering people, right?" says one scam artist with an Indian accent. "I'm just trying to have a little chat," replies Daisy. "It's nearly been an hour," exclaims another scammer. "Gosh, how time flies," Daisy says calmly. O2 says it enlisted the help of one of YouTube's best-known scam baiters Jim Browning to build Daisy which can interact with scammers in real-time without any input from her creators. "Daisy combines various AI models which work together to listen and respond to fraudulent calls instantaneously and is so lifelike it has successfully kept numerous fraudsters on calls for 40 minutes at a time," says O2. The telecom operator came up with the idea for Daisy after a survey revealed that 71% of Britons want to get revenge on scammers but don't want to waste their own time.

Daisy the AI granny is here to answer calls from scammers and waste their time

New survey reveals that 7 in 10 (71%) of Brits would like to get their own back against scammers that have tried to trick them or their loved ones. You might not have thought it possible, but grannies will be leading the AI revolution and fighting back against scammers. We're talking about Daisy (also written dAIsy), the AI granny created by O2 to trap scammers into a long and futile conversation, so they waste as much time as possible on the phone as they try to get her to input her bank details into her computer. If you listen to dAIsy working her AI-magic on scammers in the video below you'll be able to hear that she is indistinguishable from a human and responds to the scammers by playing into people's preconceptions about senior citizens not being comfortable with technology. Scammers become increasingly frustrated as they try and try to get her to enter a fake web address into her browser, or enter her personal information, only to have to endure long and meandering conversations that ultimately lead to nowhere. Daisy isn't an AI feature you can add to your personal phone account, rather it is a phone number that O2 Virgin Media has managed to get added to a list of online 'mugs lists' used by scammers targeting UK consumers. dAIsy is available to answer the phone to scammers no matter what time they call, 24/7. Her goal is to keep the scammers on the phone for as long as possible so that they have less time to ply their treacherous trade against real people. Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, said: "We're 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. But crucially, Daisy is also a reminder that no matter how persuasive someone on the other end of the phone may be, they aren't always who you think they are." O2 Virgin Media has set up a webpage offering tips, tricks, and advice on dealing with scammers. A recent survey by the company revealed that 7 in 10 (71%) of Brits would like to get revenge on scammers who have tried to trick them, or their loved ones. But why waste your own time when a convincing chatbot with all the time can help fight back against scammers?

This AI-generated grandma thwarts scammers with long stories about her cat

Scammers worldwide are making off big. Last year alone, the Federal Trade Commission estimates US consumers lost a record $10 billion due to fraud, a 14% increase from just one year prior. More and more, scammers are targeting older, vulnerable people over the phone. Over than two-thirds of UK residents over the age of 75 surveyed in a recent research paper claimed they had experienced at least one fraud attempt in the past six months. 40% of those respondents faced frequent fraud attempts. Now, an AI-generated UK grandmother named "Daisy" is trying scammers' jobs a bit more tedious. UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 created Daisy in order to speak with bad actors and waste as much of their time as possible. Using ChatGPT-like large language models, Daisy will ramble on about her passion for knitting and tell long-winded, fabricated stories about family members with the goal of keeping scammers on the line. In theory, every minute spent frustratingly chatting with Daisy about its made-up family or daily chores is one less minute a scammer could be targeting a real person. "The newest member of our fraud-prevention team, Daisy, is turning the tables on scammers-outsmarting and outmaneuvering them at their own cruel game simply by keeping them on the line," Virgin Media O2 Director of Fraud Murray Mackenzie said in a blog post. O2 says it worked with professional scam network disruptors to have phone numbers linked to the AI added to known lists of numbers targeted by scammers. If a scammer tries to call one of those numbers they will immediately start interacting with Daisy. Recorings of conversations with the scammers posted by O2 show Daisy trolling exacerbated scammers by talking about its fictional cat "fluffy" and generally dancing around their questions. Daisy will also provide scammers with false personal information and bogus banking details to make them think they are actually defrauding a real person. These conversations can rattle scammers. O2 provided clips of recording where frustrated scammers can be heard yelling expletives at the AI on the other end. To do all of this, Daisy first uses a voice-to-text AI model to transcribe the scammer's speech. It then takes that text and runs it through another AI model that drafts a response using relevant content. Another text-to-speech model then vocalizes that response with the sound of a senior woman. All of this processing happens in seconds so scammers think they are speaking with a real person. Daisy was trained using real recordings of "scam baiters" collected by O2. O2 deliberately used an older woman because they are often disproportionate targets of scams. In this case, Daisy was programmed to engage in meandering, long-winded conversations designed to keep scammers talking. The model has reportedly already kept numerous scammers on the line for over 40 minutes. Callers in the UK targeted by scammers can send their assailers to the AI by forwarding the call they receive to the number 7726. That then sends the call to the Daisy hotline. O2 says it's hopeful Daisy can make a meaningful difference amidst a surge in fraudulent phone activity. Around one in five British respondents surveyed by O2 in its recent research reported being targeted by a scam every week. While Daisy is tasked with stopping fraud, scammers are using similar AI tools to launch a variety of new attacks. So-called AI "voice clones" which use snippets of audio to mimic a person's voice, have been used in recent years to commit bank and wire fraud. In several extreme examples, scammers have even used AI to trick people into believing their loved ones had been kidnapped or held hostage. The victims, believing their son or daughter is in imminent danger, then pay the scammers a fake ransom. Scams like these are becoming more common. One in four respondents recently surveyed by cybersecurity firm McAfee claimed they or someone they knew had been targeted by an AI voice clone scam. Tools like Daisy could theoretically help stem that tide by sending other AI scam bots down winding rabbit holes. "Let's face it dear," Daisy said in one recording. "I've got all the time in the world."

