Apate.ai has been recognised by the AFR BOSS Awards as Australia’s Most Innovative Technology Company for 2025.

In a field crowded with AI start-ups, this award highlights something rare – a technology built not just to detect scams, but to dismantle them.

From a 44-minute call to a global mission

The idea for Apate began with a scammer call that interrupted a family picnic. Instead of hanging up, our founder, Professor Dali Kaafar, stayed on the line. Forty-four minutes later, he realised he’d wasted a scammer’s time – and saved someone else from being targeted.

That moment became the spark for Apate: what if technology could do this at scale?

Flipping the model

Most fraud tools wait for harm, flagging scams after the fact. Apate does the opposite.

Our AI bots talk directly to scammers across phone, SMS, and messaging apps. They sound human, act human, and keep scammers engaged – capturing data in real time on mule networks, crypto wallets, impersonated brands, and social engineering scripts.

Every conversation feeds a live intelligence loop that helps telcos, banks, and government agencies stop scams before they reach the public.

Building an army for good

What started with a handful of prototype bots has become a global network of thousands, running 24/7 in multiple languages. Each one is part of a system that securely creates, deploys, and manages large-scale scam engagements — the first of its kind.

Since launch, Apate has:

• Diverted more than 550,000 scam calls and 56,000 scam text conversations

• Prevented over $12 million in potential losses

• Reduced false positives sixfold for major telcos

• Partnered with Commonwealth Bank and TPG Telecom to deploy at scale

Recognised innovation, real-world impact

The AFR BOSS award acknowledges what our partners already know: proactive disruption works. By meeting scammers head-on, Apate gives enterprises and governments a new layer of defence – one built on real-time counter-intelligence, not static detection.

As Dali said, “We’re creating a category that doesn’t exist today – proactive, AI-driven scam engagement. The future of protection is about intelligence, not reaction.”

Looking ahead

Apate is now scaling internationally across the UK, Europe, and Asia. The goal: to build the world’s first global infrastructure for scam disruption – a shield that learns from every conversation, making scams harder to run, scale, and hide.

The mission remains the same: dismantle the business model of scammers globally.

Learn more

See how real-time scam intelligence is changing the economics of fraud.
Check out our latest ‘Scam Campaign Brief – Medicare GP’ or speak with our team to learn how Apate.ai can strengthen your organisation’s defences.