Can A Baiter Save The World?

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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:12 am

Maybe not, but a victory was scored for the good guys today. I stopped a potential scam dead in its tracks in reality-land. Click-click boom, bad mugu no MTCN.

Right after work, a client called me asking for help. Her older sister had been talking about adopting an African orphan who had millions, and she (knowing my hobby here) asked me to intervene because the whole thing smelled wrong. Without even changing into my red cape, I called the sister and asked if I could meet with her at my client's request.

Sure enough, this lady was ready to fall for a classic orphan scam with the trunk box full of daddy's millions. I took her to ScamWarners, where she found the scammer's intro letter. Even then, she wanted to "maybe send a couple hundred just to help this person out of her situation, even if there's no millions". Fortunately, thanks to my experience here, I was able to quote to her almost exactly what the lad wrote to her in each message. Somewhat shocked by the simplicity of it, slightly disappointed and feeling betrayed as hell, she was saved from losing that "couple hundred" to a mugu with a sob-story.

How dumb is this would-be victim? 41 years old, college educated, knows more about computers and the internet than I ever could, and has had the same corporate e-mail addy for over 10 years but had never seen that intro before. After less than an hour talking to me, she blocked the lad's address (told him to F off first, I couldn't stop her) and couldn't believe she almost fell for the whole thing. Last time she saw a scam letter, it was from the NNPC era and she hadn't thought about it since.

Can baiting save the world? Maybe not by itself, no.
Can one baiter save a potential victim? Damn right.

If it weren't for the experience and knowledge that so many have shared with me here, I might have lost this one. I was able to be somebody's hero for fifteen minutes today, and much credit goes to Eater and our sister site. Call me an egotist, but I'm feeling pretty damn cool today.

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:21 am

And so you should feel proud of yourself. Who knows, the ex-wannabee-victim may save someone else in turn, and so on.

It still amazes me that there are people who will fall for this kind of thing, and intelligent educated people at that. Hearts bigger than their heads, maybe? Of course in some cases it's the old fatal stupid-greedy combination that causes the missteps (and happily that's true of many lads, too).

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:24 am

Obi, you have every right to feel "pretty damn cool" today and until noon tomorrow. To me you're pretty damn cool every day. Way to go! clapping

Not quite a Newb Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Posts: 36

Quote:

Two men were walking toward each other on an otherwise deserted beach. One man was in his early 20s, the other obviously much older. The smooth damp sand was littered with starfish, washed onto the land during high tide. They were stranded there when the tide ebbed. Thousands of starfish were doomed to die in the warm morning sun.
The younger man watched the older man pick up starfish one at a time and toss them back into the ocean, giving them a chance to survive. The young man thought, “Why is he doing that? How foolish. He can’t save them all.”
As they came near one another, the younger one felt compelled to point out to the older man the futility in his action. “You know,” he said, “you can’t save them all. Most of them will die here on the sand. What you are doing really won’t make any difference.” The older man studied the young man for a moment. Then he bent down, picked up a starfish and tossed it into the water. He smiled at the young man and said, “It made a difference to that one.” Then he walked on, picking up starfish and tossing them back into the sea.

Don't know who the author of this poem is, but it reminds me of what you've done!

Congratulations! Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:57 am

Obi, well done, open that bottle, take a long drink, hell, splurge out and have a burrito as well,

Well done and I wish there was an icon that could be used for what you did.

It's good to see you all cheerful again as well

Take care

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

Awesome job, Obi. That's what makes all this "nonsense" worthwhile.

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:16 am

You are to be congratulated, Obi-Wan. Very well done.

Maybe a life preserver icon would be appropriate for this sort of achievement?

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:22 am

Nicely done Obi-Wan.

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:34 am

Nice work OWK.

Your friend will recover from the feelings of disappointment and betrayal a whole lot quicker than she would the loss of ten or twenty grand.

A timely reminder that lads are more than happy to exploit a potential victim's good nature, or any other emotion they can twist to their own rotten end.

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:56 am

Good work, OxygenDeprived Thumbs up

and a stunning example of how much we actually learn here Smile

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:04 am

^^Now I know OD's pretty cool. But I think you mean poor Obi in this case. Laughing

Great stuff, Obi Wan. Smile

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:11 am

Obi, nice work. Thanks for sharing that for everyone to see. Thumbs up

And yeah, OD is really cool too.

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:27 am

Great work Obi. clapping

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:56 am

Well done indeed Obi - I'd be feeling pretty damn proud too. Razz

But, as Obi said in the original post, if it wasn't for the sharing of experience and resources in this not-so-little community, this incident may not have been prevented.

So again, well done Obi - but well done to everyone who has taken the time to help out in all facets. clapping

Jeez, I'm getting soft.........

** Retired ** Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 750 Location: Air

Good job Obi Thumbs up

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:52 am

Awesome job Obi! Wink

That happened to a couple that I know about 5 years ago. Sad

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:33 pm

This is why you should inform your friends about your baiting.* Even if they don't approve of your hobby, they can and will come to you for advice. Networking can do wonders.
Way to go, Obi! jump_4_joy

* Use your own judgment, though.

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:39 pm

Great job, Obi!

You shouldn't be too modest about this- you took the initiative to meet with your client's sister, where a lot of people may have just made a phone call due to schedules, etc.
Your client and her sister know they have a friend.

Toast yourself all week, you've earned it!

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

Congrats on using the force Obi... Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:52 pm

Nicely done Obi! clapping

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:19 pm

Very nice Obi, you have every right to be proud for saving this person so have an extra drink or 2 on me.

without stealing your thunder a similiar thing happened to me once, a friend of mine was about to become a victim of a romance lad, finding this place last year saved him from losing any money, recently, knowing that I now bait these low lifes he decided to have me check out his latest love interest.

Her name was Olga and she was from Russia, she is very attractive and wants to come here to live with him, he had spoken on the phone so he knew 99% for sure she was real.

Of course it wasn't real, I had saved him again.

It's nice when you can chop a lads real dollar, shame there is no icon for you, perhaps we can lobby to get you a pink pony Laughing

Edit, I can see you already have 2 pink ponies and sadly I have none, ahh, it one less lad payday, some mod get Obi an icon he deserves it Laughing

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Very nice, Obi. Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:22 pm

Thanky folks!

Actually it should be pointed out that loss prevention is part of what I do for a living, and I do this sort of thing quite often. The reason I posted it in here is sort of to verify what the "average victim" looks like in reality-land.

As for my icon for this sort of thing, I got a great idea: The manly butt! That can be the icon for taking what was learned at Eater and using it in real life. Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:59 pm

The Force is strong with this one. Great going OWK.

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:01 pm

Nice save!

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