AI Bots Are Scamming the Scammers to Protect You

Most companies use AI to work faster, but Apate.ai uses it to fight back against scammers. The Australian startup sends thousands of AI agents undercover, pretending to be ordinary people—different ages, genders, and accents—to engage with fraudsters on calls, messages, and social media. These bots keep scammers talking, wasting their time and tricking them into revealing bank accounts, crypto wallets, and other details. So far, they've wasted 17 years of scammers' time across 2.5 million conversations.

Why should you care? Scams are getting more sophisticated with AI. The FBI received over 22,000 complaints of AI-related crimes in 2025, with losses around $893 million. Apate's clients—banks, telecoms, and government agencies—use the intelligence gathered by these bots to block scams before they reach you. This means fewer annoying calls and less risk of losing your savings to fraud.

The idea started when Apate's founder, Dali Kaafar, kept a scammer on the phone for 44 minutes during a family picnic. He realized those were 44 minutes the scammer wasn't targeting a real victim. Now, his company uses AI to scale that idea. Their agents can even be assigned missions, like getting a scammer's bank account number. The information is fed to customers through an insights portal, helping them protect their users.

While this is a promising defense, it's not foolproof. Scammers constantly change tactics, and AI models need to keep up. Also, some might worry about AI agents engaging in deception, even for good. But for now, Apate's approach offers a smart way to turn the tables on fraudsters and keep your money safer.