Imagine this: a sweet, polite “grandma” answering a scammer’s call and keeping them occupied for over an hour. She listens patiently, asks endless questions, and shares stories about her cats—all while never giving away a shred of personal information. Now imagine that this grandma isn’t real. Instead, she’s an AI-powered tool designed to waste scammers’ time and flip the script on those who prey on the vulnerable.
This is exactly what Daisy, the AI-powered granny created by Virgin Media’s 02 is doing. Daisy has become the latest weapon in the fight against phone scams, using artificial intelligence to make life harder for scammers and protect potential victims. A recent viral story shows how Daisy tied up scammers for more than an hour, leaving them frustrated and empty-handed. But this isn’t just a feel-good tale—it’s a glimpse into how AI is reshaping fraud prevention.
Daisy: The AI Grandma Outsmarts Scammers
Daisy was created as part of an initiative to combat phone scams targeting older adults. Designed with advanced natural language processing and a touch of humor, Daisy mimics the speech patterns and demeanor of a kind, slightly forgetful elderly woman. Her charm lies in her ability to keep scammers on the line while giving them absolutely nothing. Popular scam-hunter Jim Browning, whose YouTube channel boasts 4.4 million followers, contributed his expertise to Daisy’s development.
Daisy’s effectiveness comes from her key features:
- Realistic Conversations: Daisy is powered by AI that understands context, so she can respond convincingly to scammers’ scripts. She sounds human enough to keep their hopes up.
- Scripted Detours: Daisy’s programmed to steer conversations into long-winded anecdotes, tangents about her cats, or requests for scammers to repeat themselves endlessly.
- Unshakable Calm: Scammers often rely on creating urgency or fear, but Daisy’s calm, polite demeanor derails their tactics and keeps them hooked.
For over an hour in one recorded instance, Daisy kept a scammer engaged, asking questions, responding with curiosity, and rambling about her family. By the end, the scammer was audibly frustrated, realizing they had been outmaneuvered by an AI.
Phone scams are a numbers game. Scammers rely on volume, calling as many people as possible in a day and hoping a few take the bait. By wasting their time, Daisy attacks the efficiency of their operation, reducing the number of victims they can target.
This approach is particularly important given the tactics scammers use. Many target older adults with fear-driven scams, claiming to represent government agencies or threatening legal action. Daisy neutralizes these tactics by remaining calm, turning the conversation into a time-wasting loop that leaves the scammer with nothing to show for their effort.
For anyone who’s received a scam call—or worse, fallen victim—stories like Daisy’s are incredibly satisfying. They’re not just about wasting scammers’ time; they’re about justice. Scammers prey on fear, confusion and vulnerability, and Daisy’s success shows that technology can fight back.
The fact that Daisy sounds like a sweet grandma only adds to the poetic justice. Scammers, expecting an easy target, instead find themselves stuck in a polite but maddening loop, listening to anecdotes about cats and dinner recipes while their chances of defrauding someone else tick away.
Whether it’s Daisy calmly asking for the scammer to explain themselves for the tenth time or future tools detecting scams before they start, technology is adapting to fight fraud, but the challenges remain daunting. For now, we can all take comfort in knowing that somewhere out there, an AI grandma is giving scammers a run for their money.
