Why do you bait?

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419Eater is my life Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 289

A little back story here, I first learned of scambaiting after posting a 419 letter I received in my inbox on another forum about 3 years ago or so, asking the other members if they had received such an email before. It was from Mrs Maria Habacha (or something like that) and from the moment I opened it I was quite certain it was some sort of scam. The first member of the forum that replied to my post simply stated "Ah, the old Nigerian 419 scam is going around again." or something very much to that effect. Other people there then informed me of the nature of the 419 scam, and through their efforts, I wound up here.

I then decided I wanted to be a scam baiter. I had read several of Shiver's published works, relished in the way he manipulated and abused the lads, and I thought to myself "Myself, wouldn't it be fun to take advantage of someone like that, playing their own game against them?" I do have somewhat of a dark and reclusive sadistic streak buried deep within my persona, and this seemed like the perfect way to use that in a productive manner, even if that manner was for nothing more than personal satisfaction.

At first I never once really thought about the ethical value of baiting, just the endless ways I could manipulate another human into doing what I wanted without even having more contact with them than mere text on a computer monitor. After creating my own church and suffering more diseases than I care to ever hear about, accidents, and deaths in the family (my father has died at least 4 times, my mother probably about 7, and siblings I don't have have suffered numerous ghastly deaths,) I soon grew tired of my new hobby, and receded to other more mundane aspects of my life. Settled down, got married, bought a house...all that jive.

Then here a few months ago I received another 419 letter from Mr. Charles Soludo. I have to give an amount of thanks to Mr. Soludo, as he reignited that little spark in me that longed to abuse and manipulate people from halfway across the globe without ever even having to talk to them. I reactivated several email accounts, created several more, and I've been just about as active in this forum as I have been anywhere else lately. But it hasn't been until recently that I've stepped back and taken a good look at the ethical value of what we do here as a community, and I've begun to take a more moral approach to just why I spend several hours a week now writing and responding to these people as I do.

So I guess in a nutshell, I began baiting as a recreational hobby to do nothing more than test my wits against other people in a very real game of cat and mouse for personal satisfaction, to testing my wits against other people in an effort to do something for the better good. And the more I communicate with these scammers, the more repulsed I feel by knowing that there are people like them in this world who's only existance is fueled by the desire to rob people of everything they have for an easy buck.

That's my story. I guess I'm just kind of curious as to why or how everyone else here got into the baiting environment and why we all keep doing what we do.

Elite Baiter Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 1731

I would assume your story is similar to many others here. At least you struck a chord with me.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:34 am

I like the whole idea of being an internet vigilante

READ >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_vigilantism

The whole Paul Kernsey aka Charles Bronson thing is kind of cool Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:53 am

My husband and I were nearly taken in by a bad online company that shall remain nameless who told us they were going to help us clean up our credit during a time of need... fortunately, I figured out something was up before we screwed ourselves over! Since then, I was EXCEPTIONALLY careful about who gave information to.

For years I had received emails in my box, laughed at them, deleted... then I got one and decided to Google it in a moment of boredom. I stumbled onto Eater spent DAYS reading the main pages before looking at the Forum. Decided to try baiting for fun! With a background in forum administrations, MUCK wiz (operational functions, not a magical wizard), and role playing (not to mention an undying cruel streak) I decided to give it a go!

I remembered how POed I was over almost getting conned into making our situation worse. So, leading these scammers around by the nose is just fine with me!

419Eater is my life Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 289

The sad thing about the internet vigilante phenomenon is that it can be so easily abused. While for the most part the internet can be used as a very useful tool and resource, it can be even more easily be manipulated to achieve more illegitimate means.

But that's also part of the nature of the whole vigilante idea anyway.

Master Baiter Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 123

I'm only just about to give it a go (sent one email to a lad and didnt get a reply and will probably try emailing one from the surplus area when i get my confidence back)

There are a few things i like about the idea of baiting which have tempted me to give it a go.

