Last Lad Standing! Competitive scambaiting!

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 4

Okay, I'm brand-new here, so maybe I'm overstepping my bounds by proposing something so bold. But I've come up with an idea too awesome to wait until after I've established some cred before I share it.

Anyway, I've known about 419 scams and scambaiting for years, and occasionally dropped by scambaiting sites to laugh at "trophy" pages and whatnot, but never really got involved. Then I heard the recent piece on This American Life, followed the link on the webpage, became truly inspired, and here I am.

Reading through Jojo, YW, and Prof's thread, I began to formulate some devious scambaiting ideas of my own. One involved playing two lads against each other, possibly by making both believe that the other had stolen and hidden the money they were supposed to receive.

But then I got to thinking: Why would I have to play both of them against each other? Wouldn't it be more fun to play my lad against another baiter's lad? You know, make a game out of it. Make it competitive.

Then I thought, why limit it to two? In principle, any number can play. More players means more chaos, which in turn means more entertainment.

Here's a rough idea of how it would work: Each player provides his own lad, which he obtains through normal means. They then all safari their lads to the same place, preferably some lawless east African shithole. Once the board is set, the players begin sowing paranoia, fear, and distrust. Soon, the lads start gunning for each other, thinking that one or more of the others has stolen "their" money. Players are then challenged with orchestrating the flow of information in such a way that leverages the situation in their lad's favor.

If a player's lad is removed from the game, either by leaving town or because of an, uh, "unfortunate incident," then that player loses and is out of the game. Whichever player has the "Last Lad Standing" wins the game and is rewarded with accolades from his peers.

The Last Lad Standing himself, of course, gets absolutely nothing, which is kind of the best part.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:49 am

It's a grand idea, show us you can bait first, there are people in here that have done that already, and it isn't as simple or easy as you think, it could take months to come up with a set of lads that will be willing subjects.

How long are you going to hang around dealing with the NOK's, the trunkboxes, the puppy lads, the refugees, the lotto lads, till you find a suitable and compliant lad?

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 4

Yes, I have a lot of work and learning to do before I'll be skilled enough to play the game myself. But that doesn't mean the more experienced among you can't start playing right away, if you like the idea. I'll certainly have fun watching.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:12 am

^^ Mass baiting is a lot better fun, have a search for Philios the Bike Insurance Salesman

One absolutely gullible and now demented person

And Gomer is working wonders with his lad at the moment, Jojo et al, are working on their lads

Things happen, you can't always plan with lads, they are all individuals, Roy has Dan attached to his hip, we all have our pets that drive us into stitches of laughter,

Get a few NOK's/inheiritance/refugee type baits under your belt, so you know what the lads react to, then when you find a likely lad, ask again

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 4

There seems to be a misunderstanding here. I'm not "asking" for anything, I'm just throwing out an idea I came up with. I'm not looking for people to play this game with me. It's going to be a long time before I'm skilled enough to play it. I knew that before my original post.

I just thought the idea sounded fun, and thought others might think so too, in which case they're welcome to take it and run with it.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:45 pm

I love the idea and there have been a few attempts to do something similar. Most of the time, they have failed because it's so unpredictable what an individual lad will end up falling for. Many of the truly impressive baits have evolved unpredictably, and it's really hard to keep anything going once one lad has met another (mainly because it's so hard to keep track of the information flow if they are in contact outside your control).

So I'm afraid the "lad tournament" idea is unlikely to get off the ground: it's hard to get lads to travel (although safari modalities have improved drastically in the past few years) and even more problematic if they get together. I do think there's plenty of scope for other kinds of lad competitions (eg the recently concluded summer trophy contest: linky) but it seems like they need to be fairly simple in order to work well.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:53 pm

I would say, way too much effort on the baiters side, in the same time you can keep 20 lads happy with just straight baiting them one by one. (copy and paste is your friend Wink

)
And how are you going to prevent that they see each other in the internet cafe's and how will the local lads react when newbies enter their turf. Once they talk together it's over.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:20 pm

Just my two cents.

jojo and I did this once with our Lads in a complex suitcase exchange in Accra, but it all fizzled out due to some unspoken law amongst scammers of the same country, that they don't fight. Now I don't think that's a universal law, I think mainly there wasn't enough mistrust sown between them and my Lad was very lazy and doubting.

My newest Lad, Shorty, is a much better specimen and would be ideal for such a task. Indeed I know he has managed to get himself arrested after going to one scammer's house and he claims to have set up a raid at anothers, and his world is in ruins.

