Email Bot Fights Back Against Scammers
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She fights with the power of endless conversations.
While you might be smart enough to know that the email from the Nigerian prince sitting in your inbox isn't real, not everyone is savvy about these scams.
To help protect the people who might fall into an email trap like this, New Zealand online safety organization Netsafe has developed a bot called Re:Scam.
The idea behind the artificial intelligence project is for the bot to engage with scammers in lengthy meandering conversations in order to waste their time and prevent them from going after other people.
To use Re:Scam, simply forward any suspicious email you receive to me@rescam.org. the bot will take it from there, pretend to be a victim and send replies back to the scammer filled with questions, often in a humorous way.
I just got propositioned by a ‘hot Russian’ date. So I said: pic.twitter.com/cnKnyV23bA
— Re:scam (@rescambot) November 10, 2017
"We are really concerned about the growth of predatory email phishing, while victims remain essentially powerless," said Martin Crocker, the CEO of Netsafe.
To see how Re:Scam works, check out the video below: