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CBA's Pollen team runs AI bots on TPG numbers, logging 272,000+ scammer chats as Australian scam losses reached $2.18 billion in 2025.
CBA AI Honeypots Log 272,000 Conversations With Scammers
The Commonwealth Bank's scam defence unit has confirmed its AI decoy system held more than 272,000 automated conversations with scammers since going live in August 2025, part of a coordinated effort to drain fraudster resources and harvest intelligence on active phone and messaging scam campaigns targeting Australians. Reporting from The Australian Financial Review indicates the unit, known internally as the Pollen team, managed 2,249 simultaneous live conversations with potential scammers on a single Thursday afternoon earlier this month.
The operation runs from CBA's Axle building in South Eveleigh, Sydney, where six workers oversee AI software handling a workload the bank estimates is 100 times what human operators previously achieved. James Roberts, CBA's head of fraud and scams, described agentic AI as one of the most significant shifts he has seen in nearly 25 years of fraud work.
How the Decoy Conversations Work
The bots use technology from Apate.ai, a spinout from Macquarie University, and operate on Australian mobile numbers provisioned through TPG. According to the AFR report, the bots are trained to mimic human hesitancy and scepticism, dragging conversations out over days to extract information that scammers would otherwise use against real Australian account holders.
One exchange documented during the AFR visit involved a scammer impersonating Elon Musk and attempting to sell Tesla shares. The conversation ran to 258 messages across 48 hours. The scammer initially demanded bitcoin payment, but the decoy persisted until the scammer supplied an Australian BSB and account number, a likely mule account that can then be flagged for disruption. Overnight, the bots generated 81 security alerts for CBA staff to review during business hours.
The Scale of Scam Losses Behind the Operation
The investment reflects the size of the problem facing Australian consumers. ACCC figures cited in the report show 274,577 Australians lodged reports totalling $2.18 billion in scam losses across 2025, a rise of 7.8 per cent on 2024 though still around 30 per cent below the 2022 peak of $3.1 billion. Investment scams remain the most reported category, followed by payment redirection, romance scams, and phishing attempts that impersonate banks or government agencies.
Impersonation of trusted public figures continues to feature heavily in the complaint pipeline. The report notes deep fakes of CBA chief executive Matt Comyn and mining executive Andrew Forrest have circulated on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp, typically funnelling victims into phone conversations with scammers running investment scripts. The United States Institute of Peace estimates 500,000 people work as scammers globally, with many operating from compounds in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
What Australians Should Do When a Suspicious Number Calls
The Pollen team's intelligence work focuses on mule accounts and scammer tactics, but front-line defence still depends on individual awareness of common patterns. Contributors to community report platforms consistently flag the same signals:
- Unsolicited calls or messages promoting cryptocurrency, share trading, or exclusive investment opportunities tied to a well-known Australian figure
- Requests to move the conversation to WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal after initial phone contact
- Pressure to act quickly, share banking details, or install a remote-access application
- Callers claiming to be from a bank, the ATO, myGov, or Services Australia and requesting verification codes, passwords, or one-off transfers
- Requests to receive money into your account and forward it elsewhere, which is how mule accounts are recruited
Legitimate Australian banks and government agencies do not request passwords, one-time codes, or remote desktop access over the phone. If a caller claims to be from your bank, hang up and ring the number printed on the back of your card.
How to Report Numbers and Check Community Signal
Suspected scam calls and SMS can be reported to Scamwatch at scamwatch.gov.au, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre within the ACCC. Text messages can be forwarded free of charge to 0429 999 888, the SMS scam reporting service operated by ACMA in partnership with Australian telcos. Cybercrime involving financial loss or account compromise should be reported through ReportCyber at cyber.gov.au.
Before returning a missed call or replying to an unfamiliar number, Australians can search the number on Reverseau to see whether other contributors have already flagged it. The value of community reports grows each time another Australian logs a scam attempt, because the same numbers often resurface across thousands of unsuspecting recipients before being disconnected. Consistent reporting, to Scamwatch, to your telco, and to community platforms, is how call-level intelligence becomes telco-level disruption.