CommBank deploys batallion of AI-powered bot profiles to chat with scammers
Australia's CommBank is turning the table on scammers, launching a fleet of thousands of AI-generated bot profiles to engage with and disrupt criminal networks fleecing consumers.
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The AI bots are deployed by Apate.ai - a cyber-intelligence firm and spin-out from Macquarie University.
'This is about flipping the script,' says James Roberts, CommBank's general manager of group fraud. 'Scammers are increasingly using AI to target Australians - we're turning the tables by using AI to fight back. Every minute a scammer is engaging with a bot, is a minute they're not targeting an Australian. The near real-time intelligence being gathered is a game-changer in how we help to protect our customers and the broader community.'
When a scammer calls or texts, the bots engage them in extended conversations, gather intelligence, and feed near real-time insights directly into CommBank's scam control systems and the broader cross-sector anti-scam ecosystem.
Professor Dali Kaafar, CEO & founder of Apate.ai, says: 'Our system is based on a 'Honeypot' strategy. In collaboration with our telco partners, Apate.ai operates a vast and constantly growing network of dedicated telephone numbers connected to the telcos networks and designed specifically to be discovered and targeted by scammers. When a scammer dials or messages one of these numbers, they actually engage in conversations with one of our AI-powered bots and not a person.
'We've designed our bots to be difficult to detect by scammers, making them incredibly effective at gathering intelligence and disrupting scam operations. The bots are uniquely crafted with diverse identities - varying in gender, age, tone, and cultural nuance - and fine-tuned with Australian slang and humour to improve realism.'
The full-scale roll out of the bot network follows a successful pilot programme with Macquarie University in late 2024.
'Since the pilot programme was announced late 2024, it has expanded in both scale and sophistication,' says Roberts. 'This has seen hundreds of thousands of scam calls diverted to bots, with intelligence gathered helping to generate near real-time alerts and blocks to protect CommBank customers."
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