Apate uses AI bots to keep scammers busy and collect intelligence
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Australian company Apate has spent two years developing a system that diverts phone scammers to AI bots trained to keep conversations going without falling for the scam. Dali Kaafar, the company’s founder and CEO, says the platform is used by banks and supported by telecom companies; it has about 350,000 bots and has collected more than 250,000 pieces of real-time information, including scam URLs, money mule accounts, and bank details. The bots also enter chat groups and respond to messages, using different personalities and profiles to appear human.
Wired tested a demo version and reported that the conversation felt natural; the publication failed to persuade the system to invest in a cryptocurrency opportunity. Kaafar says some Apate calls last more than two hours, but Wired notes that efforts like this have not stopped the overall expansion of digital scams.
Why it matters · editorial interpretation
The approach could give banks and telecom companies a way to prolong interactions with scammers and collect useful indicators, such as URLs and accounts used to move money. But Wired’s test, along with its observation that scams continue to expand, suggests that this kind of containment does not eliminate the broader problem.
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