Science & Tech · Cybersecurity · 1 day ago
Apate Uses AI Bots to Keep Phone Scammers Busy
Apate, an Australian company, has built AI bots that answer calls and messages from scammers.
The bots act like potential victims and try to keep scammers talking without falling for their pitches.
Apate says banks use its platform and telecom companies support it.
The company says it has about 350,000 bots and has collected more than 250,000 pieces of information about fraudsters, including scam links and accounts used to move money.
That information may help identify how scams operate.
Keeping scammers occupied could also leave them less time to contact real people, though scams remain widespread.
Apate’s system also joins online scam chat groups and responds to texts, but the information provided does not say what action will follow from the data it collects.
Australian company Apate has built an AI system that engages phone and online scammers to waste their time and gather information about their activities.
Apate founder and CEO Dali Kaafar says the platform has about 350,000 bots and is used by banks with support from telecom companies.
The company says it has collected more than 250,000 pieces of information about fraudsters, including scam URLs and details of money mule accounts.
Wired tested a demo of the system and found that its AI personas kept conversations going naturally, but did not fall for a cryptocurrency pitch.
The article says AI may help disrupt scams and improve intelligence sharing, but it also notes that global online crime continues to expand.
- Who
- Apate, an Australian company, and its founder and CEO, Dali Kaafar
- What
- An AI platform that engages scammers to delay them and collect intelligence
- When
- The system has been in development for the last two years
- Where
- Australia; the platform also operates in phone calls and online spaces
- Why
- To waste scammers' time, gather information about their operations, and help protect potential victims
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
What we really like to think is that we’re building the perfect victims for scammers
A minute that a scammer is talking to a bot or an agent is a minute where you’re probably saving hundreds, if not thousands of possible people being reached out to by that exact same scammer
This story does not have a timeline yet.
- Company
- Apate, an Australian company
- Development period
- The system has been in development for two years
- Bot network
- About 350,000 bots
- Information collected
- More than 250,000 pieces of information about fraudsters
- Reported call duration
- Apate calls regularly last more than two hours, according to Kaafar
Sources
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