Introducing Daisy, the AI Granny Wasting Scammers' Time

O2 in the United Kingdom has unveiled the newest member of its fraud prevention team, "Daisy." 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 chat to keep them away from real people, while highlighting the need for consumers to stay vigilant as the UK faces a fraud epidemic.

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. Able to interact with scammers in real time without any input from her creators, O2 has put Daisy to work around the clock answering dodgy calls.

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.

As part of Virgin Media O2's ongoing "Swerve the Scammers" campaign, Scambaiter Daisy has been created in response to new research from O2 revealing 7 in 10 (71%) of Brits would like to get back against scammers that have tried to trick them or their loved ones. However, not wanting to waste their own time ranked as the top reason why the public wouldn't bait scammers themselves (53%).

With more than two thirds of Brits (67%) concerned about being the target of fraud and one in five (22%) experiencing a fraud attempt every single week, O2 is fighting back.

After several weeks of taking calls in the run up to International Fraud Awareness Week (November 17-23), the AI Scambaiter has told frustrated scammers 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.

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 so customers can better protect themselves.

Influencer and reality TV star Amy Hart has worked with Daisy to produce a shocking video to show how she's taking on phony fraudsters like the one who targeted her. After receiving a call from someone who said they were calling from her bank on the morning of her friend's wedding, Amy fell victim to a scam which saw more than $6,270 drained from her bank account in a matter of minutes.

The harrowing experience has left Amy passionate about spreading the word on scams and exposing their tactics to help keep others safe.

"I know first-hand just how sophisticated nasty fraudsters can be, 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," Hart said.

"But whilst I love a wind up, it's scary to see the lengths scammers go to steal everything from passwords to bank details regardless of who they're speaking to," she continued. "Whether you're young or old, anyone can be a victim of a scam. That's why we can never be too careful when it comes to unexpected calls or texts.

"If you have even the tiniest doubt about who you're speaking to, the best thing to do is to hang up the phone and call back on a trusted number."

"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," said Murray Mackenzie, director of fraud at Virgin Media O2.

"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.

"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. With scammers operating fulltime call centers specifically to target Brits, we're urging everyone to remain vigilant and help play their part in stopping fraud by forwarding on dodgy calls and texts to 7726 for free."

Swerve the Scammers

O2 has invested heavily in the fight against fraud, rolling out AI-powered spam-fighting tools and new caller identification services free to all mobile customers to help protect them. The operator also blocks millions of fraudulent texts and calls from reaching customers phones every month.

However, with scammers constantly evolving their processes and using increasingly sophisticated methods, the business is encouraging Brits to leave scambaiting to the AI experts. Instead, the public can help block scammers by forwarding suspected scam calls and text messages.

By reporting dodgy calls and messages, the telecoms company is able to investigate and block the mobile numbers used by fraudsters and can also use scam texts to help refine its blocking services, making it easier to identify and stop new trends faster in future.

Last year, Virgin Media O2 blocked 89 million texts.

To help make life easier for customers, O2 has pulled together a new webpage offering tips, tricks and advice so they know what to look out for.

Virgin Media O2 is calling for wider action to prevent fraud. The company recently exposed the scale of the UK's fraud problem after finding that nearly seven in ten Brits (69%) reported that they've been targeted by scammers.

Last year alone, Virgin Media O2 intercepted and blocked more than $312,000,000 in suspected fraudulent transactions - equivalent to stopping one every two minutes.

Warning that not enough is being done to protect consumers, Virgin Media O2 is calling on the government to take accountability for stopping fraud at its source by appointing a dedicated fraud minister and creating a single centralized, specialized and properly resourced national policing body responsible for investigating all instances of fraud.