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Apate deploys AI agents that pose as scam victims to collect fraud intelligence
Australian startup Apate.ai runs thousands of AI agents that answer scam calls and messages while posing as potential victims, to extract bank accounts, crypto wallets and other details. The company says its agents have held 2.5 million conversations with scammers. Customers include Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom.
Key points
- Apate's AI agents pose as scam victims to extract bank accounts, wallets and phone numbers.
- The company says its agents have held 2.5 million conversations with scammers.
- TPG Telecom diverted nearly 590,000 calls to Apate's agents, according to the company.
What happened: Apate.ai, an Australian startup founded in 2024 from research at Macquarie University in Sydney, deploys thousands of AI agents that pose as innocent victims, TechCrunch reported. The agents answer scam calls, reply to suspicious messages and emails, follow phishing links and join social media groups, presenting as people of different ages, genders and accents. Their goal is to keep scammers talking long enough to reveal bank accounts, crypto wallets, phone numbers and malicious websites. Apate is a Startup Battlefield finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt.
The details: The company says its agents have wasted 17 years of scammers' time across 2.5 million conversations. Co-founder and chief commercial officer Brad Joffe said the agents talk to "tens of thousands of scammers every day." Apate uses frontier models alongside its own fine-tuned models. Customers get an insights portal and can assign missions, such as obtaining a specific bank account number or wallet address.
Who it affects: Customers include Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom, along with utilities, telcos and government agencies. Joffe said TPG diverted nearly 590,000 calls to Apate's agents, and Commonwealth has seen a 76% drop in publicly reported scam losses. An unnamed Australian bank used the agents to disrupt 22 scam campaigns. FBI IC3 figures cited in the report show more than 22,000 complaints of AI-related crimes in 2025, with about $893 million in losses.
What to watch: Apate raised $8.15 million in seed funding in August and just under $10 million in total. The 20-person company plans an office in London and a larger US presence.
Our take
AI agents are being turned against AI-assisted fraud, giving banks, telcos and security teams a new kind of tool for proactive threat intelligence.