Looking for some advice - Safety and other issues

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Master Baiter Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 236

Hey there, I'm hoping that all you nice people on the forum can help me out Smile

I've been lurking around this site for over a month now, enjoyed reading the stuff, and occassionally posting. I thought that I was happy enough just watching, and then I realised that my local area is clueless on scammers. So I started to work on educating them, which is something that's going well.

And then I realised that I wanted to try my hand at baiting. I checked where my IP resolved to (either 70, 100, 150 or 4200 miles away), and set up a gmail account with completely false information. I read and re-read the stickies and Eater U. I sent out a few emails, and sat back to wait.

And then I made the mistake of telling a friend. He went through the roof at me. He tells me that he's worried for my safety, since nothing is anonymous on the internet, and that he'd really rather that I stop. Trouble is, I don't really want to, but I don't want to disappoint him either. Yes, I am a doormat Smile

So, is there any information that the members of 419eater can give to me to show him that it is nearly "100% risky free". Or should I just stop baiting now, and go back to lurking?

Mods, if this is too off topic, too personal, or anything else, I apologise.

Meridian

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:35 am

Your friend is being alarmist.
The Mods can see your IP. It only shows your Internet Service Provider, not your location.
Your username does not show up on search engines.

If you act responsibly, and don't give out any personal information, you are untraceable by scammers.

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:43 am

You're baiting perfectly safely. It sounds like your friend wears natty tinfoil headgear on a regular basis!

Just explain to him about IP stripping email programmes and how they protect you. Explain that even if a lad was smart enough to get your IP, that's not enough information to find you.
Explain that you will never give out your real address, pictures or phone numbers to someone you don't know on the internet.
Finally, tell him that 20,000 419eater members can't all be wrong! If you were doing anything remotely risky, one of the Moderators or experienced guys here would have put you right pretty sharpish.

We occasionally get the odd member here who just dives in without reading up on safety, and manages to give a scammer his real address. They usually say something along the lines of "Yeah but he's not going to come all the way here to get me"... and we usually manage to put them right very quickly. Unsafe baiting just isn't entertained here.

In any case, well done on reading up on things thoroughly. You seem to have a good handle on things. Smile

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:43 am

Absolutely!!!
Using gmail = good idea!

Just keep it safe, and you have nothing to worry about!

Why don't you tell your friend to get a look here, sign up and ask questions?
Relevant answers will be given Wink

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:27 am

I have been at it now for almost three years, with two breaks, and have never felt a inkling of personal danger. That being said, I arrest people and wrestle with psych patients at work and have a pretty high tolerance of risk. You are the only one that can make the decision to bait or not to bait. I for one, hope you stay here and have at em.

Quit being a doormat, it's not healthy for your soul

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:30 am

Welcome, it sounds like you used your lurker month well, if I were to give you suggestions on safe baiting there would be very little else to suggest. Gmail is a good choice as it hides your IP and shows their corporate datacentre one instead, but in reality the great bulk of lads aren't anywhere near as IT literate as many here (if they were, they'd get real jobs!) - there are some seriously IT-savvy types here and not scared of baiting using falsified details. I myself am ex-Microsoft, and I'm not scared!

If your friend has any specific questions then please do feel free to post them and we'll help you answer them, but you may want to watch out for the black helicopters...

EDIT: Actually that may sound mean, it wasn't meant to! It's great that your friend is looking out for your safety and how wonderful to have a friend to do so. Luckily you can reassure him and help him understand - who knows he may end up baiting as well?

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:35 am

@MeridianAlicante

nothing in life is 100% risky free (with exception to some next of kin business proposals Wink

). I had this very discussion with my wife and it helped, when she saw that I was not taking security too laizes faire. Nothing is really annonymous in the web. I guess with carnivore and similar national tapping systems, the government agencies can get access to it all with a legal permission (though I doubt they have time to care). But that doesn't mean that any lad will be able to trace you. Security is a racing duell between those who want to protect themselves and those who try to break in. But lads are not tech savvy and you will be, if you walk carefully, read the stickies and post your doubts here to ask the experts. But yes, it is adviseble to keep track of things and stay informed. Modalities change and so do internet techniques and ISP policies, what held true yesterday might be differert today and be potential dangerous. But do not become hysterical or overanxious, most lads are so dumb, they will not even know how to read an IP address even if its a fixed IP from your company the registrar has your full adress in the DNS-Entry (believe me, this is the case with me and when I started baiting I did not know, so it went out to several lads - And I am still alive Very Happy

)

Just my two kobo

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 12:26 pm

You're perfectly safe if you follow the set guidelines.

