How far ahead do you plan your baits?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:26 pm

Half and half, one must be prepared, but also ready for unexpected new events that could make things more interesting for the mugus.

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:29 pm

I clicked wing it, but it depends on what you mean by plan. I try to think things out one or two emails ahead but if a lad opens a door for a different direction I am willing to throw out my plans and try for a different direction. So really I am half and half.

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:37 pm

It really depends on the scammer as to what i do.

I normally just wing it but there is a certain element of planning in some of my baits

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:51 pm

I'm in the middle of my first bait(s), and I've got a very specific end result in mind. Heck, I'm already planning how to write out the eventual saga for 419eater, another message board, and mass-email to my friends. (And trust me, if I get what I want, it will be entertaining enough to justify telling all of the above).

Once I get an idea in my head, I have a very hard time letting go of it.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:40 am

When I first started baiting I had things mapped out in my mind in much the same way as lads follow their own script. I pulled off my first succesful bait exactly as planned. My lad was very cooperative and followed my lead. But my second major bait showed me what it's like when I'm knocked off script...

As many others have posted, now I mostly wing it by having my characters well established in my own mind, and acting as I think they would. I don't try to map things out from start to finish, but I usually have a couple of ideas in mind of directions I can take a bait, depending upon how it plays out. And I'm always ready to go off in a totally unplanned direction if the situation calls for it.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:48 am

I wing it at first, and then see if I have a keeper or not. I drop lads all the time, more than I keep. Once the hook is in, I start to move them towards what I want. It helps to have multiple characters, which are all rearrangeable for different baits. My one safari (so far) took me about 4 months to set up, and four characters, with help from $imba and two or three characters he has.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:50 am

I'm a little of both, and not very adept at either! I plan it in the sense that I know what the lads' first few e-mails are going to be, and it doesn't take long to figure out what kind of mugu I have and what his MO is. If I send a "show me the invoice" message, I'm fully prepared for their "the security company cannot open the boxes" response. But quite often the mugu will come up with something so stupid or crazy there's just no way to forsee it. I don't think you can really build a formula for baiting. I guess you could say I have a carefully laid out plan to wing it! Very Happy

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:22 am

I also don't plan ahead very much.
Baiting is pretty much like driving a car, which in turn is pretty much like chess. You can think about possible next moves your opponent will do, but you just can't cover everything. At the same time you try to lay out a rough direction where you want to go.

One thing I start planning is a safari. Simba helps me on this and we have discussed a few options. So now I start executing the first steps to make the lad randy enough to be willing to travel, so that he can some money and a willing western lady. The safari is supposed to be staged in January, but might still be delayed some more depending on the progress with my lad.
So, this is actually one thing I really think about, the other stuff is, as said, loosely following a rough direction, always based on what the lad shoots at me.

One example: For N4th4n, that hitman-guy, my plan (with one of my chars) is to make him so upset that he eventually makes a mistake. I don't know if that will happen and what kind of mistake that might be, but it's fun. I keep insulting him and he insults back. And I can already imagine him sitting in his cafe with a hot-glowing head because of all the things I'm telling him about himself and his goat...

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:28 am

I tend to map out a rough outline or major milestones of the bait; however, the method to get to each point is left open and fairly flexible. This allows me to take advantage of opportunities or new ideas as they occur. Some baits have gone as originally planned and others have wandered off in a different and unplanned, but still satisfying, direction. I create good backgrounds and stories for each baiting character which helps me from making to many mistakes.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:30 am

I didn't create the backgrounds yet. I'll try to do this very soon.
One lad got a bit confused because I sent him 4 different addresses...

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:39 am

I only wing it, perhaps still in reaction to the drastic failures I suffered in my very early baiting days when I planned out complicated multiple-lad baits to the finest detail, convinced that I was such a master of mind games it would be no trouble at all to make them bow to my bidding.

Well, I did get a couple of lads to hold signs, or at least they told me they did.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:18 pm

rootuser wrote:

Baiting is pretty much like driving a car, which in turn is pretty much like chess.

I've always described it as being like playing poker with a marked deck.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:26 pm

I wing it about 75-80% of the time. I usually have a general idea of what I want the lad to do, but I am very flexible as to how I get there.
I generally let the lad maintain the illusion he is in control, and that approach requires a great deal of flexibility.
The goal itself may be nothing more than "Just waste his time".

Then I have a few baits that I have a very specific goal in mind, and I have orchestrated steps that must be followed.
If the lad deviates from that path, I am always steering him back to my goal.
I have one such bait with a pet going now, where the goal is to find out as much as I can about his modus operandi, as he cooperates with my fake lad.
Hopefully, I will be able to use this information in such a way as to infiltrate and monitor the majority of his scams to innocent victims.
That's the plan on paper, anyway!

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:20 pm

I think almost all of the time, I wing it. I found out early on that if you let the baits drive themselves, they'll take you down some really interesting roads.

If I'm after a trophy photo, (which I haven't attempted in quite a long time), then I'll pick a character name that will somehow find its way to being used on a sign.....but even then I'm still making things up as I go along.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:29 pm

If you don't know where you are and where you want to go, then any road will take you there.

When I was baiting I used to plot out ahead what I'd like to do, any chance of getting him to travel, do I want to develop a love bait, how will I wind the bait up.

Then it's e-mail by e-mail but with the end result in mind.

However the end result may change depending on the gullability of the lad.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:54 pm

Still learning, but I think it's fair to say I have a general direction in which I want them to go, but sometimes they leave an opening you can slip into and exploit (that didn't come out sounding the way I meant it to!).

In a magazine article I'm writing, i refer to the art of baiting as "cyber-jujitsu", reversing the flow and twisting it in an advantageous direction.

419Eater is my life Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 356

A bit of both for me. I often start out with rough plans, but I don't get too attached to them. The ideas that come from the lads' own poorly-thought-out comments are a lot more fun than anything I would come up with on my own. Very Happy

Granted, my baits usually turn out fairly uninteresting, so maybe sometime I should try more planning to see if that helps. Smile

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 8:53 am

thomas-the-tank wrote:

.... but sometimes they leave an opening you can slip into and exploit (that didn't come out sounding the way I meant it to!).

I can feel a Swiss Toni "Very much like making love to a beautiful woman..." quote coming on, if you'll pardon the expression. Very Happy

How far ahead do you plan your baits?	View next topic View previous topic