I bagged the Bagman!!!

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 8

http://www.delphifaq.com/faq/scams/f987.shtml?p=115#97741

Mod edit: The first pics in the above link are NSFW but the rest are A-OK! - SB Very Happy

This is my first post here. I have posted a couple of scam bait/busts at the site linked to above.

This all started a few weeks back when I put up an ad on a free penpals site: http://www.interpals.net

I was immediately swamped by messages on their system from the worlds most beautiful supermodels with romance scams of all types to fill their purses. After a few days I decided that rather than expect a penpal... I was going to learn romance scam baiting. I am still a buck novice, but I am a quick study... And my location provides a lot of innate security so I can be honest and I actually use a limited amount of real personal information. I permit scammers (encourage it actually) to google me to get their confidence up.

Yesterday I bagged the bagman on the scam I linked to up top. I spoke with the detective at the local police department this morning where the $500 Western Union was to be picked up, and he immediately recognized the bagman's name. The bagman is expecting the Western Union tomorrow, but the detective told me on the phone he would be knocking on his door sometime today.

I don't know if that is considered a trophy... But a cop who knows your name and address already, and then gets a call from out of state reporting an advance fee romance scam cannot be good news for the Western Union pickup guy Laughing

If you are interested in picking up romance scams for free... Google " free penpals " and register on a site. I recommend interpals because I like the software, they have private messaging, it's free, and easy to use. It is completely infested with romance scammers. I would suggest to guys looking to pick up some romance scams to register, you should be a little older, and present some impression of financial opportunity and/or security.

Then sit back and wait for the fun to begin. You will have a romance scammer messaging you on their system within 24 hours has been my experience.

BTW, I did pick up a pet scammer who actually likes me, has stayed off script, and has not gotten even close to the money question. Since she is now clearly aware that I bait and bust romance scams... Including filing police reports, contacting Western Union with the bagman info, and reporting the user accounts to the YIM abuse department and interpals... I doubt she will ever have the nerve to try an pick my pocket Wink

My guess is that she would actually like a real relationship, she probably fantasizes about the chance, if she could only figure out how to resolve the lies and fake photos she has already incriminated herself with. I told her there was no law against breaking people's hearts... But if she tried a scam on me, I would treat her just like the rest of the scum romance scammers.

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:29 pm

Welcome to Eater! Great bait. Thumbs up

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:41 pm

Welcome to Eater. It looks like you are off to a great start. You've probably already found it, but this thread on Romance baiting is quite helpful. http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=125681

RTW wrote:

BTW, I did pick up a pet scammer who actually likes me, has stayed off script, and has not gotten even close to the money question....
My guess is that she would actually like a real relationship, she probably fantasizes about the chance, if she could only figure out how to resolve the lies and fake photos she has already incriminated herself with.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is not unusual. Some scammers try to continue their scam even after they've been completely exposed. You will get a list of sob stories and a bunch of sweet talk. They are still fun to bait. Scammers lie - it is almost an universal truth. Odds are it is not even a female.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 8

Quote:

Sorry to burst your bubble...

Nah there is no bubble to bust. The important part is I have free time to burn in the evenings, and I may as well burn up a scammers time... To keep someone else from being burned.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 8

PRS was worried I lived in bubble world... And I have some very fast moving, WU hungry, "clients" firmly on the hook and struggling like baited sharks, so I took a shot at my pet romance scammer and sent her the IP lookup and asked her what's up with that?

41.222.40.54 SOUTH AFRICA - - -25.73
28.22 - +02:00
Net Speed ISP Domain
- AFRINIC TELKOM-IPNET.CO.ZA

Funny IP for a student in the UK don'tcha think?

She buzzed, and buzzed, and buzzed me awake at 3:15 am and went _BALLISTIC_ in chat before my eyes had cleared and dumped me! It was all my fault too, can you imagine that???? Now my poor itty bitty heart is broken Wink

I figured PRS would smile too... So much for that bubble huh?

I had just gone back to bed and nodded off when I was buzzed and buzzed again furiously... I got up thinking she was back with more... But it was another scammer demanding the MTCN for the $500 they are expecting Shocked

BTW... I did tell my pet that she was welcome back any time she could tell the truth... But scammers would rather burn in hell Twisted Evil

And that God thing I hear all the time from them... I won't even tell you what I think of that, you all are rather polite company.

Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 10:28 am

Telling the scammer you know they aren't where they say they are isn't such a good idea.
You keep saying 'she'. Did you see a female live on cam? Most of these scams are conducted by men.

While not the emphasis of this board, posting scammer details on public board is important, since real victims may find the info in time to get out of it.
No matter how much of the scammers time you think you're wasting, they always have time to be working on more victims at the same time, and if you are chatting with them...they're usually chatting with other victims simultaneously.
Have fun.
Wink

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 8

Quote:

Telling the scammer you know they aren't where they say they are isn't such a good idea. You keep saying 'she'. Did you see a female live on cam? Most of these scams are conducted by men.

I call them by the sex presented, regardless of who is on the keyboard. Maybe I should just say "it"? As for telling this one where it was, it may have been a noob mistake of mine and I have read and will certainly take your advice into consideration the future. I justed wanted to force a break... I have no evidence it was a true scammer other than the fact that false location information was given to me and repeated in chat... I was never told it liked me, it never asked for money... And if the money question was going to come, it was going to take forever. It was very clear from the start that it was primarily interested in friendship and having someone to chat with about personal problems it was having, and it never veered, and it was never on script. When I tried to flirt my intentions were questioned. When I tried some subtle romance, I was outright rejected.

Quote:

While not the emphasis of this board, posting scammer details on public board is important, since real victims may find the info in time to get out of it.

When I bust a proven scam, I post everything: chats, emails, and ID information on at least one scam site where chat and email records are requested. The Delphi site linked to up top is a good example, and I joined another 2 days ago that updates with Google very frequently.

I don't feel I can post this particular one up... The only thing it did wrong was lie about where it was... I don't feel I can post it up, any more than I can post up a woman caught lying about her age... Unless you really feel it is appropriate... But I know real people who have been online friends that I have caught lying about their relationship status, age, etc... Should I start putting my friends up on scam sites because of stuff like that? It falls into the same category inho.

Without proof - Statements of strong affection or love, offers to come marry, have sex, etc... Plus the money question. - Then I don't post them up as scammers. Maybe your policy differs? But if it differs by much I will be posting up contacts with people who have not been proven scammers in my opinion. Scam baiting puts a great deal of responsibility on the baiter... I could easily find myself acting as judge, jury, and executioner, if I posted up chat conversations, user IDs, and emails from this one you would almost certainly find fault with my actions after reading thru the extensive correspondence... Once it gets onto some other site or Google, undoing the action would become difficult.

This one was a pet, and if you asked my opinion (and I may be a noob here scam baiting but I have been around the block with online dating and penpals for years now) - I am almost positive it was a female, and she made no attempt or movement in a direction towards a scam. No invitations, no romance, only very very limited affection. I was appreciated frequently and that was all. But as a matter of course I hate liars, I called it out on the lie, and got a reponse back that was entirely female... I have seen it many times before in RL.

And lastly... I realize that all the senior members here are hardened to scammers, but there may be a tendency when you get hardened like that to assume that _every_ suspicious contact or that _every_ person caught in a lie is a scammer. I am not that hardened, because before I am going to post someone up I need some proof of criminal intent: love/sex offers & money requests.

But I can go thru my contacts list and provide you with at least 6 real women who have lied to me far more, flirted and romanced with me until I caught them whereupon I reverted the relationships into "just friends". They are not scammers... Just normal women who don't feel they are attractive unless they lie about or omit information concerning their personal defects. One is a 62 yo victim of severe and chronic abuse who lives a second life online as a successful and attractive 32 yo business woman. If you are interested, contact me and you can work them as scammers, but it's going to be a waste of your time....

The one I just got to dump me was a waste of mine. I am working serious sharks only... Wham Bam WU Man: I bait, hook, and then post after I see them struggling furiously to collect the money. I try to make it funny, but I am baiting hardcore, organized, criminals. I try to avoid the weakly scripted, poorly organized, amateurish efforts in locating the ones that the average dude may not recognize immediately and get sucked into without having time to think.

Elite Baiter Joined: 11 Jul 2007 Posts: 1979

RTQ wrote:

I called it out on the lie, and got a reponse back that was entirely female... I have seen it many times before in RL.

I gotta wonder what kind of women you hang out with. Confused

RTQ wrote:

I realize that all the senior members here are hardened to scammers,

I beg to differ with you there.

