A group of experts in cybersecurityfrom the Australiais developing an innovative method that aims to combat phone scammers.
Researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney have created a chatbot system capable of mimicking a human being and trick the fraudsters during phone calls, wasting the time of the scammers.
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O chatbot, called Apate in reference to the Greek goddess of deceit, works as a “trap” that lures scammers into long and fruitless conversations, with an average duration of 40 minutes.
The idea is that by keeping scammers busy, the number of successful scams is reduced, making it harder for them to earn money illicitly.
The project was started after Professor Dali Kaafar of Macquarie University received a call spam and keep the scammer on the line for 40 minutes while entertaining your kids during the lunch.
This incident led to reflection on how to automate the entire process and develop a chatbot that could conduct compelling conversations using natural language so scammers don't notice.
To train Apate, the research team used actual transcripts of scam conversations, including phone calls, emails and social media messages. Based on this data, it is able to generate human-like responses during fraudulent calls.
Apate has been tested on real scammer calls via a prototype, and the results so far are promising. Although the current average duration of conversations is just five minutes, the goal is to increase this time, which would make the chatbot even more effective in thwarting scammers.
The development of the model is also a response to the fact that scammers are already exploiting artificial intelligence technologies such as voice cloning and deepfakes to enhance their own cheats.
That is, the research team is exploring whether the same technologies can be used to combat these blows, creating a scenario where bad actors would be confronted by telecom providers.
The team is currently in negotiations with several providers to implement Apate as a defense tool against this type of fraud.
With the continuous improvement of the chatbot and its ability to adapt to situations presented by scammers, it is expected to become an effective solution to reduce the occurrence of these scams and protect the people.