Local Hero Designs Chatbot To Mess With Telemarketers And Scammers

MONROVIA, CA — Calls from telemarketers and scammers are the worst. Messing with telemarketers and scammers, on the other hand, that’s entertainment!

But for those who have other things to do, help has arrived in the form of a chatbot designed by a Southern California man with the express purpose of wasting the time of telemarketers and scammers. For fun, it confuses the daylights out of them, too.

Roger Anderson, of Monrovia, created the chatbot for a service he calls the Jolly Roger Telephone Co., according to the Wall Street Journal. The chatbot goes by names such as Jolly Roger, Salty Sally and Whitey Whitebeard, and they are annoyingly eager to discourse on a number of subjects ranging from their gripes about the government to their favorite shows.

Roger chatbot needs help programming his remote control, and he’d really like to get to know his telemarketer better.

Sally just won a talent show, and she’d like to know what her cable tv telemarketer likes to watch and if he can help her throw a party to celebrate her talent show win.

Whitebeard managed to keep a utility bill “refund” scammer on the line for nearly 15 minutes.

“So, do you have a Visa Debit or Mastercard? Maybe we can put the money back,” the scammer says in an audio recording of the call featured on the Jolly Roger Telephone Co. website.

Whitebeard responds, “Can you tell me more about how accountholder services can help me? And by the way, do you have any tips for growing tomatoes? I’ve been trying to grow them in my garden, but they just won’t cooperate.”

You almost feel sorry for the scammer…almost.

He tries to gloss over Whitebeard’s tomato problem.

“So, I understand. Sir, you need to go and find the card. Maybe we can put the money back, ok.”
Whitebeard, keeps his scammer on the hook, talking about all the credit cards he has, but first, he needs to vent about the government a little.

Ten minutes into the call, the scammer begs Whitebeard to give him the credit card number.

“But since you are offering, let me tell you about the time I had to pay an outrageous bill for a broken water heater,” Whitebeard responds. “Can you believe they charged me an arm and a leg for that thing?”

He goes on for another five minutes until the telemarketer just can’t take it anymore, loses his cool, and hangs up in a huff.

The Jolly Roger charges a $ 2-a-month fee for its service.

“By keeping the bad guys busy, you keep them from pestering other innocent people, and you hit them where it hurts most...their wallets...because no matter how hard they try, our robots won't ever buy anything,” the company claims. “And best of all, you get recordings of each call, so you can hear them squirm and have a good laugh.”