Apate says its AI decoys have engaged scammers in 2.5 million conversations

Australian startup Apate.ai says its AI decoys have spent a cumulative 17 years talking to scammers, gathering intelligence for banks and telecom providers. TechCrunch’s October 14 article puts the company-reported total at 2.5 million conversations. The agents pose as potential victims to draw out details about the scams.

The idea began with a smaller experiment. Founder and CEO Dali Kaafar kept a scam caller engaged for 44 minutes during a family picnic. It consumed his time, too, prompting him to explore automating the distraction while gathering useful information. Apate was founded in 2024, growing out of research at Sydney’s Macquarie University.

The useful part is what scammers reveal

Apate’s commercial pitch goes beyond keeping fraudsters busy. Its agents seek bank accounts, crypto wallets, phone numbers, malicious websites and impersonated brands—details that might otherwise emerge only after someone loses money. Customers receiving that intelligence include Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom, according to the company.

• Calls, messages and email: Thousands of agents use varied personas, accents and languages, answer suspicious approaches and follow phishing links.
• Web and social platforms: Text agents search forums and investment groups for potential scams, then enter conversations under fabricated identities.

Customers can assign specific missions, such as obtaining a bank account number or crypto-wallet address. An insights portal supplies intelligence and analysis about scams targeting their users, employees, brands or products.

Mary Ann Miller, fraud executive advisor at identity services company Prove, told Moneywise that the opportunity lies in connecting these insights to fraud detection, identity checks and transaction monitoring. That could help institutions stop suspicious activity before money moves, she said.

Nearly 590,000TPG calls diverted to Apate’s agents

Apate co-founder and chief commercial officer Brad Joffe supplied the figure to TechCrunch.

Who gets credit for lower losses?

Joffe also said an unnamed Australian bank had used Apate’s outbound agents to disrupt 22 scam campaigns.

Joffe cited a 76% decline in publicly reported scam losses at Commonwealth Bank. Experts interviewed by Moneywise, in an October 19 article carried by Yahoo Finance, cautioned against crediting that entire reduction to Apate’s technology. Risk analytics specialist Saugat Nayak said the baseline period, measurement methods and simultaneous changes need scrutiny.

Dave Parkinson, whose foundation works to protect older adults from financial scams, raised a separate distinction: fraud prevented versus fraud displaced. He wanted independent evidence about other safeguards introduced at the same time, and whether criminals simply switched targets or methods. Fewer reported complaints alone would not answer whether real people avoided losses, he said.