Experimental baiting (This time: countering strategies)

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: Wed Nov 17, 2010 6:05 pm

I just started baiting about 2 weeks ago and I've e-mailing more people within the last few days, experimenting on various strategies, mainly just seeing what I can get away with. I signed up for the mentor program, but haven't gotten a response yet, so I've just been trying things out on my own.

While generally in baiting you want to appear the perfect victim, I've been trying a method where I counter every attempt they give with its antithesis. For example, he's in Hong Kong (purpose: civilized location, you can trust me) -countered with> I lived in Shanghai for 3 years and was brutally tortured by the Chinese government. The "Christian card" (purpose: I'm a devout Christian, you can trust me) -countered with> I'm a Satanist (taken to the point of inviting the girl to an orgy ritual in a love scam). My family was killed in Sudan and now I'm in a refugee camp (purpose: I've had a hard life, feel sorry for me) -countered with> My entire family was killed by terrorists in Israel when I was a teenager and I had to live in a refugee camp in Lebanon for a year. Other more simpler versions of this such as being asked for $850 so a girl could get a Haitian passport countered with "I hate to break this to you, but the lady is trying to rip you off. Haiti is the second poorest country in the world. Your passport shouldn't cost more than $20." And so on.

Sometimes they take a while to respond, but what surprises me is that they actually respond and keep going with this stuff. Earlier today a girl sent me an e-mail saying that she had been forced into prostitution asking if she could stay with me in my country. And this was the first e-mail. So I just responded with nothing more than "Sure. Come on over. I've got an extra room." to which she actually responded.

The whole purpose of this experimental baiting is to see scammer's "thresholds" since I'm new to this stuff, but I've been getting responses to e-mails that I would have never expected responses too. Like where I said that I could see where the Sudanese Liberation Army was coming from.

Sometimes you wonder if these people are even reading any of the e-mails. A girl said "I'm looking for a man who won't think of me as a thing. Another guy asked me for pictures of me naked which is something I definitely won't do" and I said "Don't worry. Naked pictures of you are the last thing I would ever want to see" to which she replied "Thank you for the kind comments"

Shocked

I suppose that, as long as I don't say "I'll never pay you anything " or say "you're a scammer!", I'll be okay. I mean, after a girl talked about being religious and looking for a guy who will respect her, I introduced myself as a pornographer who doesn't follow the outdated rules of my country. Laughing

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 6:40 pm

Welcome to eater, Alejandro ! You are getting responses because, as you correctly surmised, the lads aren't reading your email. They just reply with the next step of their script. If you play the game on their terms for awhile (the request for payment is a good milestone) then gradually turn the conversation into one of your scenarios, you may get some very interesting replies. Very Happy

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 7:44 pm

Hi Alejandro, it is your tardy mentor.

Raga Man is correct, lazy lads lack litteracy (they don't read what you send most of the time). That gives you time to build your back story when you start getting their attention. When you break the format, usually by them running out of script or a question of how much or how do I send it, then it's time to make them go back and read by simply stating, "Haven't you been reading????" For your first baits I highly recommend readign Otterfan's treatise on straight baiting in the Eater University section:

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=179969

Take it slow, seem stupid and let them do the work.

@ Ghost - I don't think I got notified?

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 2:17 am

^Thanks. I'll read through that thread.

Since I've been experimenting, I've been trying different approaches. The ones that get the quickest responses and that seem to progress the quickest are the ones where I respond exactly how I imagine they want me to respond and act ignorant or oblivious.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 6:05 am

Slow down, quick is never the best. Ideally you want to get in the habit of one email per day. It draws more of the lad's time and allows more time for multiple baits. You're learning, don't blast away, take careful aim.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 4747

If I could put my two cent in. Strategies aren’t as important as they sound, especially when you new.

Get experience, read others people baits; get advice from your mentor, and everything will fall into place.

For me at least I usually have to use a mix of tactics. One is figuring out what makes them the maddest, but they can’t tell you their mad. It works wonders.. Repressed anger can have amazing effect on mugus. With this more means better.

On one of these I got the mugu so rattle he couldn’t type a coherent sentence. I think he was using English, Pidgin, and some sort of African tribal language. The guy claimed to be from the UK.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 4:56 pm

Badgerbait wrote:

Slow down, quick is never the best. Ideally you want to get in the habit of one email per day. It draws more of the lad's time and allows more time for multiple baits. You're learning, don't blast away, take careful aim.

Right. It's just that some of the lads send me an e-mail once every 2-3 days.

Today one of the scammers was the most active. She (he?) sent me 5 e-mails. I replied to two of them, telling her in the first one that I would go to Western Union tomorrow and send the money. I think I may have gotten to her, specifically just because she sent me a 5MB Celine Dion song, another e-mail praising me for being so kind, another e-mail talking about how I was sent to her from God, and... you get the idea. I wonder how she's gonna take it when she finds out that I couldn't send the money or that I sent it to her "assistant" (ideas via that very cool thread you linked).

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 4:59 pm

buried under 419 emails wrote:

If I could put my two cent in. Strategies aren’t as important as they sound, especially when you new.

Get experience, read others people baits; get advice from your mentor, and everything will fall into place.

For me at least I usually have to use a mix of tactics. One is figuring out what makes them the maddest, but they can’t tell you their mad. It works wonders.. Repressed anger can have amazing effect on mugus. With this more means better.

On one of these I got the mugu so rattle he couldn’t type a coherent sentence. I think he was using English, Pidgin, and some sort of African tribal language. The guy claimed to be from the UK.

