Legality of scambaiting

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Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 2:56 am

Bowline wrote:

But, if you offer them money and then don't pay when they keep their end of the bargain (e.g. "meeting" you 100 miles away, riding a goat naked, or whatever) then basicaly you have started a whole seperate scam. The only difference is that you know it's a scammer you're targeting. But I don't see how that would make a difference legally.

If you're not profiting, it might not be criminal, but I think they would be (legally) justified to sue you for expenses.

I really would love to see that in court. "Your honor, I was innocently trying to scam Mr. Smith out of his life's savings by telling him he won a nonexistant lottery, when he blatantly deceived me and forced me to spend money renting 3 goats and a sheep for a picture he said he needed. He's legally liable because he signed this contract. See, there's his signature, Ben Dover!"
Laughing

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:09 am

I think he means the kind of case where a mugu is asked to make a carving or write a 10,000 word handwriting sample in exchange for cash for services rendered.

In this case, in international law there is a piece of legal terminology, which can be used in almost all such circumstances to describe the mugu's situation, and what kind of compensation he can expect in such an occurance:

"If you sit under an elephant's arse, you get shat on"

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 4:28 am

@saralk,

Like others have said, if you feel uncofortable with something, don't do it. I personally like to make the scammers think about my characters night and day, wondering how "he" or "she" ever got the best of them. I've done this by having them fill out forms, go to the WU office 5 or more times in a row with bogus MTC numbers (and get emails from them complaining of being "interrogated" Laughing

), calling them at 3:30am thier time......

Scammers are not nice people.
Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:24 am

I'm an old lag - I've done so many bad and illegal things to Lads that they've variously reported me to the FBI, CIA, "Meterpolitan Police", Interpol, Mafias, Maffias, witch doctors, Chango, and the World Wildlife Fund.

Amazingly, I'm still alive and at large, but probably facing a 543-year sentence at Taronga Zoo...... Very Happy

419Eater is my life Joined: 21 Aug 2005 Posts: 381

If you see someone commiting a crime it is your duty to stop him and help the victim if there is no danger for you. Thats the law at least here in germany, and I assume other countries have similar laws.

If we get a scam-email we know for sure that the scammer also tries to get other victims. I most cases, if the scammer does not cc the other victims, baiting is the only way we can slow down the crime and maybe prevent a few people from being scammed.
If someone is threatening someone else with a knive and you tell him to put a fish on his head and make a carving of mickey mouse before he will be allowed to attack you too, its perfectly legal.

When you make the lad spend money or send you stuff its a bit different, but still no prosecutor, judge or anybody else in his right mind would try to prosecute you for it. Unless of course you make the lad send you something that is worth some money, like an iPod or things like that.

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 11:01 am

^^
by wasting their time, we stopping them from commiting a crime thus lowering their chances of being sent to prison. they should thank us really. Laughing

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 11:42 am

Saral K.
I'm sure that our members will do their level best to put your mind at rest about the legality of scambaiting. You could also do your own research on line.
However, if you have any concerns or doubts then I suggest that you run them by your parents. They may well want to know what their 17 years old son is up to communicating with fraudsters on his computer.
Smile

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:33 pm

^^^ It's just spooky when he does that.

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:46 pm

The interesting thing is that after posting a 'hot' topic the OP has never returned. But there are 2 pages of answers.

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:53 pm

^^^It appears to be his modus operandi all over the internet. What a shame.

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:16 pm

Novice Navis wrote:

A wealthy Iranian businessman dying from esophageal cancer offered me USD $2,000.00 for each scammer scalp I sent to him. But now I have to pay demurrage fees...

Don't tell me you're one of the facebook league baiters Laughing

</off topic>

But, back on topic, I'm the type that has a little bit of compassion in me, even for the worst type of people out there. I wouldn't want to send a lad on safari unless he was bugging me to the extreme, but I would try to waste their time as much as I can by getting them to fill out endless forms, pay for this and that such as hotel rooms and other things, and getting them to repeat themselves over and over again. Like it was said earlier, these people have the option to not respond to us. There's nothing wrong with a scammer spending their money, but it is our art to waste their time and money, and it certainly isn't illegal!