Apate.ai Deploys AI Agents to Collect Crypto Wallet Clues From Scammers

An Australian startup is deploying AI personas in scam calls, messages and online groups to gather bank account and crypto wallet clues for its financial and telecommunications customers.

Apate.ai’s agents use invented identities with different ages, genders and accents. They answer calls, respond to texts and emails, open suspicious links and join online groups. Text-based agents also participate in forums and investment chats to look for suspicious activity. The agents are designed to occupy scammers while drawing out details that may help customers identify accounts and websites involved in fraud.

Information gathered can include bank account numbers, wallet addresses, malicious websites and brands being impersonated. Apate’s customers include Commonwealth Bank of Australia, TPG Telecom, other telecommunications companies, utilities and government agencies. Customers can assign agents specific tasks, such as finding a bank account or crypto wallet address, giving the exchanges a defined goal.

During a TPG Telecom test, high-risk calls were routed to multilingual bots. The test diverted more than 280,000 scam calls, identified more than 20,000 impersonated organizations and kept scammers engaged for as long as 54 minutes. Apate says TPG has since routed nearly 590,000 calls to its agents. The company also says its agents have held 2.5 million conversations with scammers, totaling 17 years of interaction time.

Commonwealth Bank uses a separate approach involving honeypot phone numbers: lines deliberately exposed to scammers so an AI agent can answer calls that reach them. Apate’s other agents can respond to suspicious messages, follow links and enter online groups, creating several ways to gather leads from suspected fraudsters.

Apate grew out of research at Macquarie University and was founded in 2024. It raised $8.15 million in a seed round in August 2026, led by Lobby Capital, bringing total funding to just under $10 million. The company plans to use the money for product development and international expansion, including a London office and a larger U.S. presence.