Scambaiting impact

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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:01 pm

How much damage do you think we have done to the lads

Will he think heres another chance for easy money or how do i know if this guy is real.
I mean they launched a dos attack on eater and aa419 we must be harming their pockets . What do you think?

419Eater is my life Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 493

Lots of damage overall.
Unfortunately there are just too many of them for us to be able to be able to bring it to an end. But with all these people baiting them, and with some baiters managing to get some stunning safari's and waste so much of their time...you cant help but think of all the innocent people that they haven't had time to work on.
And I believe that the DOS attack is a good sign in that it shows we are making a difference and have been noticed.

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:07 pm

I'm afraid it's just a drop in the bucket.

If you see how many of these scumbags are around, and what a shitload of initial 419-letters you have in your catcher account every day, I think we need to become a much bigger community before they'll be really harmed. There are still so many gullible victims all over the world that 419 scamming is still a pretty lucrative "business" - sadly.

On the other hand - the DOS is a definitive proof that they are pissed because of us.

As for me, I just enjoy baiting these idiots and getting some classy trophy stuff. If they need a lot of resources (money, time) to produce it - even better. If I can provoke a huge argument between the scammer and others he engaged (and probably proposed to pay them afterwards) with a nice beating of my scammer at the end - excellent. Laughing

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:16 pm

^^ my feelings too. Too many fish in the ocean for us all to catch, but by God, we have some great trophys, and the publicity helps

Unfortunately, there are too many stupid people out there that believe theyhave won �35 million, can help someone shift Saddams hidden money, think that there are refugees in insufferable camps from the California fires

Until you accept that the vast majority of people on the internet are just plain stupid, and that the scammers are always going to find someone stupid enough to go along with whatever modality they have, we are just seeing the top of the iceberg

Did I mix enough metaphors in there?

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:35 pm

When you think about it as damage to the lads and 419 scams as a whole, we have probably made a very small impact. When you refer to some of the particular lads and gangs that we have dedicated time into destroying, then we have had huge amounts of success.

When I think about just what I have read on these boards over the past year or so, I can remember at least 10 scammers that had their lives completely destroyed by baiters. There are countless other lads who have had theirs lives made into a living hell at least for a short period of time.

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:57 pm

I have it on good authority that many of my lads' correspondence is 90% with baiters. Real victims are thankfully somewhat rare. I have had opportunity to locate and warn several victims who had sent money and were about to send more.

So, overall I'd say we're hurting the scammers pretty hard, but they do seem to find plenty of people who are naive, greedy, or both.

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:25 pm

@ Irish, you forgot to mention people looking for bike insurance... not that anyone fell for that one! We sure wasted Mr Philio$ time! hahahaha!

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:27 am

Scambaiting is very much like making love to a beautiful woman...you try your very hardest, but sometimes it ain't good enough. At the end of the day there are plenty more fish to fry.

The universe doesn't end with a bang, it ends with a lottery win - which is nice!

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:40 am

There are more mentions of 419 scams around the internet and even gets mentioned in shows. We have been a part of newscasts about them and referenced by web pages and many other sources. ( and as said before the DDOS which also got some notoriety in the iPress). We many not stop the scammers directly but educating the public and bringing the topic into view has had an effect. And we hear from people every now and then who say if they didn't found us and see that the email they got was a scam, they might have fallen for it.

Baiting Guru Joined: 17 Sep 2006 Posts: 5905

Not only that certain habits picked up by the majority of baiters has made lads weary about certain things which will affect their productivity. No matter how important/pointless you think hiding your IP address is the fact is that paranoia over this subject has ended with the majority of baiters using Gmail to the point where it has been referenced that lads are now weary about doing business with people on Gmail. This could save a real victim who happens to be using Gmail.

There are also some lads now who drop you if you refuse to call them on the phone which again can be attributed to the fact a lot of baiters do not want to receive phone calls from scammers so make up some excuse. It is not inconceviable that skeptical but intrested victims would initially be hesitant about giving out their phone number to someone they have never met before after 1 Email.

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:54 pm

well sadly there is *REAL* bicycle insurance. just a little rider on your home owners incase that expensive mountain bike gets stolen Smile

But anyways back to baiting

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:48 pm

In the last few times I have been trying to get lads (Yes, even though I'm quieter, I try to bait when I have a chance!), they have been pretty reluctant to do anything that will directly expose them like filling out forms, pose with a sign, etc. I have even been told to not visit Nigeria by one of my lads a little while ago...

