In today’s edition of occasions you’ve never heard of, this week is apparently International Fraud Awareness Week. That was a new one for me, too, but it’s probably worth talking about because scammers are getting more brazen and bold in their attempts.
“Financial scams are among the most common crimes affecting U.S. adults in 2023, with 15% saying at least one member of their household has fallen prey, including 8% reporting that it has happened to themselves personally,” according to a Gallup survey.
One cellular phone provider in the UK is fighting back. As part of its ongoing “Swerve the Scammers” campaign, O2 has revealed its new “Head of Scammer Relations.” She’s not what you might imagine. Daisy is an AI chatbot in the most literal sense of the word.
“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,” O2 explains in a press release. “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.”
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Daisy’s job is ingenious. O2 employs her to waste scammers’ time so that they don’t have time to target real victims.
According to O2, Daisy 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.
O2 also has a number for users to text scammer information to so that they can be Daisy’s next victims. The company is also launching a campaign to teach even more people how to avoid and report scams.
“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 O2’s Director of Fraud, Murray Mackenzie. “The newest member of our fraud-prevention team, Daisy, is turning the tables on scammers – outsmarting and outmanoeuvring them at their own cruel game simply by keeping them on the line.”
O2 introduced Daisy in a video in which reality TV star Amy Hart, herself a victim of fraud, shows what the “AI Granny” is capable of. Hart said that “it’s scary to see the lengths scammers go to steal everything from passwords to bank details regardless of who they’re speaking to.”
I’d love to hear a longer demonstration — maybe not the hour-long one. If it’s remotely effective, it can help save people from falling for scams. If Daisy can help tie up scammers in the UK, we need something similar here in the States. Maybe our cellphone providers will listen and join in the fight.
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