The Fraud Boxer Podcast What are AI Agents actually doing on your site?
Aug 18, 2025
Nate Kharrl, Co-founder and CEO of Spec, and Shawn Colpitts, a fraud and data specialist at Spec, dive deep into the world of AI agents and bots. They clarify the differences between helpful agents and harmful bots, highlighting real-world examples like an AI agent's clever shopping habits. Discover why not all bots are bad for business and how blocking them indiscriminately could cost you sales. The duo also shares tips on tracking agent behavior and suggests strategies for distinguishing between legitimate traffic and malicious activity.
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Network-Level Visibility Reveals Intent
- Spec sits invisibly in the network layer and links app/web traffic in real time to reveal intent across humans, bots, and agents.
- This unified visibility solves gaps left by privacy changes and siloed logs.
Marketplace Attack Costing Millions
- Nate described a marketplace attack that used automated accounts and cost about nine million dollars before being stopped.
- The attackers never slept and adapted in minutes, revealing highly technical, automated orchestration.
Agents Behave Human But Scale Like Bots
- Agents emulate human sessions with clicks, swipes, logins and persistent profiles yet run continuously and react to defenses instantly.
- Their speed and technical sophistication make them distinguishable from naive bots but hard to catch with traditional signals.