Anti-fraud groups are increasingly using AI to turn the tables on scammers. Convincing bots pose as potential victims and keep fraudsters busy in pointless conversations. Every hour spent on a bot is an hour not spent on a real person. The chats also reveal how the scams work, which helps defenders.
What it means: Using bots to waste fraudsters' time is not a new idea, but modern language models make it far more convincing, because they can keep a conversation going for hours, imitate hesitation or confusion and reply in several languages with no human involved. The economics are simple: fraud is a business with limited staff, and every minute a scammer spends on a fake victim is a minute not spent on a pensioner or an unsuspecting bank customer. There is a second, less visible benefit, because those conversations become material for security teams, who learn the scripts, the fake bank details and the pressure tactics in use, and can update filters and warn customers more quickly. For banks, telecom providers and online shops, where text and phone scams keep growing, the message is that defence can and should be automated as fast as attack is, while still respecting data protection rules when those conversations are stored and analysed.
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