Apate sends AI agents undercover to fall for scams and gather fraud intelligence
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| Source: TechCrunch | Original article
Apate.ai deploys AI agents undercover as scam victims to collect fraud intelligence, contrasting with most firms that use AI agents for faster shipping and workflow automation.
Apate.ai, an Australian start‑up founded in 2024 on research from Macquarie University, has begun deploying AI‑driven “personas” that deliberately put themselves in the cross‑hairs of fraudsters. Rather than using agents to accelerate shipping or internal workflows, the company’s bots pose as potential victims, engage scammers in real‑time conversations and harvest details about the fraud operation.
In the latest rollout the firm reports that nearly 200,000 AI personas are active worldwide, interacting with online fraudsters on behalf of banks and telecom operators. For Australian telco TPG, the bots handled 600,000 scam calls over a six‑week period that ended in late 2025 – an effort the company says equates to more than 500 days of scammers’ time and roughly $13 million in avoided losses. By disrupting the dialogue, the bots waste the attackers’ resources while feeding actionable intelligence back to clients.
The approach matters because it flips the traditional defence model on its head: instead of merely blocking malicious traffic, Apite’s bots lure fraudsters into a controlled environment where their tactics, scripts and infrastructure can be observed and catalogued. For financial institutions and telecoms, that intelligence promises faster identification of fraud rings, reduced exposure for real customers and a new lever for cost‑effective loss mitigation. It also signals a broader trend of AI being weaponised against cybercrime rather than solely for productivity gains.
Going forward, observers will watch whether other sectors adopt similar “scam‑bait” bots, how regulators respond to AI agents that intentionally interact with criminals, and whether fraudsters evolve counter‑measures to detect and avoid synthetic victims. The scalability of Apite’s deployment and the measurable impact on scam‑call volumes will be key indicators of whether this tactic becomes a staple of the anti‑fraud toolkit.
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