Apate.ai Deploys AI Agents Undercover to Gather Fraud Intelligence

Apate.ai, an Australian startup founded in 2024 based on research from Macquarie University in Sydney, is deploying thousands of AI agents undercover to get scammed. Unlike most companies that use AI for workflow efficiency, Apate.ai's agents masquerade as innocent victims to gather crucial fraud intelligence.

These AI agents actively engage with fraudsters by answering scam calls, responding to deceptive messages and emails, following phishing links, and joining social media groups. They adopt various ages, genders, accents, and languages to keep scammers engaged long enough to extract valuable information. The company reports that its fleet of agents has collectively wasted 17 years of scammers’ time across 2.5 million conversations. More importantly for its customers—including banks, telecom companies, government agencies, and utilities—the agents aim to uncover details such as scam bank accounts, crypto wallets, phone numbers, malicious websites, and the brands being impersonated, information typically only learned after a victim has been defrauded.

Apate, a finalist at this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, feeds this intelligence to its customers to bolster their anti-fraud measures. This proactive approach contrasts with the industry's typical post-fact interventions. Brad Joffe, co-founder and chief commercial officer, stated, "Most of the industry works after the fact… We go to the scammer directly and get the information before anyone gets hurt." He noted that Apate's AI agents engage with "tens of thousands of scammers every day across calls, messages, email and the web." The FBI reported over 22,000 complaints of AI-related crimes in 2025, leading to approximately $893 million in losses, with $632 million from investment scams where AI facilitated conversations and deepfakes.

The startup uses both frontier models and its own fine-tuned models, trained on agent-scammer interactions and Macquarie research. Customers receive access to an insights portal, offering analytics on scams targeting their users or brands, and can assign agents specific missions, such as obtaining a bank account number. Notable customers include Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom; TPG has diverted nearly 590,000 calls to Apate's agents, and Commonwealth Bank has seen a 76% drop in publicly reported scam losses. An unnamed Australian bank disrupted 22 scam campaigns using Apate’s outbound agents.

Apate recently secured $8.15 million in seed funding in August, bringing its total raised to just under $10 million from investors like Lobby Capital and OIF Ventures. The 20-person company plans to use this capital for product development and international expansion, including new offices in London and a larger presence in the U.S. The company, named after the Greek goddess of deception, even celebrates scammers swearing at its bots, tracking it as a sign of frustration.

What to watch: Apate's international expansion and continued impact on global fraud intelligence.

Editor's note: Thoroughly details Apate.ai's undercover AI agents, statistics, funding, and client metrics from the source.