How well are we doing?

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Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:20 am

I'm not sure if I asked the right search questions, so forgive me if this topic has been run before, but since it is our reason for being!

Do we have any idea how succesful we are. What percentage of the lads time do we think is actually being occupied by baiters? Just how good a job are we doing? Or is this a question that shouldn't be asked in open forum?

Interestedly

Gussie

Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:54 am

Hard to say, really. Reliable statistics require hard data, and that is nearly impossible when we have no way to know how many active lads there are, let alone how many active baiters there are. Add to that the fact that no two baiters do what we do exactly alike, in the same time-wasting ways, or with the same number of lads or characters; and its a bit like trying to quantify ectoplasm . Laughing

That said, I think its best to go with the reverse starfish theory. We might not be able to bait them all, but we can do our best to make a hell of an impact on the scammers that are unfortunate enough to become a baiter's pet. Twisted Evil

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Yeah, I'd say that statistics on this type of thing are rather nonexistent. But think of it this way, combine the baiters from this and other sites, together with phone-lad killers, then add in the law enforcement types and organizations like scampatrol that seek to more actively disrupt scammers through infiltrating their organizations and warning victims, that's a pretty healthy chunk of scammer time being tied up one way or another.

Can you quantify it? Not really. But if you, yourself, can tie up just a couple mugus a month, by making them spend precious internet time doing your bidding (not to mention the costs of buying posterboard, developing pictures, or even traveling to far-away lands, well, you've probably just saved a couple of victims from receiving that attention. In my eyes, that is time well spent!

Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:17 pm

I don't think that baiting is making a huge dent in the scammers' activities.

However, we are what is called a "gadfly" (clicky), i.e. we make things uncomfortable for them.

Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:52 pm

It would be nice to think that we would get to the point to where the scammers would give up and live honest lives, but the reality is that as long as there's a human race and an internet, the lads will go on scamming. We can make them stumble, but they will pick themselves up and continue on.

That being said, I believe that we are doing positive things for the world at large, and we're having fun doing it. The laughable IDs, the phone calls to K7 with codephrases and passwords, the trophy photos, and stupid things they write are a return on our investment of time that we enjoy.

I think also we're educating the community. Education is a good thing, especially where 419 is concerned.

Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:01 pm

kleindoofy wrote:

I don't think that baiting is making a huge dent in the scammers' activities. However, we are what is called a "gadfly"

I agree; even a drop in the ocean is better than nothing, especially if you believe in homeopathy Smile

Btw Gussie, how are the newts coming along? Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:30 am

We are the random element. Studies have shown that you can teach an animal faster if you discipline randomly rather than every time the correct behavior is exhibited. Lads never know if the next potential victim is a baiter.

Also, part of our goal is to bring the whole email scam system out in the open where people can learn about it in a fun atmosphere.

If not us, who? If not now, when?

*** BANNED *** Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 140

Barry Kelly wrote:

It would be nice to think that we would get to the point to where the scammers would give up and live honest lives, but the reality is that as long as there's a human race and an internet, the lads will go on scamming.

In the long term, that seems unduly pessimistic. There is a reason why scammers come from certain areas and not others.

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:35 am

We DO possess some advantages over the scammers. We work together and they work in competition with each other. I know this as my addy was passed on to another scammer, and as I took the original scammer on a wild trip, he didn't do this as a favour to his pal.

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 12:39 pm

With my current SA scam, Nigerians had stole the SA lads email account and pretended to be the SA lads. So currently I have two baits on same subject (the SA lads wrote from a new email). But somebody got my address from the Nigerian lads and I forwarded them his scam mail, and they told me that this is true and I should take it. That was dissapointing. (I hoped they will tell me not to reply him and then will go find him and hit him or something).

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:42 am

From a post I did a while back

Quote:

A short mail takes it about 12 minutes for 12 lines or so. a longer one about 25-35 minutes. It is 7 weeks now and has sent 56 to Lord M, and a half dozen to the other, mails that on average take 20 minutes to do. This means that in the time it has been spending perhaps about 7 hours a week reading/sending me messages/trying to open real or dead links,dud photos etc/ and dll files.

If I ignore it for a week then I get mails of frustration. Maximum gain with no pain. It is almost 9 weeks now with a jump in mail numbers of course/ and time wasted on me.
It doesn't take me long to write it a load of rubbish and add a large "jpg" or two.

Master Baiter Joined: 14 May 2006 Posts: 139

More importantly, you do it for fun. So time spent is time enjoyed.

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:01 am

@ Dr.Who: Does this mean that we are making them better?

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:49 am

This discussion is being continued elsewhere.

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=98869

Please go there.