Firstly and most importantly, i like the fact that by baiting these lads i can stop them from ripping people off for a while (or at least slow them down so they can target less people). I have heard stories of old women giving the last money they have to these people trusting that the money they will receive will be able to give their children a better life when they die. They are preying primarily on desperate people and they dont care what happens to these people. if an old woman tells a scammer that the money she has is needed for an operation so please dont scam me, they will reassure her then take every penny she has. If my baiting, however bad, stops this happening to one person i will feel that it has been worthwhile.

Also, as has been said, not only are you being a good samaritan of sorts, you can also have fun whilst doing it- these guys try to make a living doing these scams so if you can outwit them and stop them doing this then you have every reason to be pleased- they should be professionals and its always good being able to beat a professional at his own game!

I also like the fact that it is something you can spend as little or as much time on as you want. I recently left my job so i have a lot of spare time at the minute but have a job interview next week. if i get the job i wont have much spare time, but i will have easily enough time to send one email a day to a lad- it doesnt take long to write an email and they dont tend to expect more than one a day.

So basically, i like the fact that it is a challenge, i like the fact that it can be great fun if you get some good bait going, and i like the fact that you can stop, hopefully, a lot of peoples lives being ruined.

I have seen several comments on the ethics of it. I agree about ITP's- they must be protected. However i have no sympathy for any of the lads. They dont care who they steal from, they would love to take every penny i have from me and they wouldnt give me a second thought, even if i told them i needed the money to pay for cancer treatment or something similar, they wouldnt care- if anything they would probably just laugh at how "stupid" i have been. As a result, i find it very hard to care about their plight. i might eventually get a lad to travel from, say, nigeria to chad as others have and he might be stranded there with no money left and none of the money he had been promised. his life may become unbearable. As i see it this is a good thing, now he knows what it feels like for the victims of his scams and hopefully he will stop trying to rob people of their livelihoods

this is a great site and to see so many people scambaiting just reminds you that, whilst we are always warned of the dangers on the internet and in real life, the world has its fair share of good guys as well. keep up the good work everyone!

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:08 am

I'm certainly no vigilante.

I like to perform mental experiments on little lad brains though. My favorite lab rats are those tough nut lads that have been baited to hell and back and are on the look out for jokers.
The occasional fool lad to break the monotony.

I'm always up for a challenge and get a huge boot out of the fact I can create as much mischief as I like and there's nowt anyone can do about it.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:19 am

i just love a good windup.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:50 am

It's a form of role-playing game for me. I try to get into character when I bait - whether as the retired US Marine or the petulant Asatru-worshipping photomodel; or any of the other personae I've used.

Wasting Lad's time and resources is a bonus.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:59 am

I love the idea that Lads think they are ripping me off of thousands of dollars for artworks they're never going to be paid for. Smile

Master Baiter Joined: 23 May 2008 Posts: 226

I decided to start baiting for several reasons. To be honest with myself the first was probably simply because I thought it was funny. After reading many baits on here I thought it was a hilarious thing to do. Another simple reason is because I have "extra" time at work that I wanted to fill in.

Now getting to the beef of it, the real reason I bait is because I am sick and tired of people that think they can just walk over other people to get what they want. They think they are tough, smart, or whatever and that others should just bow to them. Whether it is robbing you at gun point or scamming you over the internet these people try to take advantage of others. To me scammers are about the worse. They are equivalent to the jerk that flicks you off in traffic because he knows (at least he thinks he knows) there is nothing you can do about it. Well there is something that I can do about it. I choose to not be one of those that just lets others walk over them. I choose to prove those people wrong that they are safe behind the internet/car/gun. I understand about ethics and such but I also believe in thinking about the repercussions of your actions. This is something scammers fail to do. They feel they are untouchable. While it is true they are people it is also true they are liars, cheats, and criminals. If someone points a gun at my friend should I not shoot them first because it is unethical/immoral to kill?

I am only 24 and it seems my generation loves to blame others. If I am poor it is because you are holding me down; if I abuse my children it is because my parents abused me; if I am uneducated it is because it is just to hard. No excuse or situation makes it ok to scam people. They deserve everything they are getting and probably more (more being jail).

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:52 pm

It's a bit of a long story...