O2 deploys AI granny against scammers

Brit mobile network's Daisy has time, patience, and plenty of yarns to spin Watch out, scammers. O2 has created a new weapon in the fight against fraud: an AI granny that will keep you talking until you get bored and give up. O2, the mobile operator arm of Brit telecoms giant Virgin Media (VMO2), says it has built the human-like AI to answer calls from fraudsters in real time, keeping them busy on the phone and wasting their time by pretending to be a potential vulnerable target. "Daisy" is claimed to be indistinguishable from a real person, fooling scammers into thinking they've found perfect prey thanks to its ability to engage in "human-like" rambling chat, the biz claims. For several weeks in the run-up to International Fraud Awareness Week (November 17-23), the AI has already frustrated scam callers with meandering stories about her family and talked at length about her passion for knitting, according to O2. At this point, many Reg readers are probably feeling they know someone the telco might have used as training data. But phone scams are an increasingly common threat. Criminals, often working from call centers, cold-call lists of numbers to try to con people out of their money. Common tricks include pretending to be their bank or a courier needing payment to deliver a parcel in order to get them to divulge their bank account details. Daisy is said to combine various AI models that work together to listen to fraudulent calls and respond immediately, as if engaged in a conversation. Appropriate responses are generated through a custom large language model (LLM) with a character "personality" layer, and then fed back through a custom AI text-to-speech model to generate the spoken answer. O2 claims it to be so lifelike that it has successfully kept fraudsters sidetracked for up to 40 minutes at a time. Some scammers were even tricked by Daisy offering false personal information, including made-up bank details. The Reg wondered how the telco managed to make this work in practice. Does Daisy step in if an incoming call to a user on its network comes from a number suspected to be that of a scam operator? Sadly, it isn't quite that sophisticated. The AI has its own dedicated number, which the anti-fraud team managed to infiltrate into contact lists used by scammers to target Brits, an O2 spokesperson told us. "She has her own number. We worked with leading scambaiters as we developed Daisy, including the UK's biggest scambaiter Jim Browning, and they provided us with guidance and tips to help us attract scam calls," the spokesperson said. Jim Browning is the online alias of a software engineer and YouTuber from Northern Ireland who featured in a BBC Panorama documentary about fighting fraudsters. "Working with Jim and using a range of tactics including something known as number seeding, we were able to get Daisy's phone number added to a list of online 'mugs lists' used by scammers. We then just had to wait for the calls to come in, with Daisy poised and ready to answer whenever the phone rang 24/7," the spokesperson explained. While it doesn't directly protect people from scam calls, O2 takes the view that by wasting the crooks' time, it has diverted them from targeting real victims, while also providing intelligence on the tactics the fraudsters try to use against their targets. And it's good to hear about a worthwhile application of AI for a change. "We're 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," VMO2 director of fraud Murray Mackenzie said in a supplied remark. Now if only O2 could find ingenious solutions to tackle other problems - like customer service waiting times. ®

'AI Granny' is happy to talk with phone scammers all day

On Thursday, the UK's largest mobile network operator, O2, introduced a chatbot designed to frustrate phone scammers. Called "dAIsy," it mimics an older woman with all kinds of time to chat - about knitting, her cat Fluffy - with the aim of keeping fraudsters engaged as they try obtaining her (fake) bank details. A press release about O2's "AI Granny" says it combines "various AI models" that transcribe the caller's voice into text before generating a response through a custom large language model, then feeding it through a text-to-speech model to produce a voice answer. The AI was trained in part by Jim Browning, a "scambait" expert with a huge YouTube following. It's fun to see in practice. (O2 says the audio in the video below is real.) If it makes a dent, all the better. Last year, the FBI reported that people over age 60 were swindled out of $3.4 billion via telephone scams, up from $3.1 billion in 2022. With generative AI taking off -- and voice impersonation with it -- those numbers are poised to balloon.