It's possible, maybe not quite the way you describe it, but it is undoubtedly possible if my current experiences are anything to go by, but you need the right Lad who has been properly worked. If you consider it a drawback, the consequences are unpredictable and uncontrollable.

I have four fake characters in my bait and I would like to get some more scammers hooked, to throw them into the mix, but at the moment it appears no scammer will touch me with a bargepole. Laughing

Who's spilled the beans ?

We always talk about getting the scammer off script, and then taking control, but this is more easily said than done. To get a new Lad involved I need to weave in parts of the Shorty story into the bait so that I can then make fantasy reality, or is that vice versa ? Apart from my 4 characters there are various characters, real and make believe and I can introduce that Lad to Shorty as a member of one of those gangs - but you see how complicated it's getting already.

I'm trying for it, but in the mean time Shorty alone keeps me amused no end.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:33 pm

It's a great idea. The execution is VERY hard though. Lads are unreliable and they are liars. So, getting them to show up at the same place, same time are horrendous logistical nightmares.

It can and should be done though.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:45 pm

Why not just have a league table?

Name of lad, name of baiter, miles travelled, trophies etc, WU lost etc etc..?

A simple spreadsheet would do wonders and you can assign a "points" system to truly worthy trophies, video's TWAT inaugaration etc etc. That way you get the same competitive edge, but still have fun baiting your pets....

Just a thought or three...>! Very Happy

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

We tend not to be competitive about baits. Some baiters only straight-bait -- meaning no trophies, no safaris, no tattoos. This form of baiting is just as valuable as those "hash" trips to Chad; just not as entertaining.

In addition, since, for the most part, we work on the honor system, we don't need people trying to up their "scores" in order to be perceived as "winning".

And I agree with the above posts -- lads tend not to work well once they meet. Wink

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:13 pm

Alien Eight, i like the idea and the way your mind works.

as stated above it could be a difficult task but probably not impossible.

One of the many things you'll learn in baiting is, lads are lazy. actually I'm not sure 'lazy' is even the proper word to use. I aften times find myself becoming frustrated with them because of this fact.

heck, if someone i trusted sent me a shipment, a few hundred miles away, that contained $5,000.00, I'd go. Wink

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:26 pm

@AlienEight, that's a very ambitious idea, and it might be fun to watch, but as others have said, it's not really likely to happen.

Have you read Stanley's Great Bait? We had an army of baiters all working to get Stanley and Dan to meet, looking forward to fireworks, and it apparently fizzled. And we can't get a straight story from either of them (or their associates) on what really happened. Rather an anti-climax. Sad

And that was just two lads.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:06 pm

My $0.02
Competition is good for those who need it, but it's also depending the spare time you can free to play with your lad(s). Some people only play when they can or do the game they are good in, closing websites or so, that's equally important but nothing spectacular, it actually looks like real work to me.
I like the icon idea we have now and I admire the ones that have a wide variety of different ones, they tried everything and graduated each course, born true baiters. Thumbs up

But I also know that the ones with the many flags have shown their persistence in chasing down all those facts and reported each site until is was closed down.
The guy with the hundreds of closed bank accounts has found his game and does a wonderful job hurting them bad.
Overall we have a nice variety of baiters that does the best they can and I don't want to see them turn into point hunters just to stay on top of the eater clan
And you can't really compare some of the work done here, what would be the main factor? Time invested, lads lost money(and how to prove that), or the number of miles you could make him travel. It's all depending the lad, his story and how you can make him think.

A direct comparison would be a mass bait where the group pics a lad and his story and makes him follow a previously determined game plan, that could be a lot of fun too as now most of his "victims" come with the same solutions and he has to believe that what they tell him is the "new" truth
It could wreck a lad for a long time, financially and mentally. Twisted Evil

Yes I would like that a lot Twisted Evil

If you have the energy and time, please set it up, the poor lad won't know what hit him.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:31 pm

I'm now bending Shorty in the direction of Benin City after an invite from Inspector Gadget. It feels right as I think Shorty will be allergic to Cotonou now.

Seeing if we can bring about some Lad collissions should be fun. Shorty usually travels in a group, as he has a thing about being SHORT ( Laughing

), So we'll see what develops.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:32 pm

I like the way you think. We can always use new ideas and modalities around here.

I am mostly a straight baiter as I don't have the time or energy to put into things like SHorty or TWAT, but I applaud those that do. If you can get some baiters to give this a shot I'll read it and roll on the floor while doing so I am sure.

But first get out there and get your feet wet! I am sure you will come up with some great ideas on how to bait on your own and make things happen.

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