Scambaiting at Wikipedia

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:48 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scambaiting
Unfortunately, I'm not a native English speaker, otherwise I should correct it myself. But I think it ought to be done.

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 10:03 pm

It definitely needs to be corrected. Holy crap--they make us sound like the bad guys.

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 10:55 pm

Wikipedia allows you to challenge articles. I've added a 'dubios' tag. I don't consider myself a vigilante, does anyone else here?

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 11:15 pm

^^nope. And I'm not malicious.

I definitely think mods or admins (and those with more experience here) should go there and set the record straight.

I'd do changes, but I don't want to say the wrong thing. I think leave it up to the pros, if they are willing.

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 11:22 pm

When I read it it noted:

Quote:

This page was last modified on 31 December 2010 at 22:59.

I don't know what it originally said.

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 11:30 pm

Don't know, but for prosperity's sake, I took a snapshot of what is says right NOW. The article has been changed from when I first saw it, but I don't think that much.

Am trying to host it.

edit: screw that, I'll just quote it:

Quote:

Scam baiting is a form of Internet vigilantism where the vigilante poses as a potential victim to the scammer in order to waste their time, gather information that will be of use to authorities, or publicly humiliate the scammer. It is, in essence, a form of social engineering that may have an altruistic motive or may be motivated by malice. It is primarily used to thwart the 419 Nigerian advance-fee scam and can be done either out of a sense of civic duty or as a form of amusement.

Scam baiting is usually done simply by gaining access to an e-mail address that has already been targeted by scammers, which given the prevalence of the spam is not a difficult proposition. Once access is gained, the baiter impersonates a person that is receptive to the financial hook that the scammer is using. The objective is to keep the scam going as long as possible, costing the scammer time and energy. Secondary goals include gathering as much information as possible to share with authorities. Amusement that the baiter may gain from the interaction include fooling the scammer into falling for claims just as ludicrous as the ones that the scammer is using to bilk the victim of money. Many baiters will use joke names (Hugh Janus, Jenny Talwarts, Dick Head and so on) which while obviously ludicrous to a native or fluent English speaker will go unnoticed by the scammer. Similarly baiters may introduce characters and even plot-lines from movies or television shows for comedic effect.

Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 12:00 am

It hasn't really been changed that much since... well, I started baiting (which was pretty much the day I joined Eater).

That being said, they don't seem to like the "dubios" tag on the article.

Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 12:09 am

Read the chat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Scam_baiting

Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 12:16 am

^^very good reading.

Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:54 am

You can, on any wikipedia page, read its revision history. When you are on the main "scam baiting" page, there is a tab for history in the upper right corner. Clicking on it reveals all modifications to the page since the beginning of written history...

Go back to about mid-2007 and see how comprehensive the article was. Somebody gutted it along the way.

Bruin

edit- on May 7, 2008, someone called "the red pen of doom" gutted the article removing (as he put it) "much meaningless garbage"

Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 11:28 am

To be honest. Wikipedia does deal just in the facts.
Take for instance an article on the Lemon (just an example clutched out of the air)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon
It gives basic facts, genus, species etc and it's uses.
It doesn't go into any specific detail on full recipes.
As the Talk page states, the article in question is not a how-to article on the art of scambaiting.
If they want to classify scambaiting as Internet vigilantism is probably the best categorisation.
A vigilante is someone who illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker.
Scambaiting is extralegal (not illegal) and we also 'allege' that the lads are breaking the law by attempting to extort monies from us.
The alleged point being, that as they are not actually going to get any money from us, as we are fully aware of their intentions. Their defence would state that they were not actually doing anything illegal at all and that they were playing along with a joke. So the jury is still out.
Confused

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 94

If anybody should write a wiki article about scam-baiting, it should be someone from eater.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 26 Dec 2010 Posts: 8

That was definitely an interesting article. Good read Thumbs up

Master Baiter Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 154

I'm a trusted editor of Wikipedia, so if someone would like to write up a Scambaiting article, I can upload it and it's unlikely to be removed.

Sometimes, correcting stats on non-league football and ice-hockey can be a good thing when it comes to reputation!