Dubai: An Australian technology company says its artificial intelligence bots have wasted the equivalent of 17 years of scammers’ time by answering fraudulent calls and messages while pretending to be potential victims.
The company, Apate, has deployed AI agents that engage criminals in lengthy conversations, ask questions and gather information about how scams operate.
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According to figures shared with TechCrunch, its agents have conducted 2.5 million conversations with suspected scammers.
A 44-minute scam call sparked the idea
The idea began when Apate founder Dali Kaafar received a suspicious phone call while attending a family picnic.
Instead of hanging up, he pretended to fall for the scam and kept the caller talking for 44 minutes.
Kaafar realised that every minute the scammer spent talking to him was time he couldn't spend contacting another potential victim.
The encounter eventually inspired research at Australia’s Macquarie University and the creation of Apate in 2024.
How the AI agents fool scammers
Apate’s bots are designed to sound like ordinary people, using different ages, accents, personalities and languages.
They can answer phone calls, reply to messages and emails, follow phishing links, and join online groups where scammers promote fraudulent schemes.
The agents attempt to keep scammers engaged while gathering information such as phone numbers, bank account details, cryptocurrency wallet addresses and fraudulent websites.
They then supply the information to banks, telecommunications companies and other customers to help them identify and disrupt scams.
Hundreds of thousands of calls diverted
Apate says Australian telecommunications provider TPG has diverted nearly 590,000 suspicious calls to its AI agents.
The company also works with Commonwealth Bank of Australia and other organisations.
Apate claims its technology has helped clients identify fraud operations before customers lose money.
The startup raised $8.15 million in seed funding in August and plans to expand internationally.
Scammers don’t always realise
The agents are designed to keep conversations believable, sometimes holding fraudsters long enough to reveal useful details about their operations.
Apate says some scammers become frustrated and swear at the bots.
For the company, those reactions can signal that the agents are doing their job.
Its approach turns a familiar problem on its head: instead of using AI to target victims, the technology occupies scammers and collects evidence of their methods.