Apate uses AI bots to tie up phone scammers and gather their intelligence

Key points

• Australian firm Apate diverts phone scammers onto calls with AI bots built to keep conversations going.
• Apate's platform, used by banks and backed by telecoms, reportedly runs around 350,000 bots.
• Reportedly, the bots have collected more than 250,000 pieces of fraud data, including scam URLs and money mule accounts.
• ETH Zurich researchers found LLM-powered honeypots kept AI attackers engaged significantly longer than predictable ones.

Why it matters for marketers: Marketers should watch how AI-driven deception tools are reshaping fraud defense, since banks and telecoms may adopt them to protect customer communications.