The purpose of Daisy is to automate “scambaiting,” or the practice of intentionally wasting phone scammers’ time to keep them away from potential real victims as long as possible. Scammers use social engineering to exploit the naivety of the elderly, convincing them, for instance, that they owe back taxes and are about to be arrested if they don’t wire funds immediately.
When a scammer gets Daisy on the phone, however, they’re in for a long conversation that ultimately won’t go anywhere. If they do reach the point where the scammer asks for personal information, like bank details, Daisy will make up fake information. O2 says that it’s able to reach scammers in the first place by adding a phone number for Daisy onto “easy target” lists that scammers use for leads.