RTQ wrote:

One is a 62 yo victim of severe and chronic abuse who lives a second life online as a successful and attractive 32 yo business woman. If you are interested, contact me and you can work them as scammers, but it's going to be a waste of your time....

No one here would be interested in anything like that and I hope you know it. The thing is, even though you might have been baiting for awhile on your own, those of us who you call senior members, can usually smell a scammer before they even open the email.

I too have been on singles dating sites for over 10 years now (been single for nearly 12). Only in the last 3 or 4 years have the scammers been so prolific on dating sites. I don't post up every one that contacts me (I wouldn't have enough hours in the day) but I can honestly tell you that on places like Myspace and Facebook, 99% of the men who contact me are scammers - proven!! Real men don't hunt women in those places. I think it's safe to assume that the same statistics would hold for women too.

On paid sites like Match.com or eharmony, there the scammers are about 50/50. Nearly all the scammers pay with stolen credit cards and their accounts get canceled quickly so if someone contacts me there and they've been a member more than 30 days, it's safe to assume they're genuine.

Within the 30 day membership limits though, the give-aways are, English grammar, fake model-like photos and a rush to chat and email outside of the dating service. Then I check their IP.

Your reasoning for not posting up your scammer was because she never asked you for money. This is faulty logic. The better, more seasoned scammers know that a romancer is more likely to get paid if they establish a credible relationship. They work slowly and set their hooks. They sometimes spend months - I've had one work me for over 9 months - telling you everything they think you want to hear. They finesse the time and massage your ego.

I think what most of us seasoned baiters see in this bait that you've posted, was a successful romance lad who was taking his time with you and probably three or four others at the same time. He knew what he was doing - but you showed him a mistake he'd made. One he didn't think you were smart enough to know about. Now with his others and the next victim he picks up, he'll make accommodations in his story. You've shown him an area of deficiency and he'll sharpen his skills.

Maybe you really were talking to a woman, but I'm certain she was only the scammer's shill. The hissy fit over being busted in a lie was anger that they were temporarily set back by a 'joker.' They hate jokers (baiters).

Still, you did a great job pissing whoever it was off. And it really doesn't matter that much if you don't post the email addy. It's just a shame though that they might just hook someone naive and hurt them. What about if you contacted her again with a different email address and got the proof you needed?

Master Baiter Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 100

How do you get the authorities to take you seriously?

I am on my third bait (and the first one that I knew was full of ca ca from the start) over which I have contacted the authorities. No one seems to want to listen. From credit card companies, to the FBI, to the RCMP, and especially not eHarmony - NO ONE. So I dutifully fill out my ic3.gov form and let it be. The only companies that supplied stuff seemed to care and listen about ways to tighten their security.

Again I am thankful for finding this site and scamwarners.com - they have given me an education and I continue to learn. And it isn't all about yanking the baited's chain - it is gathering of information. Unfortunately, I have become a bit jaded, but still don't see scammers lurking around every corner. These guys (and girls) do have a pattern that can be easy to see if you know what you are looking at.

Elite Baiter Joined: 11 Jul 2007 Posts: 1979

It's not that authorities don't take scamming seriously, it's that they only fight what they have power for. Jurisdiction is the first issue. Police in the US or Canada have plenty of their own locals to deal with. Then it's a matter of priority. They put murders, kidnappers, burglars, rapists, pedophiles, drug dealers and more way ahead of a scammer just trying get you to open your wallet.

DaTrix, I seem to recall you had one wanting to meet you somewhere in Canada, didn't you? Notifying authorities there was the right thing to do, just on the chance that LE had the time or interest. Apparently they didn't, but in pointing the scammer out to them, hopefully it moved him up in the order of priorities. Unfortunately it will take someone getting seriously hurt for LE to go after the guy, but if they do, they'll have your report to add to their case against him.

The good news is Question

that US and Canadian scammers are usually just plain low life scum that are often involved in other crimes as well. It's the other crimes that get the attention of LE.

Master Baiter Joined: 16 Jul 2007 Posts: 214

RTQ

I am really happy u have decided to join this forum and teach us all about Romance Scams - I think I learned sooooo much from you.

I need to improve my perception levels to get to your level of being able to tell who is at the keyboard on the other side - maybe you have ESP!!

Still great when new members arrive and teach us such incredible lessons!!!!!