Meet Daisy – an AI-generated granny created by British phone company Virgin Media O2 as the ultimate scam. Daisy’s goal is to talk to scammers all day so that real people don’t have to.
Daisy first appeared on 14 Nov. and he has already had more than 1,000 conversations with scammers so far, the longest lasting about 40 minutes, frustrating him with his lack of technical education and wasting their time telling irrelevant stories about his grandchildren.
“The newest member of our anti-fraud team, Daisy, turns the tables on fraudsters – she’s smarter and beats them at their worst game by keeping them in the loop,” said Murray Mackenzie, director of fraud at Virgin Media O2. in the statement.
Although Daisy may sound like a human, she’s actually a giant AI language model using the alphabet. He works by listening to scammers and translating their voice into text. The AI then searches its massive database for the right answer, based on the scam-specific training it receives, and translates that text response into speech for Daisy to respond to. All this happens in seconds with no additional input required.
The company told CBS they worked with known scam artists to train Daisy and used a tactic called number seeding to get Daisy’s phone number listed on online “cup lists” – lists used by fraudsters to target UK consumers. When they call, Daisy has “all the time in the world” to keep the scammers busy.
In addition to wasting fraudsters’ time, Virgin Media O2 hopes to draw attention to fraud by warning consumers to be careful who they talk to.
“Daisy is also a reminder that no matter how pleading the person on the phone may be, they are not always who they think they are,” said Mackenzie.
According to the company’s research, 69% of the British public reported being the victim of a scam and the company says it intercepted and blocked more than £250 million ($260 million) in suspected counterfeit goods last year.
“Fraud is at an epidemic level, with gangs of fraudsters operating in professional call centers targeting Brits every second of the day,” said Virgin Media O2 COO Rob Orr.
“We are constantly building our defenses up and sharing hard evidence of what these gangs are doing but without real deterrence, these criminals can steal again and again and are free from the threat of prosecution.”
Fraud is a big problem in the US as well. According to TrueCaller, a caller ID and call blocking app, Americans receive an average of 2.9 billion unwanted or spam calls per month. That’s about eight spam calls per user, per month.
Although there is no American version of Daisy, most US phone companies have call screening software that can identify a possible scam or robocall.
On Nov. 13, Google announced a new AI feature for its Pixel phone that will go one step further and listen to the calls you make. Google AI will sound an alarm or vibrate if it detects conversation patterns commonly associated with scams, such as a caller urgently requesting a money transfer or asking for login information or your bank details.
As phone companies and fraudsters continue to innovate with AI for their own purposes, the best thing consumers can do is stay vigilant.
“In terms of tips and tricks, whether you’re shopping online, checking your emails, or getting a phone call out of the blue, it’s important to stay alert,” an O2 spokesperson told CBS. “We never call customers and ask for their full passwords, one-time passwords or phone banking details, so any call like this is guaranteed to be a scam. Always check the links you receive and if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
contributed to this report.
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