M'sian man creates Scammers On Hold AI (SOHAI) bot to waste scammers' time

A Malaysian tech entrepreneur came up with an ingenious method to bamboozle online scammers, and all you need is a phone number.

Scammers On Hold AI, or SOHAI, works by passing a certain telephone number to someone you know is a scammer.

The number is linked to an AI bot, which will endlessly waste the scammer's time by sending messages where they prattle on about inconsequential matters, "act blur" or talk about unrelated things.

Best of all, if the scammer doesn't reply, the bot will follow up and keep messaging them instead, giving scammers a taste of their own medicine.

Created by Dylan Tan, founder and CEO of tech company Replyr.ai, the bot was introduced into a Facebook chat group named "Entrepreneurs and Startups in Malaysia" on Feb. 14, 2025.

He said he made it to "waste scammers' time" and added:

"1. If a scammer contacts you, or you see an ad for a scam, give them SOHAI's phone number.

2. SOHAI will infinitely waste their time by giving excuses, digressing, and acting blur. If the scammer doesn't reply, SOHAI will follow up with the scammer to annoy them back.

3. SOHAI will save each chat into a leaderboard on Google Sheets with time wasted, summary of the chat, and tactics that SOHAI used to waste their time.

Every minute of scammer time wasted is one less minute of them scamming someone else. Enjoy!"

He shared some screenshots of purported chats between scammers and his bot.

The bot appears to be able to converse in at least three languages, English, Malay and Mandarin.

However, Replyr.ai updated in a later Instagram post that the number got "blocked", but it would be swapped soon.

Hopefully the more scammers the bot ensnares, the fewer victims they will entrap.

Top image via Replyr.ai Instagram