Grandma fights phone criminals

Granny fights back against scammers - 17th February 2025

Over $1.03 trillion dollars was taken by scammers in 2024, according to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance. Many of the scams start with a phone call to an older person. But now a 78-year-old grandmother from England, Daisy, is fighting back.

However, Daisy isn't an actual grandmother but an AI one. She was invented and put to work by Virgin Media O2, the telecommunications firm. They added Daisy's phone number to lists of elderly people which are used by scammers.

The aim was to waste scammers' time and protect other people from being called. Daisy's done an amazing job as she's received over 1,000 calls, with few scammers guessing she's actually an AI bot.

She frequently keeps the criminals chatting for over 40 minutes as they try to get their hands on her money. Her conversations with the scammers are often about her cat Fluffy, her interest in baking and her poor computer knowledge.

The scammers often become irritated as she chats to them about day-to-day matters. But once that happens, it's clear the callers aren't who they say they are.

Daisy can only play a small part in the war against scammers. However, she also enables new anti-scammer techniques to be developed. AI's already in use in a range of industries, such as banking and insurance.

Daisy is perhaps the most likeable of the AI systems. O2 also hopes that their AI granny might encourage others to consider the danger of scammers when they pick up the phone.