The threat of all fraudsters: a cyber grandmother single-handedly protects thousands of pensioners from criminals

In today's world, technologies based on artificial intelligence are causing concern in society about the fight against fraudsters. However, one English company turned the whole situation back, creating a unique and irresistible interlocutor for them.

UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 has introduced an innovative and hilarious approach to combating phone scams with the help of an artificial intelligence chatbot named “Daisy”, which introduces itself as a grandmother. Taking the form of a confused elderly woman, Daisy is designed to waste the time of scammers with incoherent chatter that is irrelevant to the case, writes The Byte.

The company's initiative, supported by the ideas of famous fraud hunter Jim Browning, marks a new era in the use of artificial intelligence aimed at stopping fraudulent actions against defenseless people. Virgin Media introduced Daisy as “Head of Fraud”, stressing that her role — to attract fraudsters, keep their attention and limit their opportunities to harm real people, such as senior citizens, who are often victims of fraudsters.

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Daisy uses sophisticated conversational AI to mimic human communication, including digressions about hobbies like knitting and anecdotes about family life. When asked for confidential information, she generates nonsensical answers to confuse the caller. According to Virgin Media O2, this approach successfully keeps some fraudsters on hold for up to 40 minutes — this is a significant delay that prevents them from moving on to real victims.

Director of Fraud Prevention Murray McKenzie emphasized Daisy's secondary role in teaching people to be critical about the identity of callers, reminding them that the voice on the other end of the line is not always trustworthy. The creation of the chatbot comes amid growing concern about the use of artificial intelligence for malicious purposes, including the creation of scam calls and phishing attempts. Virgin Media's reversal of this trend instead demonstrates the potential of AI as a defensive tool.

By exploiting fraudsters' own stereotypes about the elderly, Daisy adds a special level of deterrence to the fight against fraud. The initiative also aligns with a broader effort by companies and governments around the world to combat the growing threat of cybercrime, which is rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly sophisticated. Statistics show that phone fraud remains a serious problem around the world, with billions of dollars lost to these schemes each year.

Tools like Daisy can prove effective in reducing these losses by not only disrupting fraudsters' workflows, and contributing to the increase of public awareness, according to its creators. Virgin Media's O2 approach demonstrates how companies can creatively use technology to solve social problems while benefiting from positive public relations and scientific progress.