Safe to send video of myself w/ disguise?

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419Eater is my life Joined: 04 Jul 2009 Posts: 277

I've been considering sending a lad a video message (or perhaps engaging in video chat) in which I would be wearing a fake mustache and wig to render myself almost unrecognizable. I'm slightly concerned about the safety of doing this, as it would still provide the lad an idea of what my face looks like. I'm using Gmail, but I think I've heard it's theoretically possible to see a Gmail user's IP address if they look at images in the sender's email (I'm not sure if this is accurate). Chances are the lad won't manage to get my IP address, travel to my city, and recognize me on the street. But the fact remains that I'd be showing my face to a potentially dangerous criminal, so I'm still not entirely comfortable with it and I thought I'd ask for advice. What do you guys think?

Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 8:46 pm

No, don't.

You don't know who your lad is. You don't know whether he has a friend or relative in your town, who he might forward the video to. You don't know whether that friend or relative lives five doors from you and might recognise you immediately, even with your wig and fake moustache.

Unlikely? Maybe. But it is never worth the risk. More people may recognise us than we think - we all have a lifetime's history of meeting lots and lots of people. And some of them are very good at remembering faces.

Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 11:24 pm

I say disguise yourself well and go for it. What are the chances that the lad can locate you based on your IP, identify you in spite of your disguise, and exact revenge on you? It's far more likely that you'll die in a plane crash; does that mean you'll never fly again? It's important to bait safe, but it's just as important to be rational. Don't hamstring your baits with needless paranoia. Follow your gut and do whatever feels comfortable. Happy baiting!

Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 11:33 pm

Well, umm, yes, I wouldn´t do it either. Gut feeling says definitely no to me towards all cam chats with known scammers. It might give him something to work with later, like a fake passpport you have done for him to convince him, and this is now highly discouraged. I know Shiver has done this in his 2003 and 2004 baits but science has advanced a little as far as Do´s and Don´t´s are concerned Smile

Plus come all the issues that Branwen addresses.
Yes, I know a tiny minority of love baiters has done it but I couldn´t stand it...knowing that your face might now have become a part of a Yoshkar Ola- or Festac Town scamming toolkit (*shudder*)

Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 11:45 pm

Unless you take the time to create very convincing fake hair it could backfire. An amateurish looking disguise could cause the lad to see through it and drop you.

419Eater is my life Joined: 22 Jan 2010 Posts: 329

If you use an low-quality webcam and play around with the lighting, it shouldn't be too hard to make your face impossible to see.

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 2:21 am

Mega Bandit wrote:

But the fact remains that I'd be showing my face to a potentially dangerous criminal, so I'm still not entirely comfortable with it and I thought I'd ask for advice. What do you guys think?

You've answered yourself. If you're uncomfortable in the least little bit, don't do it, because that's common sense talking. I wouldn't want my face, however disguised, in front of a scammer. Save your disguise for the next costume party you attend with friends. Don't waste the effort on a scammer.

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 3:11 am

TheFae wrote:

Don't waste the effort on a scammer.

True.

If anything, your lad should be dressing up for you Wink

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 4:37 am

Don't bother. It's a waste of time and what's the point if the lad finds you or uses your video to scam future victims, like cigarettes, just don't do them.

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:24 pm

It really depends how good your disguise is. If it's an Inspector Clouseau type disguise then 'no', if it would fool your mother then yes. Try it out, put it on, go knock on your mothers/freinds door. If she tells you to 'go away you silly oaf', then it's failed, if she dies of a heart attack then .. erm well.. keep the disguise on and leave the country quickly.
Let me know if it works.

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:27 pm

Halloween, yeah. With real criminals, better no. Smile

Master Baiter Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 154

I really wouldn't do this. I did gets asked to join a video chat with a love-lad once, but the temptation was outweighed by the dangers, no matter how small the possibility.

You are still showing yourself to a criminal, and like has been said on here many times, a lot of these scammers have some form of contact in your country (UK and USA especially). It wouldn't take much for a screenshot of you to find it's way to a criminial in your country, which is when it gets dangerous.

Don't bother, make them dress up for you, and possibly dance, like a little girl, on one leg...

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 2:46 pm

It really depends which part of the body you show. Can anyone remember those 'bum' faces.

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:16 pm

Wowwow: You mean this disgusting game. Laughing

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 26 Jun 2010 Posts: 15

Once I met a girl on a webcam site and she din't have a cam on for some reason. I told her to send some pictures to my baiter mail and so she did. She started talking to me how she would love to talk to me on skype. So far she hasn't mentioned money one single time. I still have my lad radar on.

419Eater is my life Joined: 04 Jul 2009 Posts: 277

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'm generally inclined against doing it at this point. I think I'll stick with email and phone conversations. I have also considered the idea of putting my voice on low-quality movie/TV footage and trying to pass it off as video of myself.

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 4:55 pm

I wouldn't bother, mainly for the effort reasons rather than safety. But if you do go on with it there's a few ways I'd make myself unrecognisable.

I'd sit in front of a large window in broad daylight, you will appear very dark and almost like a silhouette.

Then you can put on a fake beard and a hat and, if you don't already wear them, a pair of glasses and you'll look pretty far from yourself.

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:11 pm

^^^A hat and sunglasses screams "disguise!"

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:21 pm

Or... claim your face was horribly disfigured in fire so you are only comfortable talking with him on web cam as a Señor Wences-style hand puppet:

Forget the hair and body in the image above. Just paint on some eyes and lips. Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:12 pm

Why even bother with a disguise? Make sure the quality is low enough or the resolution is small enough that the lad couldn't recycle it, and you're good to go.

On the account I use to chat with lads, I have a full face shot of myself as the profile pic. I haven't woken up to find burning bags of feces on my porch yet. Nor has my house been mortared by the omnipresent, omniscient Illuminati-esque death squads that everyone seems to think lads have.

Shed the baseless paranoia and your baiting will be so much more efficient.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

You could also probably cross the road without looking for cars many times without getting hit, it doesn't mean anyone will recommend doing so because it's not safe or necessary. Many members here bait very effectively while also baiting safely.

We recommend baiting safely here, which means keeping your real identify and baiting identity completely separate. What you choose to do on your own is up to you but please don't encourage other baiters to bait unsafely.

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:31 pm

Apart from the safety concerns, why bother?

You're making a video, you're doing more work than the lad.
It's meant to be the other way around - he does the work, you get the trophy.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:38 am

Any time you are in contact with someone (let's say for instance your lad), you give away pieces of information about yourself:

You always give away the fact that you speak the language you use to communicate with the lad. When you quote-reply and don't edit out the time stamp you give away your time zone. Many baiters (including myself) have no problem talking to a lad on the phone without changing their voice or using a morpher. (So they know I'm male and have a Dutch accent.)
Personally I'd rather give up a voice sample than my IP. I would however not be comfortable giving up a clear picture of my face. Just like getting on the phone, getting on video chat can boost your character's believability. It proves willingness.

You can stick a piece of scotch tape on the lens of your webcam. That way they can see the basic shape of a human and make out big movements and gestures. But not more. (If it still looks too good, use 2 layers.)
Note that video chat probably gives up your IP as well.

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