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:54 pm

In the four years that I've been baiting I've definitely noticed that lads are far more wary today than they used to be. Whether they've been baited themselves or just heard stories from other lads is unknown, but they're far quicker to drop me if I stall even a little (and I do straight baits). This is a Very Good Thingtm since any hesitation by real victims will cause lads to drop them. We're having an impact, absolutely, even if it can't be quantified in numbers.

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 63

In the short time I have been baiting I have found the lack of policing quite disturbing in relation to these scammers, on only 4 occasions has a server warned me that the e-mail address was suspect.
As to the effectivness of Baiters, only time will tell, but every bit of effort to tie up the time of these people must be worth it.

Quote:

Until you accept that the vast majority of people on the internet are just plain stupid, and that the scammers are always going to find someone stupid enough to go along with whatever modality they have, we are just seeing the top of the iceberg

What a crass Statement to make IMO so your contention is that any one who uses the internet is plain stupid barring the select few minority Rolling Eyes

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:45 pm

^If the newspapers are to be believed, �3Billion is the UK slice of the scammers pie per year. That suggests either :
the papers got it wrong, or
There are a lot of stupid people out there.

Now, maybe the word stupid is the wrong one to use in the OP's post, perhaps 'gullible' would be more appropriate?

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 63

�3Billion ???????
I think the papers did get it wrong Shocked

Try this at home the population of Britain is 60 million divide that into 38 billion pound = the goverment would go ape shit Very Happy

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:57 pm

I stand by my remark above, when an 18 yr old in New Zealand can infect 1.5 million computers with a bot because 1.5 million people didn't have a firewall or anti-virus installed, it makes you wonder

As to whether or not the papers in Britain got the numbers wrong, I think that is probably a conservative estimate, based on reported scams, there are going to scams that never get reported due to the victims being so embarrassed by falling for it.

Or able to hide the losses suffered

Either way, there are a lot of *gullible * people out there

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 63

Quote:

Either way, there are a lot of *gullible * people out there

So this has gone down from the VAST majority
Thank you

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:12 pm

Overall, I don't think it's a very large percentage of smamers out there. But in sheer numbers, you guys (I'm new) have probably saved people million and millions of dollars.

People are getting wiser to these scams. I heard a PSA (public service announcement) on radio today here in the USA. It was from a non-for-profit public research group warning people about random cyberspace cons, especially emails from strangers claiming that they have money for you but require you to pay a "small" fee to recover your money. Nothing is free! It was the typical 419 scam alert. It made me think of this site and how much good it is doing.

Keep up the good work! And a happy holidays to all.

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:17 pm

whatever rattles your cage Anzac, just stopping this thread turning into a nitpicking rant

Baiting Guru Joined: 17 Sep 2006 Posts: 5905

@irishemigrant

Ever seen this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puYEUs18MFI&feature=related it is about a Californian Heart Surgeon who fell for a 419 scam. Do you think he is stupid? There is a scam out there with everyones name on it and no matter how intelligent you are nobody is immune.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:58 pm

I think the point is there are different levels and areas of stupidity. Some people drive stupid, some socially interact stupid, and some people are are too trusting of emails from strangers. (and some people, no matter how hard they try, can't quite master spellng.)

And some people ARE immune to 419 scams, take all of us for example!

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 7:44 pm

jxd wrote:

(and some people, no matter how hard they try, can't quite master spellng.)

I see what you did there!
Back on topic, if you look at some of the first ever baits and compare them to todays, you can see you have a stupendously small chance of pulling off things now than what baiters did many years ago.

It's a good thing, if these scammers are getting more paranoid they could potentially drop a real victim if they ask a sensitive question.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 7:56 pm

All I know is that I have given some REALLY special attention to a few lads. I know that there are a few individual lads who have had a different life because of me.

Baiting Guru Joined: 17 Sep 2006 Posts: 5905

jxd wrote:

And some people ARE immune to 419 scams, take all of us for example!

Beg to differ we are probably less likely to fall for a scam but nobody is immune. If we are to take 419 as an umbrella term for all types of Advance Fee Fraud if there is a talanted scammer out there who knew which particular buttons to press you or I could be a victim of such a scam tomorrow. Humans have been falling for scams since they have walked they earth, we can educate people to be vigilant and become less likely to fall for a scam ourselves due to what we have read about/seen happen but we are by no means immune.