‘Daisy,’ an AI Grandma To Counter Phone Scammers

O2 has developed a human-like AI called ‘Granny’ to engage fraudsters in real-time calls, keeping them occupied and protecting customers.

O2 has unveiled “Daisy,” an artificial intelligence system designed to combat phone fraud by engaging scammers in extended, lifelike conversations. The initiative is part of Virgin Media O2’s broader “Swerve the Scammers” campaign, which aims to reduce fraudulent activity targeting UK consumers.

Daisy is a custom-built AI system capable of holding natural, human-like conversations with scam callers. Combining advanced language and voice technology, Daisy can listen, process, and respond to scammers in real time without input from her creators.

The AI ‘Daisy’ convincingly mimics a real person, leading scammers to believe they have found an easy target, only for her to disrupt their schemes.

Trained with scambaiting content, she uses tactics such as meandering stories and feigned confusion to prolong calls, wasting scammers’ time and diverting their focus away from real victims.

In the lead-up to International Fraud Awareness Week (November 17-23), Daisy, the AI Scambaiter, has spent weeks engaging scammers with lifelike conversations.

From sharing rambling anecdotes about her family to discussing her enthusiasm for knitting, Daisy has successfully kept fraudsters on the line. She even provides them with fabricated personal details, such as fictitious bank information, leading scammers to believe they are defrauding a real person.

By exploiting criminals’ biases about older individuals, Daisy not only diverts their attention away from potential victims but also reveals common scam tactics.

O2 reports that Daisy has kept some fraudsters on the phone for over 40 minutes.

Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, explained that Daisy is part of the company’s multifaceted approach to tackling fraud. “While Daisy’s primary role is to disrupt scammers’ operations, she also highlights the growing sophistication of fraudulent schemes,” he said. “Her effectiveness underscores the need for consumers to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity.”

Daisy represents a new frontier in fraud prevention, showcasing how AI can be used proactively to counter evolving scam tactics. By simulating human interaction, Daisy exploits scammers’ assumptions and biases, particularly their belief that older individuals are easy targets.

O2 encourages customers to support fraud prevention by forwarding suspicious calls and texts to 7726, a free reporting service. The company has also invested in AI-powered tools to detect spam calls and block fraudulent messages, preventing millions of scam attempts each month.

This comes at a time when phone scams are growing more advanced, leveraging sophisticated technology to exploit unsuspecting victims.

For instance, cybersecurity researchers recently identified a malware family called FakeCall, which uses sophisticated voice phishing tactics to trick individuals into disclosing sensitive personal details.

In another recent case, scammers cloned a daughter’s voice to extort $50,000 from a Michigan mother, highlighting the lengths fraudsters will go to deceive their targets.

As phone call scammers become increasingly sophisticated, Daisy exemplifies how technology can play a critical role in protecting consumers. Through continuous refinement and deployment of tools like Daisy, O2 aims to not only disrupt fraudulent operations but also foster greater awareness about the risks associated with phone scams.