Chatbot Lenny teeming successfully every advertising caller. The Bot mimics a lovable older man who is driving the caller crazy. Hardly anyone realizes that there is a machine communicates.
Calls from donation, no drivers, Advertisers, and Scammers, so scammers that try, a call money, you see, are annoying and especially for the elderly dangerous. A Chatbot named Lenny manages to engage such a caller in an annoying conversation, until they finally give up.
Lenny is a lovable older guy – a bit confused perhaps, but friendly, and completely resistant to advice. Lenny drives every advertising caller in English in the madness. And Lenny is a Chatbot. It was invented according to the Person, the Reddit on the site as its Creator imagines, 2009, in the United States.
Actually, the inventor, he wanted to help a friend, of the permanent unwanted advertising received calls. Over the past few years, Lenny has become a cult figure. The aim was to frustrate the caller, “as much as possible of frustration”.
To do this, Lenny will play 16 sets with an Australian accent, all of which are tailored to the structure of an advertising call. Basically, Lenny is an interactive answering machine. The Bot waits a second and a half after the statement of the caller, until he plays the next message. So the impression of a real conversation.
Since Lenny 2011 was published, he enjoys great popularity. Numerous recordings of loyal Fans attest to its effectiveness: Some of the callers for an hour on the phone stay fast while you are trying to sell the supposed old man everything is Possible.
Older people in particular are victims of such Calls. Unwanted telemarketing calls without prior consent are forbidden in Germany. The callers often claim that the Called party has given its consent to an earlier date – for example, through the participation in a competition. In fact, the numbers often come from stolen data sets that are circulating online.
Lenny is simple, but effective
The French security researcher Merve Sahin and her colleagues Marc Relieu and Aurélien Francillon have researched in the past year, to Lenny. The Team analyzed 200 of the uploaded to YouTube recordings of conversations with the Chatbot, and found that these are, on average, just under ten minutes long. Three-quarters of the calls are only a few minutes long. In only eleven of the 200 cases, the caller realized that they were speaking with a machine. Five thought that something is wrong with Lenny, and seven assumed that he had Alzheimer’s or dementia. Four asked, whether he was playing a trick on them. Some adopted, nevertheless, polite, or invented an excuse of why you now have to hang up.
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Chat bots are the new Apps
The rates of Lenny’s work amazingly well, because they are smart built.
They are quite open to and, therefore, for a variety of advertising calls suitable, the consequences, in turn, all of a similar scheme.
First a welcome, then an idea of the Person and the Business, a so-called “warming up” question, intended to create a friendly atmosphere, the reason of the call and the Callee is identified.
The caller wants to make sure that the Callee is the decision maker in the household or a specific interest in a deal.
In the case of the fraudulent Call, the caller makes a seemingly harmless role-offer, and at the end, if he is successful, credit card information, or bring the Called party to donate a sum of money or a purchase agreement. Lenny responds to this structure, by signaling a General willingness for the interview. His apparent confusion suggests to the caller to be able to easy prey.
Always nice to remain friendly
On average, the Chatbot does 27 statements, before the caller will give up. The shows, writes Sahin, Lenny is a successful Chatbot.
Some call cheater under Lenny broke in an aggressive way, by saying, “Please listen, you called out to me” or “stop it!”. Some clapped, even in the hands.
The most polite caller came of political or civil society organizations, the most rude and aggressive most of the Scammers. 89 percent just took on, and 10 percent used swear words. The advertising callers were also rather polite.
Sahin and colleagues in their study concluded that chat bots, such as Lenny can contribute, “to make scam calls” to the caller is less profitable, because in the time that Lenny, the people zuquatscht, you can call anyone else.
That is now the solution to the Scam and marketing calls, is unlikely, because Advertisers can adjust their tactics also and to Bots, or a System to identify the Bots. Until then, hundreds of recordings remain entertaining conversations.