Scammers have become increasingly creative in their attempts to deceive and exploit unsuspecting victims. In response, Malaysians are now turning the tables, using their own creative methods to waste scammers' time and give them a taste of their own medicine.
Enter “Scammers On Hold AI,” or SOHAI for short. This ingenious tool, created by Malaysian entrepreneur Dylan Tan, allows users to tie up scammers with endless, pointless conversations via WhatsApp. Tan, the founder and CEO of Singapore-based Replyr.ai, developed this AI chatbot as a way to fight back and make scammers regret their attempts.
SOHAI works by allowing users to simply provide scammers with the AI’s phone number. Once the scammer starts messaging, the chatbot takes over, offering excuses, rambling, and acting completely clueless. Even if the scammer tries to back off, SOHAI follows up, keeping them engaged and annoyed.
What makes this chatbot even more entertaining is that it logs each conversation in a Google Sheets leaderboard, noting down the time wasted, a summary of the chat, and the tactics used. In Tan's post on the Entrepreneurs and Startups in Malaysia Facebook group, he shared screenshots showing SOHAI in action, engaging scammers in English, Malay, and Mandarin, proving that the chatbot is at least trilingual.
Photo via Facebook (Dylan Tan)
Tan summed up his creation with the following: “Every minute of scammer time wasted is one less minute of them scamming someone else. Enjoy!”
So, what do you think? Is Tan’s creative solution the perfect way to turn the tables on scammers, or just a fun way to pass the time?
