In its latest example, a vacation scammer attempts to secure an upfront payment from a customer by warning of expiring “vacation credits” with a travel agent they’ve never contacted. From the YouTube description: Unfortunately for the telemarketer, she’s talking to a lifelike bot meant to waste her time. The bot, named “Ox-Gut McGee,” uses IBM’s Watson AI to process speech from the telemarketers. It starts hilariously, with the bot seemingly yelling at a child for bringing insects into the house, before randomly telling the telemarketer he wanted to be an olympic gymnast. “I could have been working for NASA, and here I am on the phone talking to a telemarketer,” the bot continues. Unfazed, the telemarketer continues on, attempting to convince the “man” on the line that he has $2,600 in vacation credits with an unknown travel agency. And these credits are about to expire if he doesn’t act now. After several interruptions, ultimately keeping the caller on the line for 15-minutes, the confused telemarketer puts the man on hold and has a chat with her supervisor — which Jolly Roger Telephone Company was able to isolate and add to the end of the video. In an attempt to avoid further spoilers, let’s just say the entire clip is worth listening to. You can check it out below:
