We all need a Grandma Daisy.

Meet Daisy Harris: a tea-loving, bird-watching, knitting enthusiast with a special skill for keeping scammers on their toes. Created by British telecom company O2, Daisy isn’t your average grandmother. In fact, she’s not a grandmother at all — she’s an AI chatbot designed to outwit and irritate fraudsters by engaging them in endless, rambling conversations.

“(People) can’t just talk to thousands of scammers,” said Morten Legarth, who helped develop Daisy with VCCP, an advertising agency in London.

But there’s an idea that A.I. can.”

With scam calls skyrocketing globally, Daisy offers a quirky, lighthearted approach to tackling the issue. Scammers expecting an easy target instead find themselves chatting with an AI programmed to waste their time. Daisy’s conversational style is inspired by real-life grannies, right down to her technological befuddlement and fondness for tangents.

“I drew a lot from my gran. She always went on about the birds in her garden,” said Ben Hopkins, a developer who helped bring Daisy to life. Her voice? It comes from the grandmother of one of the team’s colleagues, recorded over cups of tea.

Daisy’s purpose is simple: to buy time. By keeping scammers talking, she helps protect potential victims who might otherwise fall prey to fraudulent schemes. And she’s good at her job. In one call, three scammers teamed up to guide Daisy through typing “www.” into a web browser — an effort that lasted nearly an hour.

The stakes in combating scams are high. Phone scams, particularly those targeting older adults, have become a massive problem, with more than $1 trillion stolen worldwide last year, according to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance. While Daisy can’t block all scam calls, she offers a small but effective speed bump in an increasingly sophisticated scam landscape.

But don’t try this at home, warns criminologist Elisabeth Carter. Daisy’s creators worked with Jim Browning, a well-known scambaiter, to equip her with tactics for keeping scammers engaged.

(But) the best thing to do if you receive a call from a fraudster is to not engage, to hang up and report it,” Carter said.

From feigning tech struggles to weaving in personal anecdotes, Daisy’s charm lies in her relatability. Her debut has already earned praise from scam victims who wish they had someone like her around during their ordeals.

Murray Mackenzie, Virgin Media O2’s director of fraud, emphasized the importance of vigilance, noting the sheer scale of scam operations. Last year alone, the company blocked more than $315 million in fraudulent transactions.

Daisy’s success underscores the potential of AI in fighting cybercrime. And while her efforts may be just a drop in the ocean, she reminds us that even the most ordinary grannies — AI or otherwise — can pack a surprising punch.