The Royal bodyguard setting an app trap for phone fraudsters
He has guarded the royal family at Balmoral and at political hotspots around the world.
But the elite bodyguard could not stop scammers stealing his own father’s life savings.
As a result, former royal close protection officer Simon Herrema has created an app to protect people from phone fraudsters.
Millions of pounds are stolen from consumers each year and the threat is growing.
“I was protecting the royal family but I couldn’t protect my own dad from a phone call,” said Simon, 58.
“The crime left an already vulnerable man feeling even more endangered and this, in turn, left our family feeling incredibly angry.
“I hated the fact that I was powerless to stop this crime from happening again without taking away my dad’s independence.
“Being a policeman, I began thinking about what could be done to stop this from happening to other people.”
Simon has developed an artificial intelligence app called Keepel, which monitors calls. It listens out for the type of language and emotional manipulation used by scammers. When this is detected Keepel cuts the call off, keeping the user safe.
“The idea behind Keepel is easy to describe. It’s a highly efficient natural language filter that draws out the words, phrases and ideas that telephone scammers use and when the system decides that fraud is occurring, it cuts the call off,” he said. “We think it will make a huge difference to the security of people who adopt it and it’ll make telephone fraud next to impossible.”
A year on from starting the project, Simon is now part of an international team testing out the app before it is released.
Keepel’s chief executive Michael Hayes, who formerly served as Telefonica’s head of multinational business, said: “Our chief technology officer has created a new evaluation process for locating criminal activity within a call and when we deploy Keepel it’ll make a big contribution to public safety by preventing phone fraud.”
A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign has just been launched to fund development. Simon hopes to release a Keepel app for Android phones this summer.