If, like this writer, you’ve had time on your hands, felt mischievous and decided to take on scammers with a meandering conversation to slow them down, you’re going to love what a Sydney startup is doing with Australia’s biggest bank.
Sydney cyber-intelligence startup Apate.ai has teamed up with the CommBank to create AI-powered “victim bots” using voice and text, right down to colloquial Australian phrases and swearing, to engage with scammers and waste their time, while also gathering intelligence and data.
Apate is a spin-out of Macquarie University’s AI research lab and partners with major institutions to proactively defend against fraud.
CEO and cofounder Professor Dali Kaafar said the data gathered from the interactions is fed directly into CommBank’s intelligence systems to help to prevent harm. That feedback loop creates what the startup and bank describe as a live intelligence infrastructure, fed into CommBank’s fraud detection systems in near real-time.
“We’re on the front foot disrupting the scammer’s underlying business model,” Kaafar said.
“By engaging scammers in this way, we’re wasting their time and resources, making it harder for them to operate nationally, and helping to better shield CommBank customers from scams in the process.”
The bots can now answer up to 10,000 scam calls and 2,500 scam texts daily,simulating human interaction with unique profiles that reflect the country’s diversity.
CommBank GM of fraud, James Roberts, described it as a “game-changing” capability for scam disruption and early detection.
“We’re focused on investing in innovative technologies to help combat scams and strengthen Australia’s broader anti-scam ecosystem,” he said.
“This AI-powered intelligence loop helps us identify emerging threats and continuously improve our nation’s defences.”
Apate.ai is also rolling out its platform with several leading telecommunications and banking companies in Australia, South-East Asia and Europe.
Here’s how it works.
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