The Best Use of AI Ever: A 'Grandma' Built To Waste Telescammers' Time - Decrypt

British telecom giant O2 announced what could be the first deployment of conversational AI specifically designed to counter telephone fraud in the UK telecommunications sector. The hero: a clueless grandma who endlessly and frustratingly digresses while idiot scammers attempt to hoodwink her out of money. The system, dubbed "Daisy," uses AI models to snare fraudsters in meandering conversations lasting up to 40 minutes, potentially preventing millions in losses across the network's 24 million mobile customers. The tool operates autonomously around the clock, requiring no human intervention to maintain conversations with suspected scammers. "Stop calling me dear, you stupid [expletive deleted]!" one exasperated teles-cammer shouted in a video O2 aired to show off its new tool. "Got it, dear!" the kindly AI grandma replied. The initiative comes as 67% of British adults report concerns about being targeted by fraudsters, with 22% facing weekly fraud attempts, according to a survey O2 did to over 5,000 Brits. "The newest member of our fraud-prevention team, Daisy, is turning the tables on scammers -- outsmarting and outmaneuvering them at their own cruel game simply by keeping them on the line,"Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, said. The company blocked over £250 million in suspected fraudulent transactions last year alone. Here's how it works. When a user receives a scam call, they forward the call to the number 7726, which had been used as a hotline to report fraud. From there, Daisy employs a custom large language model with a "personality layer" that generates real-time responses to the scammers. The system transcribes incoming voice to text, processes it through the AI model so responses are context-relevant, and converts the text output back to speech, creating natural-sounding conversations that can include fictional personal details and bank information. The AI was developed in collaboration with Jim Browning, a prominent YouTube content creator known for exposing scam operations. It's designed to exploit fraudsters' targeting of elderly victims by presenting as a chatty grandmother, complete with meandering stories about family and knitting. Virgin Media O2's broader fraud prevention strategy includes AI-powered spam detection systems, an automatic firewall, free caller ID, and a scam reporting line. O2 says they have intercepted 89 million fraudulent text messages in the previous year, only by reports made to the 7726 line. Now, they expect to increase its effectiveness thanks to AI. "With scammers operating full-time call centers specifically to target Brits, we're urging everyone to remain vigilant," Mackenzie said. The company recommends customers forward suspicious calls and texts to 7726 rather than attempting to engage with potential fraudsters themselves. Although not as creative, U.S. carriers are also leveraging AI in their arsenal of anti-fraud technology. For example, Orion, a key technology partner for several carriers, has deployed AI-driven solutions focusing on predictive modeling and real-time call analysis to identify and label suspicious calls before they reach consumers. Microsoft has also entered the fray with Azure Operator Call Protection, currently being tested with BT Group, which analyzes live conversations for fraud indicators. These systems, along with emerging technologies like SCAMBlock and Scamnetic, use artificial intelligence as a preventive shield instead of being used as an interactive defense like O2 is doing. We asked AT&T and Verizon if they had similar plans since this seems like such a fun way to deal with these dirtbags, but we have yet to receive a reply.

Meet the granny who's catching scammers by talking to them about knitting

Normally it would be a scammer's dream to catch an elderly victim on the phone, chatting away while extracting bank details and sensitive personal information. But a new "AI granny", who loves calling people "dear" and talking about her fluffy cat, has emerged as a self-proclaimed "scammer's worst nightmare". The new "scambaiting" chatbot, known as Daisy, has been rolled out by telecoms giant Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) in an attempt to crack down on criminals. Daisy is designed to intercept hoax calls meant for other customers, with the aim of keeping scammers on the phone for as long as possible to prevent them from targeting other people. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the chatbot is already being used to expose scammers across VMO2's network, at times keeping fraudsters on the phone for up to 40 minutes with "rambling chat". In VMO2's demonstration video, Daisy voices her frustration at being unable to type out the "three Ws" in an online web address. A fraudster's exasperation boils over in another call, protesting: "It's nearly been an hour!". To which Daisy responds: "Gosh, how time flies."

