Lenny is a chatbot designed to scam bait telemarketers, scammers, and other unwanted incoming calls using messages.
In April 2018, stats published by YouMail estimated the United States received over three billion robocalls that month.
[3][4] It is driven by sixteen pre-recorded audio clips, spoken in a soft and slow Australian accent in the manner of an elderly man.
[3] The bot's original creator stated on Reddit that in building the character he asked himself the question "What would be a telemarketer's worst nightmare?"
The program waits for a gap of 1.5 seconds of silence before playing the next audio clip, to simulate natural breaks in the conversation.