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As of Oct 14, Australian startup Apate.ai, founded in 2024 on Macquarie University research, runs thousands of AI agents that pose as potential victims of different ages, genders, accents and languages: they answer scam calls, reply to messages and emails, follow phishing links and join social media groups to keep scammers talking, per TechCrunch.
- Reported by TechCrunch
Apate.ai deploys thousands of AI agents posing as scam victims to draw out fraudsters' bank accounts and crypto wallets for banks and telcos, per TechCrunch
Not confirmed by the company — reported on Oct 14, 2026 (source: techcrunch.com).
Australian startup Apate.ai, founded in 2024 on Macquarie University research, runs thousands of AI agents that pose as potential victims of different ages, genders, accents and languages: they answer scam calls, reply to messages and emails, follow phishing links and join social media groups to keep scammers talking. The company says its agents have wasted 17 years of scammers' time across 2.5 million conversations, and they try to get scammers to reveal bank accounts, crypto wallets, phone numbers and malicious sites, which Apate passes to customers such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom. Co-founder Brad Joffe said the agents use both frontier models and Apate's own fine-tuned models. Apate raised an $8.15 million seed round in August.
Source: TechCrunch
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