Should the British govenment pay scam baiters?

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Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:35 pm

Some time ago I reported an attempted scam to the police. They were not intersted in taking it up, as the amount was too small, and their chances of getting the criminal too low. But chatting to the policeman, it is clear that scammers are a big problem here in the UK.

It got me thinking. Would it be sensible for the British govenment to set up a department which scam baits, so wasting the time of scammers? If the scammers wasted enough time, they might give up. Knowing there is a funded group of scam baiters might make them pick on other countries, and leave us alone more. If that happened, other countries might do likewise.

wasname.

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:46 pm

Yes, please Cool

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 2:47 am

Is this a job Application???

ETA: Sign me up...

Trophy Videos · Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 2:48 am

Are you doing drugs?

Well, then give me some!

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:16 am

I'll have a side of faery dust, please. Very Happy

A noble thought, wasname. But it just doesn't work that way. Mad

Scammers will not stop. They are relentless. I would gladly sign up for such an endeavor...I've had more success talking to a llama and scooping sand with tweezers.

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:33 am

There was something like it in the states "NEXT" or so but it has disappeared, hard to defend spending money on something you can't measure or even tell you're affective.

WU makes good money with it, nobody but the victim looses money, they just think stupid people until they go for one themselves.

It was estimated some years ago $200 million a year from the states alone, but as most money comes back in exchange for luxury goods and cars it's even good for the economy.

But if... I'm in, 14 hrs a day for minimum wages, no problem Laughing

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:51 am

I think the British Government has enough problems of their own, even if the scammer problems were to hit the radar... they would still do nothing

If governments were to take it seriously something could be done, as it stands it is wishful thinking.

All we can do is to try to hamper the scammers efforts which we do very well Exclamation

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 7:57 am

bill2 wrote:

There was something like it in the states "NEXT" or so but it has disappeared, hard to defend spending money on something you can't measure or even tell you're affective.

WU makes good money with it, nobody but the victim looses money, they just think stupid people until they go for one themselves.

I disagree nobody but the victim loses money. Everyone does, as the public pay for the police, and the police spend time on the crimes. I recall the policeman telling me he was working on a case where a restaurent owner had lost £28,000 falling for a scam. The police were spending time on it.

When people wire money, they will probably be contacting the bank about the loss. The bank staff will spend time on - probably not a lot to be honest, but their time has to be paid for.

So whilst the big losers are the victims, everyone loses to some extent.

wasname.

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 8:56 am

I dunno about scambaiting, but there an agency that deals directly with fraud and internet crime. It's called "National Fraud Authority"
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/national-fraud-authority

They have also a sister site (Action Fraud) to report such crimes (it's run by a private company). This is their site:
http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/home

Baiting Guru Joined: 28 Feb 2013 Posts: 3152

Looking at this years report on the National Fraud Authority's site makes for some interesting and shocking reading, even on on a quick flick through. Especially as it's been the subject of some questions elsewhere on the forum, as to how many replies formats can get.

Quote:

It is estimated that £3.5 billion is lost per year to mass-marketing fraud in the UK. This figure derived from research conducted in 2006 by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) of 11,200 people (including detailed follow-up interviews with 1,900 people about their experiences of mass-marketing fraud).

This is still considered the most robust figure available for mass-marketing fraud.

To supplement the above, the NFA conducted a survey in 2012 with a nationally representative sample of 4,000 UK adults to understand better how mass-marketing fraud is currently being committed.
The survey found the following.

1 million (2%) UK adults sent money in reply to unsolicited communications in the last 12 months – and just under one-half (almost 500,000 people) are believed to have been defrauded as a result;
Three-quarters of UK adults, around 37 million people, received unsolicited communication in the last 12 months. The majority were sent emails (85%). However, letters (40%), phone calls (44%) and text messages (27%) were received by significant minorities; 18 to 34 year-olds were more likely to receive texts than letters or phone calls, whilst the opposite was true for those aged 35 and over.
The research indicates that although the vast majority of people ignore unsolicited communications, the fraudsters’ return on investment is enough to make it worth their while continuing to target the public using mass-marketing communication techniques.

Not to mention:
Cheque fraud - £35M (forged, counterfeit or altered)
Plastic Card Fraud - £388M total, £245.8M of which is ‘cardholder not present fraud’ (the theft of genuine card details that are then used to make a purchase over the internet, by phone, or by mail order)

Back on topic, I wouldn't mind being paid for baiting. Very Happy

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 11:03 am

I'm interested but I won't work for anything less than 'Eater are currently paying...

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 2:01 pm

^
....not to mention meeting all those lovely ladies from Russia and Asia.

The Mods Room must be one non-stop Bunga Bunga party Smile

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 2:23 pm

Nothing to stop you telling lads you are getting paid for replying to their emails. Add some fake guerilla marketing nonsense to your emails, and mail your lad ten or more times a day.

If they question it, say you are getting paid ten Dollars, Pounds, Euros by yahoo, gmail etc, every time they open your mail. Very Happy

Don't forget to give them subject titles like Important! or Read now! for extra effect.

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 3:32 pm

The British government pays for me to scam-bait, they just don't know it as it was accidentally left out of my job description.

Master Baiter Joined: 06 Apr 2011 Posts: 131

Why would they pay anybody when there are hundreds if not thousands of people on the internet doing it for free?

Nonetheless, if they decide to do it, sign me up! Very Happy

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 8:21 am

jackbirdy412 wrote:

Why would they pay anybody when there are hundreds if not thousands of people on the internet doing it for free?

Nonetheless, if they decide to do it, sign me up! Very Happy

The same can be said about a lot of jobs.

* Why pay the army, when the Teretorial Army does it for free http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Reserve_%28United_Kingdom%29

* Why pay the police, when pleny of police do it for free. http://www.metpolicecareers.co.uk/specials/

* Why pay footballers, when plenty of people play footbal as a hobby and enjoy it.

At the moment, the number of scam baits is not sufficient to make scamming uneconomic. If the number could be increased to such a point that the returns did not justify the effort, the problem would almost go away. It may be economically viable to actually increase the number of hours baiters spend on scammers. I must admit, it is difficult to know how to measure success on this one, but I guess the same is true of a lot of anti-terrorist work.

wasname

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