O2 unveils Daisy, the AI granny wasting scammers’ time

It’s a bad day to be a phone scammer.

• O2 has created human-like AI ‘Granny’ to answer calls in real time from fraudsters, keeping them on the phone and away from customers for as long as possible
• Trained using cutting-edge technology and real scambaiter content, lifelike ‘Daisy’ is indistinguishable from a real person, fooling scammers into thinking they’ve found a perfect target when really, she’s beating them at their own horrible game
• Former Love Islander and scam victim, Amy Hart, is working with ‘Daisy’ and has made a shocking new video to expose fraudsters’ crooked tactics and help O2 customers swerve the scammers
• With Daisy revealing how you’re not always speaking to the person you think you are, O2 is urging customers to remain vigilant, leave ‘scambaiting’ to the AI experts and report suspected fraudulent calls and texts for free to 7726

O2 has today 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 their own 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 phoney 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 £5,000 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. Watch the video here.

Amy Hart said “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.

“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. 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.”

Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, said: “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.

“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.

“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 centres 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 to 7726.

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 alone, Virgin Media O2 blocked 89 million texts, in part thanks to 7726.

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. Head to our Swerve the Scammers page for more information.

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%)¹ reported that they’ve been targeted by scammers. Last year alone, Virgin Media O2 intercepted and blocked over £250 million 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 centralised, specialised and properly resourced national policing body responsible for investigating all instances of fraud.

Notes to Eds

About Daisy

Daisy is a human-like AI that has been developed to hold autonomous conversations with scam callers and keep them on the line for as long as possible. The custom-built AI scambaiter has been answering calls from scammers and having lifelike but meandering conversations with no input required from her creators.

Daisy combines various AI models which work together to first listen to the caller and transcribe their voice into text. Appropriate responses are then generated through a custom large language model complete with a character ‘personality’ layer, and then fed back through a custom AI text-to-speech model to generate a voice answer. This takes place in real time, allowing the tool to hold a human-like conversation with a caller.

O2’s top tips to stay safe from fraudsters

O2 has pulled together three simple steps on what to do when called by a scammer or upon receiving a suspicious message:

STOP: If you receive a call out of the blue for someone claiming to be from O2, think about what you’re being asked to do. Does it feel right? Are you being asked for personal data or a code over the phone? If you have any suspicion that you might be speaking to a scammer, the best thing to do is hang up and call us back by dialling 202 from your O2 phone.

SEND to 7726: Worked out you might have spoken to or received a text from a scammer? Don’t just ignore it, take a few seconds to forward on to 7726. It spells SPAM on your phone’s keypad and is the free number to use to report to us so we can investigate. It helps keep you safe and allows us to block fraudsters numbers and prevent or shut down similar scams faster in future.

SPEAK OUT: Let your friends and family know about the scam. By telling others, you can help keep them safe and ensure they’re never caught off guard.

Read more about Virgin Media O2’s call for structural reform to address the UK’s fraud epidemic here.

Strand Partners’ specialist research team conducted an online survey of 5,247 members of the UK public between 07.06.24 – 19.06.24. The sample is representative by gender, age and NUTs 1 region, education, and income against the most recent ONS census data.