Chatbot to fool online fraudsters

Developed by entrepreneur Dylan Tan, the Sohai system automatically responds to messages that arrive as phishing attempts with meaningless conversations, preventing criminals from acting. In 2023, Malaysia recorded losses of 98 million dollars just for scams on Facebook. Over a thousand people are already involved, while interest from the authorities is growing.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Malaysia has a new ally in the fight against online scams: it's called Scammers on Hold AI (Sohai) and it's an artificial intelligence-based chatbot that tricks scammers by engaging them in endless conversations.

The system was developed by entrepreneur Dylan Tan, who launched Sohai on February 14th to combat the scams that plague Southeast Asia.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2023 up to 37 billion dollars were lost due to the online scam industry, made up of hundreds of centers operating in the Mekong region, Myanmar, the Philippines, but also in Sri Lanka and other countries in the region. In Malaysia, losses of 432 million ringgit ( million) were recorded on Facebook alone.

In most cases, the “scammers” are people themselves deceived by fake job offers and operate in special centers in conditions of modern slavery.

“Online scams are such a universal experience and annoyance that I thought I would build something that everyone could use as a way to fight back,” Tan told the South China Morning Post.

The chatbot is simple to use: the victim of a scam can provide the criminal with Sohai's number, and he will automatically respond via WhatsApp or other messaging apps. The bot uses a series of excuses, questions and delays to prolong the conversation as much as possible, exasperating the scammers in an attempt to make them desist.

The system is based on in-depth research conducted by Tan, who contacted several users who had sent phishing attempts directly to study their methods. He discovered that they often operate in isolation, without a centralized database of phone numbers, and that many respect office hours. “In light of these two insights, I realized that I could build an artificial intelligence capable of making scammers lose time indefinitely,” Tan explained.

Since its activation, Sohai has involved about 1,100 people, including testers and actual scammers. The chatbot has proven particularly effective with financial scams: the artificial intelligence begins the conversation pretending to be an inexperienced person attracted by promises of easy investments, but then ends up bombarding the scammers with tear-jerking stories about past losses and requests for help to recover funds.

The bot-generated conversations are collected in a publicly accessible Google document, which includes the names of the scammers and details of the conversations

The initiative has received an enthusiastic response from the public, with hundreds of comments and shares on social media. Sohai's success has also attracted the attention of government agencies in other Southeast Asian countries.

Despite the growing sophistication of online scam centers – which, according to the UN, are developing deepfakes and AI chatbots to deceive victims – Sohai is a simple, free and effective tool for defense. “Every minute a scammer talks to Sohai is a minute less to scam someone,” said Tan.