Sixth sense or cynical?

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Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

You know after a while of baiting, and reading the lads type of activity for the 5000th time etc you begin to understand the kind of things a lad writes and says

Well over time do we develop a sixth sense or do we become cynical.

Today I read a post on another forum i visit, non eater related, and immediately my brain said - "its a scam"

The offer is unimportant, and i could be completely wrong but im still left wondering if my hunch is correct.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 3551

I believe you develop knowledge that in later situations seems intuitive. I trust that sixth sense, intuition, or whatever you want to call it.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:03 am

D1, at work, dealing with the folks I deal with in the Emergency Room, I have, over the years, developed a Bulls*** detector. What I have found in my on/off again baiting career is that baiting has made that BS detector damn near foolproof.

On a side note, my poor 6 year old can never figure out how I know she is lying . . . Some of that credit belongs to you gals/guys for making me a better lie detector. Poor girl gets sooooooooooo frustrated when I pick her story apart. Sometimes I feel bad for her Wink

419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

I don't believe in such a thing as a sixth sense in it's strictest form. I believe that when a person has a wealth of knowledge/experience in a particular area, they are more prone to pick out minuscule pointers that others usually miss.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 8:10 am

Cynical, what shiver said.

Hated the movie, scare the sh*t out of me when I saw it..

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

I agree with Shiver as well--after all, if we did not bait or were not involved in other aspects of internet scams, then we would not have such a "sixth sense." Rather it is more of a learned skill that becomes more finely tuned the more you practice at it, same as with other skills.

Personally I do not think it has made me more "cynical" or "jaded" or what have you--it just helps me see the red flags that may indicate something is a possible fraud. I do not go into anything assuming something is a scam, but can usually come to the conclusion that something is fraudulent in nature, by applying what I have learned here and elsewhere. I would rather have awareness of these indicators of possible fraud than to have my head buried in the sand.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:35 am

Isn't your 6th sense that thing in your inner ear that tells you which way you're oriented and moving?

Suspended above the floor and blind-folded,* you can still tell which way you'd have to move your head to look up or down, and whether you're moving or not (and in which direction, usually).
That's clearly a sense on top of the normal 5.

* Sounds like the start to a good night... but that's another story

** ACCOUNT CLOSED ** Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 766

There are a lot more, but they are sort of hard to describe, such as "proprioception" or the sense of how your body is oriented in space. Touch has a number of modalities that are carried by other pathways.

Blah . . . blah. . . .

--J.D.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

@Otterfan, I have an amazing experience for you.

Find a rotating chair that freely rotates for some time (or a friend that will rotate it for you.)

Sit on it, start it rotating and close your eyes. If the friend is helping you, make sure that you can't feel any accelerations as they do so and they don't touch you.

Wait until you are sure the chair has stopped moving.

Open your eyes.

Your inner ear detects accelerations, not movement. After a while the liquid in the ear canals is rotating at the same speed as the chair, and you feel that you have stopped.

** ACCOUNT CLOSED ** Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 766

Good point. This is why you do not detect movement per se in a car, but the accelerations and decelerations.

--J.D.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

I wouldnt say i have a "wealth of knowledge in baiting" but being here so long i do know more than the average web surfer.

by sixth sense i do mean instinct, i found it strange the post i had read didnt really stand out, but the structure or something caught my mind and while im reading it im thinking this is a scam.

I agree over time we learn enough to pick out obvious ones, but im thinking over time we also can pick out ones that others wouldnt even consider as scams, but thats where cynical comes in - we can err, which is what makes us human Very Happy

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 2:15 pm

Yeah, it's just your experience kicking in. The BS detector is a good example. Reminds me of my (paying) job... I regularly encounter people that have a good reason to lie to me. Baiting has certainly help detect (and respond to) those types.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 3:01 pm

thud419 wrote:

@Otterfan, I have an amazing experience for you.

Find a rotating chair that freely rotates for some time (or a friend that will rotate it for you.)

Wait until you are sure the chair has stopped moving.

Open your eyes.

Then clear up the vomit that was sprayed around the room.

I don't think that it's that we become more atuned to scams, it's that over time we begin to realise that an aweful lot of people are out to screw us. I don't think this has anything to do with experiences in scambaiting. Afterall, in baiting you KNOW that everything the lad says is a lie and that you need evidence before you believe anything.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:41 pm

I think it's a matter of experience. The subtle clues that you pick up that are obvious to subconsciously notice, but not obvious to name.

This shows up in other areas as well. As a RL Nurse, I've had times where I would have a "bad feeling" about a patient in the hospital, and ten minutes later they quit breathing. In fact, "nursing premonition" is a recognized criteria for putting a patient in the ICU.

I don't see why baiting would be any different.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

I think what we all learn here is very useful, in the real world the same rules apply, I agree.

In seriousness though we are all learning, Eater has by virtue of its members become a proper educational place.

Not many websites can boast that what it tries to teach is eventually picked up as instinct, I find that fact pretty cool.

Anyway im happy. Long may eater continue.

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:50 am

justicebdone wrote:

On a side note, my poor 6 year old can never figure out how I know she is lying . . . Some of that credit belongs to you gals/guys for making me a better lie detector. Poor girl gets sooooooooooo frustrated when I pick her story apart. Sometimes I feel bad for her Wink

JBD Be careful not to educate the wee one in the lie detecting ways, or in 10 years you will have a real challenge on your hands. She will just learn to lie better... Shocked

@ thud419
You didn't tell of what happens when the spinning stops. The inner ear senses that your body is now moving in the other direction. If your eyes are open... puke

Then follow Dionysius instructions above... Shocked

From the voice of experience. Embarassed

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

I'm certainly more likely to spot a scam now than I was a couple of years ago, and I can spot a scam email without reading it. In fact I have trouble reading them; my eyes just skim over them taking in the salient points.

If you really want puke

wait until you think the chair has stopped and then tip your head 90 degrees.

** ACCOUNT CLOSED ** Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 766

There are special chairs used to test vestibular function which give Banana Republic and Evil Overlord [Tm.--Ed.] interrogators "pause."

Amazing how the body gathers information.

--J.D.

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:25 am

^^PN^^

Thanks . . . she will never know how I know. Laughing