Apate.ai Deploys AI Agents to Infiltrate Scammers and Extract Fraud Intelligence
Apate.ai’s AI agents have wasted 17 years of scammers’ time across 2.5 million conversations, extracting bank account numbers, crypto wallets and malicious sites before victims are harmed. Founded in 2024, the startup serves Commonwealth Bank and TPG Telecom.
An Australian startup is fighting fraud by turning scammers’ own tactics against them. Apate.ai, founded in 2024 and based on research from Macquarie University in Sydney, deploys thousands of AI agents that pose as potential victims — answering scam calls, responding to phishing messages, following malicious links, and joining social media groups — to extract intelligence from fraudsters before any real person gets hurt.
The company says its agents have collectively wasted 17 years of scammers’ time across 2.5 million conversations. More importantly, those interactions are designed to surface details that typically only emerge after a victim has been defrauded: bank account numbers, crypto wallet addresses, phone numbers, malicious websites, and the brands being impersonated. That intelligence is then fed to Apate’s customers — banks, telecom companies, government agencies, and utilities — to inform their anti-fraud measures.
The idea originated with CEO Dali Kaafar, who kept a scammer on the phone for 44 minutes during a family picnic and later wondered whether the process could be automated. That question led to research at Macquarie University and eventually to the founding of Apate. Co-founder and CCO Brad Joffe described the company’s approach as proactive: “Most of the industry works after the fact. We go to the scammer directly and get the information before anyone gets hurt.”
Current customers include Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom. TPG has diverted nearly 590,000 calls to Apate’s agents; Commonwealth Bank has seen a 76% drop in publicly reported scam losses; and an unnamed Australian bank has used Apate to disrupt 22 scam campaigns.
Apate raised $8.15 million in seed funding in August 2026 from investors including Lobby Capital, OIF Ventures, and Investible, bringing its total funding to just under $10 million. The 20-person company plans to use the capital for product development and international expansion, including a London office and a larger U.S. presence. Apate was also named a finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 200, held in San Francisco in October 2026.
The company’s timing reflects a growing threat: the FBI received more than 22,000 complaints of AI-related crimes in 2025, resulting in approximately $893 million in losses.