They create an artificial intelligence grandmother to troll scammers: O2 just beat the game - Softonic

Finally, a use of AI that 100% of people support: the troll AI that protects us from scams AI has a lot of potential uses, many of them bad and many good. Today's case is one of the good ones. Or rather, one of the brilliant ones, as creating an avatar of a grandmother managed by AI to drive phone scammers crazy is brilliant. Let's tell the story. Daisy, or dAIsy, is an AI created by O2, the largest mobile operator in the United Kingdom, to trick scammers into believing they are talking to a real grandmother who likes to go off on tangents. When the AI provides the requested bank details, it reads out loud fake numbers and names. And the software is designed to keep people online as long as possible. This not only means less time for scammers to target real people, but O2 also uses the conversations to learn the favorite tricks and techniques used in these scams. As you can hear in the video, the scammers are not happy about being tricked: they get increasingly angry and start swearing. The bot is so convincing that it has managed to keep some people on the phone for 40 minutes straight. If you have seen any of the several YouTube channels that scam scammers, sometimes using a voice changer to sound like an elderly woman, you will know what to expect. Daisy has been trained with the help of one of the most popular scammers on the platform, Jim Browning. Daisy listens to the caller and transcribes their voice to text. The responses are generated through a custom LLM with a personality layer (of a grandmother in this case) and are then returned through a custom AI text-to-speech model to generate a voice response. All in real-time. O2 customers do not have access to Daisy to launch their own revenge campaign against scammers. Instead, the AI tool has been added to a list of "easy target" numbers used by scammers. Daisy is capable of interacting with callers 24/7 without human operator intervention. Daisy was created in response to an O2 study which found that 71% of Britons would like to get back at scammers who have deceived them or their loved ones, but most said they wouldn't engage in scamming because they didn't want to waste time. Although the work done by AI should be applauded, its ability to converse with someone so convincingly is unsettling. Ironically, scammers also use similar technology to trick people into believing they are talking to their relatives. In this war, we only wish for the scammers to lose.

The Newest Tactic to Get Back at Scammers Is an AI-Powered Grandma

Passkey Support Finally Comes to LastPass, but There Are a Few Catches Do you have that one relative who will not hang up the phone, no matter what? Turns out, a network operator is tapping into that raw conversational power to waste scammers' time. A British telecommunications company has deployed an AI-powered grandma who has only one mission: keep scammers on the line for as long as possible. ✕ Remove Ads O2's New "Swerve the Scammers" Campaign Includes a Time-Wasting Digital Grandma As announced on the Virgin Media O2 website, the company has announced its new Scambaiter Daisy AI model. This lovely lady takes calls from confirmed scammers with the sole objective of taking up as much of their time as possible. And as long as the cybercriminals are wrapped up trying to convince a digital grandma to send them gift cards while she regales them about her pet cat, that's time not spent scamming real people. Fans of karmic justice against scammers may already be familiar with this tactic. It's the hallmark of Jim Browning, AKA "Kitboga," who creates videos and streams of him scambaiting with the persona of a lovely old lady. O2 confirms that Jim helped them develop Daisy, meaning that the AI model comes pre-equipped with the best tirades and time-wasters to keep scammers on the line. ✕ Remove Ads If you're in the UK and you receive a phone call or text from a scammer, O2 encourages you to forward it to 7726 (or "SPAM" on your phone's alphabet keypad). This will let O2 know that someone needs a one-on-one session with the chattiest grandma to ever exist. Just don't take this new initiative as a sign to target cybercriminals yourself, as there are plenty of risks that come with scambaiting.

An AI-Powered Scam Baiter Lady Is The Way To Get Back At Phone Scammers By Giving Them A Taste Of Their Own Medicine

While AI has been a hot topic for the tech community for quite a while and has generated quite the buzz for how it has transformed communication and become a major part of everyone's lives, it has also raised some serious concerns. Many discussions have erupted about the blurring gap between human and artificial content and how more ethically responsible AI should be ensured. A British carrier service has now come with a unique way of putting the technology to use and it looks like phone scammers are finally getting their poetic justice. Have you ever been in a situation where scam calls got on your nerves or disrupted productivity by ringing during a crucial meeting or when handling critical situations? We have all encountered scammers in one way or another and know exactly how frustrating the experience can be. British carrier O2 via PCMag has come up with a unique way of using AI and tackling fraud. Its AI team creates a chirpy old lady to take on a virtual avatar and get back on the scammers by giving them a taste of their own medicine. The AI granny would take calls from numbers that are part of the scam list or suspected to be phony calls. The digital granny is not only tasked with answering calls but also engaging in meaningless conversations and using wit and humor to prolong the call and waste the scammer's time. O2's AI scam baiter lady would keep the scammers in a loop and not let any meaningful information come out of it, and the best part is that the fraudsters would not know what they are dealing with, and by the time they would come to the realization, they would have wasted a lot of their efforts and time. The harmless chatter is not only a humorous way of turning the tables around and using AI to get back to scammers, but it would also help users who actually fall prey to the scams and often give away personal information. This would be a proactive step to protect vulnerable individuals, especially older people who are often involved in emotional situations to send over money and end up being tricked by these phone scammers. As showcased in the video below, the AI scam baiter lady can engage in endless conversations and even provide fake personal information to keep the caller occupied. This brilliant strategy can be a great way of tackling fraud and protecting users from falling victim to scammers.