I think I need experience. Over the past 5-6 years, I've read through 60-100 baits (all of Shivers, some of the other people's baits in the letter archive, and a bunch on this forum). But reading and doing are two completely different things. First hand experience is the best, I guess.

By the way, how do you find out what makes them so mad?

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 5:10 pm

In my short time I've found that anything that dents their ego definitely works. A second unsuccessful trip the the moneygram office with one of Duezers fake forms worked a treat for me. Got 5 emails in a space of 6 minutes, each more frantic and cross than the next Laughing

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 7:30 pm

@ Alejandro When I first started I was always anxious to see what the lads wrote next. I have about 6 baits going concurrently.

A wise experienced Eater member (who knows who they are) cautioned me to take my time . So what I do now is I open the email the lad(s) has sent, read it and then mark it with a Star (I used Gmail) and the following day or 2 I answer it. This often results in an email from the lad inquiring if I am dead. Then I come up with some reason I could not respond -- internet connections at my home, sick relative, hospitalization.

I am finding that patience on my part stirs up anxiety on their part, which IMHO is good thing.

Recently I told a lad I could not find the "Eastern" Union.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 7:49 pm

Just for fun, tell him/her you absolutley hate that song. Tell them you want another with more meaning. You have pictures of the mugu yet? How can you have a relationship without pictures?

After the WU "payment" let them stew for a bit (24hrs or 2 days, whichever. You will get some really nice, frantic emails.

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 01 Nov 2010 Posts: 1161

At first,I rushed a lot with my baits, trying to get a trophy as quickly as possible (got one within 7 days of replying to an original email!)--but its indeed its a lot more effective to take your time replying. At the very least its you that is dictating the pace of the bait.

You'll notice that the lads do the exact same thing, taking their time to reply.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 9:32 pm

They only take their time because of the multiple trips to the WU to pick up non-existant transfers Laughing

.

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 01 Nov 2010 Posts: 1161

Badgerbait wrote:

Just for fun, tell him/her you absolutley hate that song. Tell them you want another with more meaning. You have pictures of the mugu yet? How can you have a relationship without pictures?

After the WU "payment" let them stew for a bit (24hrs or 2 days, whichever. You will get some really nice, frantic emails.

What do you do when they demand your picture?

I have a particularly annoying lad that wants me to take a picture with my church congregation. I've slapped him repeatedly but he keeps talking about the church congregation leafing him, whatever that means.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 4747

What makes them mad? You can pick things up in your dealings with your mugu or take a guess.

One character I have I used on African Mugus that are pretending to be somewhere else. The character is a descendent of slave traders, his grand father worked for Big Oil in Africa, his father ran arms to Africa. He has a very condensing view of Africa and Africans. Though he “not” racist, or so he thinks. The rest of the world would wonder, though.

Its also funny when my character is finally convinced to deal with Africans and gosh darn it, their sites keep going off line.

It takes finesse and having the mugu hooked before the persons real personality starts to surface. This seems to make them more determined to “eat my money”. .

Also most mugus I have run into get upset about Porn, they tend to be homophobic or a lot of them are, they also seem to have issues about control.

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 1:00 am

Lachesis wrote:

What do you do when they demand your picture?

I don't have an issue with sending the lad 'my' photo. Usually I pick someone semi-famous off the internet and just use that -- not on an ID or anything, just as, this is a pic of me.

I wouldn't use a photo of a 'regular' person from the internet -- that's where I draw the line for myself. But anyone famous enough to get photographed enough -- maybe a not-so-well-known TV program -- I will use their photos.

I know other baiter use p0rn star photos, Telly Savalas, etc. One of my characters used Taylor Swift before she became almost too famous (in my opinion), and my older grandmotherly character uses Loretta Lynn.

Even if I never send the photo (and I don't unless it really fits into my bait), it helps me picture my character in my mind.

Just some ideas. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 3:04 am

Badgerbait wrote:

Just for fun, tell him/her you absolutley hate that song. Tell them you want another with more meaning. You have pictures of the mugu yet? How can you have a relationship without pictures?

After the WU "payment" let them stew for a bit (24hrs or 2 days, whichever. You will get some really nice, frantic emails.

Hahaha. I was just going to ignore the song, but that sounds more interesting.

I never requested any pictures, but I ended up with like 6 pics, none of which I think are actually of the person. "She" just kept sending me pictures with every single e-mail. I think the idea was "Hey, I'm attractive. Fall in love with me," but I didn't think the pictures she was sending were even remotely attractive. Embarassed

I kind of told her that, but I don't think her English is good enough to tell what I was saying.

I plan to have fun with the Western Union thing. Laughing

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 9:32 pm

Lachesis, what Dora said is my stance. Chances are, unless you use a really famous person, they won't know who it is. OR Send a fake file full of garbage, just like with passports.

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:55 pm

Alejandro wrote:

By the way, how do you find out what makes them so mad?

I have found that many lads are very uncomfortable with profanity and sexual references. I look for (or manufacture Wink

) reasons to get angry and then swear at him. If he responds with indignation, there will be more profane insults coming his way. Sometimes I don't reply for a couple of days and then tell the lad that I have been too busy with my girlfriend to get back to him and drop a couple of graphic details on him to see if he squirms.

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 01 Nov 2010 Posts: 1161

Quote:

Recently I told a lad I could not find the "Eastern" Union.

I just did this and got a piggy out of it. Very Happy

Its a great modality for throwaway baits.

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 9:17 pm

@ Lachesis Well, son of a gun, you got a piggy out of a typo I made in a post to a lad because I was too lazy to go back and change to "Western Union". I am going to have to make more typos and figure out how to get something in my sig line.

Great work!

Experimental baiting (This time: countering strategies)	View next topic View previous topic