Step 1. I came across a really funny bait on a random website, and it got my imagination flowing.

Step 2. I got a classic 419 in my inbox, for the first time in my life.

Step 3. I decided I wanted to take the little catbingo on, yeah!

Step 4. I came to 419eater to ask for advice. Not to stay mind you- just for the one bait.

Step 5. The one bait didn't pan out. I figured, I'd gotten myself all excited, I'd just find a substitute scammer to take my wrath out on. Just one, and then when I'd gotten a video out of him, I'd stop. Really.

Step 6. The second, third, fourth, and fifth baits didn't go so hot either.

Step 7. "Hello, my name is Chain and I'm a baiting addict..."

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

:smiling:

Because.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:01 pm

It's part of the bargain I made so that my probationary period would be reduced.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:03 pm

Because Sheboppe has fallen for me and I can't leave her alone with a bunch of ruffians like you.

So I have to keep on going.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:35 pm

I fell off her ladyship (her in my avatar) just after the new year and whilst I was laid up with a couple of broken ribs I stumbled on a fellow scambaiting site and got hooked reading two Olympic standard baits involving sending one guy a whole range of broken domestic appliances air freight to Nigeria and one which tricked a lad into smearing his john thomas with deep heat and then travelling to Russia to appear in a porn movie.

Had a go, made the usual n00b mistakes (and regrettably committed the cardinal sin of sending a fake ID - so if a UN driver's licence with David Cameron's picture appears anywhere that's down to me I'm afraid) Came here, got a mentor who gave me some good advice on getting safaris (but then he is the master of those - the unimaginable bastard pig) liked it and stayed.

I would like to say I bait for high minded motives like keeping scammers away from victims and sure that is part of it but what keeps me baiting is that I get to use my creative side in making up characters and stories, messing about in Photoshop and being a right bastard to people who richly deserve it.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:39 pm

I build/maintain websites, and I manage the email of two companies...the spam filter didn't work all that great and sometimes 700 spam and scam emails would come through in a day. So I picked a few random scammers and talked with them...mailbombed the websites that were selling $20 Rolexes (that's the benefit of running your own email server...you can send THOUSANDS of 5 MB emails!) and a year or so later I Stumbled Upon (literally, using StumbleUpon) 419Eater.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:46 pm

because I want to help protect people like me from people like that. Because I know that victims of these scams aren't greedy or stupid, they just want to get out of the financial rut most of us find ourselves in most days. Because it gives me an excellent insight into the fine and surprisingly difficult arts of deception and thought control. last but not least, it's excellent sport and very, very amusing in a stealthy sort of way. like hunting tigers by post... Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:53 pm

One is to stop them from stealing from vics.

Another, is a personal reason. The humour is what I love. Just the thought of what I can get these guys to do only through email and the occasional phone call is a thrill for me. Imagine completely changing someone's life by just some emails. Getting his family to hate him. Getting his friends to deny him. Getting his dwelling status to completely change. That is just funny to me. All fueled by greed. It's so much fun.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:15 pm

i look at baiting like a game of chess. i liked playing chess when i was younger, but now all my friends are too stupid. Wink

that and i didn't have many toys when i was younger. baiting is like christmas every day of the year.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 21 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

I got phone call from my mom a few months ago asking how much $10 million Brittish Pounds were in USD. Apparently she'd won the Brittish lottery.

Now My mom is not really old (50), and she isn't stupid or gullible (or so I thought). She just kept insisting that there are rich people out there who do nice stuff like this for people they don't know. It took me awhile to convince her it was a scam, I had to send her to several websites to enlighten her. And that is how I stumbled upon this place. I've been reading and laughing and laughing some more ever since until I finally decided it's my turn to try my hand at it.

So for me, the attaction to scambaiting is a combination of the fun and the fact that I might be stopping someone else from getting scammed.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:26 pm

I do it for the fashion.

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

The swell tshirts.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 589

Entertainment

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:02 pm

I love a good palaver...especially when the other party isn't bright enough to realize that they are NOT the one in charge!
It's fun to see how much you can get away with...