How Apate’s AI chatbots Fight Fake Phone Scammers

Scammers looking for passcodes are among the most widespread security threats harming people financially and emotionally today. To help combat this persistent threat, Macquarie University Professor Dali Kaafar and his colleagues have developed talking AI robots. A scammer calls and asks for a password. Malcolm, an old man with an English accent, was confused. “What are you talking about?” Malcolm asked.

Another day, another scam phone call. This time it was Ibrahim, a polite and cooperative man with an Egyptian accent, who answered. “Honestly, I’m not sure I remember buying anything recently,” he tells the hopeful trickster. “Maybe one of the kids did it,” Ibrahim continued, “but it’s not your fault, is it?”

Give the scammers themselves a dose of medicine

In one incident, Kaafar fell in love with a cheater while playing with his children, which prompted him to devise this method. A clever “dad prank” kept the scammer online and kept his kids happy. This organization studied the concept of deceiving the cheaters and wasting their time to prevent them from attacking others.

Advanced AI Robots, featuring different ages, voices, emotions and personalities. These bots hire fraudulent, suspicious or malicious people. Apate technology and $720,000 from the Office of National Intelligence has helped Australian media companies reject two billion fraudulent calls since December 2020. Scam calls can be forwarded to Apate by the media company. The bots try other methods to keep the scammers in line. This system wastes the time of the scammers, but provides very important information about new scams, such as call durations, peak times and plans.

Kaafar, in the long run, expects Apate to harm the multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise’s mobile phone fraud business. Their next step is to use AI to alert victims and stop fraud immediately.

Scamwatch, run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) National Anti-Scam Center (NASC), advises consumers to ignore scammers. In addition, they examine technical services such as Apate and want to evaluate their performance.

Experts say efforts against mobile fraud need to improve as criminals develop more sophisticated methods using the latest technology, such as artificial intelligence. “Smishing,” or sending harmful text messages from mobile phones, is on the rise, according to ProPrivacy digital privacy expert Ray Walsh, according to Reader’s Digest. These fake messages are often related to malware or stealing personal data. Fraudsters can pose as banks, the IRS or healthcare organizations and steal personal information and credit card data.

In addition to smishing, hackers can pretend to distribute malware. Cybersecurity expert Ravichandran says hackers can easily spoof phone numbers or send phishing emails to get personal data. These communications are often linked to fraudulent websites that steal personal data. In addition to using anti-phishing technology, security experts advise caution when receiving unsolicited emails, especially those asking for personal information or asking to click on unknown URLs.

The Apate bots to the rescue from phone scammer

Australian telecommunications companies have intercepted two billion fraudulent phone calls since December 2020.

Thanks in part to $720,000 in funding from the Office of National Intelligence, there are now hundreds of thousands of “chatbots that have been tortured,” too many to name individually. Robots of different “ages” speak English with different accents. They have different emotions, personalities and responses. Sometimes they are smart, sometimes they are suspicious, sometimes they are rude.

If an ad agency detects a fraudster and turns them over to a system like Apate, the bots will work to keep the fraudsters active. They try different techniques and learn what works to ensure that scammers stay online longer. Through success and failure, machines improve their behavior. In doing so, they develop intelligence and discover new tricks, collect information on the duration of calls, when scammers tend to call, the information they are looking for and the methods they use.

Kafaar hopes Apate will disrupt the business model of call scams – often run by large, multi-billion dollar criminals. The next step is to use the collected information to prevent and respond to fraud immediately.

Also Read: How to use Apple Notes to have secret conversations with others

Kafaar said: “We are talking about real criminals who make our lives miserable. “We’re talking about real human risks.

“People who sometimes lose their savings, who can be crippled by debt and sometimes hurt [by] shame. »

Richard Buckland, a professor of cybercrime at the University of New South Wales, said that technology like Apate appeared in other forms of fraud, which could be amateurish or seem vigilant.

He says: “Fraud is always a problem. “But it’s beautiful.”

He says, sin can be committed when individuals act on their own.

“You might attack the wrong person.” He said that most fraudsters are people who act in a state of slavery, almost slavery, “and they are not bad people.” “[But] some fraudsters are trying to go further, to take the law into their own hands. To hack or interact with them. That’s the problem. »

But, he says, Apate’s model shows he’s using AI for good — like a kind of “honeymoon” to attract criminals and learn from them.

Buckland warns that it will take a lot of trust for only scammers as telecom companies move to AI bots, because people who don’t know what’s happening are everywhere. It also warns that criminal organizations could use anti-fraud AI technology to train their own systems.

He says: “The same technology used to cheat fraudsters can be used to cheat people.” The National Anti-Scam Center (NASC) operates Scamwatch under the auspices of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). An ACCC spokesperson says fraudsters are impersonating reputable companies and may be misusing legitimate phone numbers.

“Criminals create a sense of urgency by trying to get targets to act quickly,” the spokesperson explains. “They often try to convince the victims to share personal or bank information, or give them access to their computers internally. “Criminals may already have some of the information they want, such as their name or address, that they have obtained or purchased illegally as a result of a data breach, phishing or other scam.”

This week, Scamwatch should issue a warning about meta scams.

Fraudsters claiming to be from the NASC itself are calling innocent people and telling them that they are being investigated for involvement in fraud. The NASC says that people should pay directly to scammers and “not try to associate with criminals.” The spokesman said he was aware of “technological strategies to create scams using AI voice characters,” including Apate, and would be interested in any investigation of the platform. Meanwhile, there is a thriving community of online scammers, and Lenny is still one of its heroes.

In one memorable recording, Lenny tells the caller to wait a minute, while the ducks start quacking in the background. “Sorry about that,” Lenny said. “What are you talking about again?”

“Are you on your computer?” the caller asked impatiently. “Do you have a computer? Can you get on the computer now?”

Lenny continued until the trickster lost: “Shut up. You shut up. You shut up.”

“Can you catch it?» » asked Lenny, as the duck began to tremble again.

How to get a phone scam

Phishing scammers use tempting offers, humanitarian appeals and government officials to lure their victims. They tend to make people judge quickly without thinking. According to the Texas Attorney General’s website, here are the common warning signs of phone fraud to watch out for:

Scammers may say they’ve chosen you for a gift.
In order to create momentum, they deploy high-quality marketing practices and “short-term” offers. Fraudsters avoid questions about their business or plans.
Personal data requests: They may “confirm your personal information” to identify you. Scammers may ask for cash, gift cards, wire transfers, or private messengers instead of credit cards.
Fraudsters may ask for your credit card or other payment method for shipping and billing purposes. Fraudsters can use threats and intimidation to get what they want from potential victims.
Security experts advise people to always check for offers and solicitations that don’t ask for personal information or money.