Describe the creative idea

Re:scam is an AI chatbot designed to do the one thing you shouldn’t: reply to scams. When you forward any suspicious emails to Re:scam, it identifies scam emails and then begins a never-ending conversation with the scammer so they waste their time talking to a chatbot instead of real targets. Re:scam uses IBM Watson to analyse emails and adds to its ever growing vocabulary. With multiple personalities and the ability to generate false account information (including credit card numbers, bank account information and postal addresses) there's no way for scammers to know they're talking to computer. Users can check up on and share the conversations they initiate, fuelling an important global conversation. This constant flow of emails from scammers provides entertaining content but also up to the minute data on trending scams. Re:scam uses this to educate people through social media, and shares all scammer information with cybercrime agencies.

Describe the Execution

After a year of development and testing Re:scam was unleashed on the world’s scammers. At time of launch it had a database of responses exceeding 100,000 phrases, built from engagement with real scammers. Every element of Re:scam from its responses to its appearance and speech are digitally generated. We first shared Re:scam with local television news and then released a video in which Re:scam introduced itself to the world with one simple instruction: forward all scams to me@rescam.org. Within 24 hours of going live Re:scam had gone global. In the next week it made its way to the front of Reddit and publications like The Guardian, Reuters, Vice, LAD Bible and Buzzfeed. Because people can check in on and share the conversations being had with their scammers Re:scam generates unique content for each user. As hoped, Re:scam had people talking about scamming like never before. Re:scam joined the conversation through various social media accounts which it uses to educate and update followers and influencers on scams and how to avoid them. At rescam.org people can meet the chatbot ‘faces to face’, learn about what it is, how it works and why it needed to be created. The site features our favourite conversations and updates on the cumulative amount of time wasted by scammers. Through the site people can get advice on avoiding scams, and connect to the right support for victims of scams. Remarkably, many victims in denial about being scammed broke their cycle by connecting to Netsafe through Re:scam. With the steady flow of incoming scammer emails, Re:scam collects up-to-the-minute data on trending scams and the scammers that are sending them. This information is analysed and used by Netsafe, as well as shared with cybercrime fighting agencies like The Police, Interpol and The FBI.

Netsafe - Re:scam

CREDITS

Local partners

Gold partners