Australian startup Apate is using artificial intelligence to turn the tables on scammers. Its agents pose as everyday people, engaging with suspicious calls, emails, messages and online groups to gather information that can help organizations strengthen fraud prevention.
Founded in 2024, Apate grew from research at Macquarie University in Sydney. The company says its agents have held 2.5 million conversations with suspected scammers, keeping them occupied for a combined 17 years while collecting details such as phone numbers, bank accounts, crypto wallets, malicious websites and impersonated brands.
From conversations to prevention
Apate provides its findings to banks, telecommunications companies, government agencies and utilities through an analytics platform. Customers can use the intelligence to spot emerging patterns and assign agents specific tasks, such as identifying payment accounts linked to a scam operation.
The company says its system combines advanced AI models with models trained on scam conversations and university research. Its customers include Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom. Apate reports that TPG has redirected nearly 590,000 calls to its agents, while Commonwealth Bank has seen a 76% decline in publicly reported scam losses.
The idea began when founder and CEO Dali Kaafar kept a scam caller talking for 44 minutes, realizing that automation could scale the approach and turn those interactions into useful intelligence. Apate has since raised funding to develop its product and expand internationally.
By shifting fraud detection toward earlier, intelligence-led intervention, systems like Apate's could help institutions respond to evolving scam tactics before more people encounter them.