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 1:18 pm

I've only been doing this for a month and I guess i had the same concerns at first. I'm using gmail etc, have read the guides and have a great mentor that is pointing out mistakes to me along the way.

I'm just getting to the interesting point in a couple of baits and it is one of the funniest things I've ever done in my life. First sets of trophies on the way and ever increasingly complex and ridiculous modalities being played out with ridiculous characters. Insane fun, little risk, jump on in the water's fine!!!

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

As above-gmail IP's resolve to California somewhere (Mountain View iirc) if you wanna check send a email from your fake gmail to your fake yahoo account-DO NOT LINK YOUR BAITING ACCOUNT TO YOUR REAL LIFE ACCOUNT(S)-and then run the headers.

As stated before your IP is your internet providers 'elecctronic' addy for you-wanna check how close that is to your front door try this http://www.ip-adress.com/ipaddresstolocation/ to get any closer than that (IF YOU ARE BAITING SAFELY) a lad will need a court order-which is highly unlikely that he'd ask or that it would be granted.

edit to add-the above should not be taken as 'legal' advice-i'm not a lawyer, unless [email protected] is asking!!! Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 3:02 pm

Look at it this way, if it were that easy to find people sending emails, there would be no scammers. With all of the resources law enforcement and former victims have at their disposal, few scammers are ever brought to justice.

Your lads aren't going to have any better luck finding you if you exercise even half of the caution they do.

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 3:09 pm

Try this, first go to http://www.ip-adress.com/
then, copy your IP,
go to http://headertool.apelord.com/headers and enter your IP.
That is as good as the scammers can do from your computer, but with gmail? Its obfuscated more.

Your friend is an alarmist, but his heart is in the right place. You are doing everything right.

Have fun inflicting lad pain!

419Eater is my life Joined: 20 Oct 2008 Posts: 280

I'm in more danger grilling a burger than I am scambaiting (since it's done safely).

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 4:11 pm

People that don't know alot about comptuers seem to fear this stuff more than those in the know.

My father things as soon as he gets on line that every scammer in the world will have his credit card information and that they can take his money right from his computer.

I had a logical talk with him about it and he finally clued in that OK its not possible. He didn't even want to leave his credit card in view of the comptuer!! lol

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:42 am

Your friend is just looking after your best interests which is nice

I no longer discuss baiting except for in here

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:49 am

The second most important thing to emphasize (after safety) is to continue to educate yourself. There is always something new to learn and using the tips and tricks of others can make baiting a very satisfactory pastime.

Cheers!!

Master Baiter Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 236

Thank you so much to everyone who replied, it was much appreciated. I sat down with my friend and had another talk, and explained all the points that you made.

He's a lot happier now he knows that I know what I'm doing, and as long as I don't mention it to him (since he has no interest in it), I'm fine to carry on.

So thank you all, once again Smile

*happydances*

Now I just need to wait for my pet idiot to get back to me... Very Happy

Meridian

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:02 pm

Meridian, I know we're all very happy to have you along for the ride, and you've found yourself a wonderful new hobby that is sociable and makes the world a safer place Smile

Questions always arise, you may find it helpful to get a mentor whilst you're getting settled, or another way to become active in a supported environment quickly is to join in any massbait - you share the stories and the goading, and they're heaps of fun Smile

419Eater is my life Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 264

Your friend is correct in a way. Nothing is anonymous on the internet. If someone wanted to find you they could if they had a lot of knowledge of the internet and how it works. Scammers don't usually have this knowledge.

Also they are out for money. Most baits just don't rile them up enough that they would be dead set on finding you. A precious few baits may but those are few and far between. When they see that no money is coming their way they don't usually bother past that point.

No baiting is safe baiting. It's like sex there is only "safer" baiting. That being said the risk is so tiny if you use safer baiting techniques that there is almost no risk at all. It's up to you but overall I'd worry more about an airplane falling on my house than a scammer finding me.

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:18 am

And I'd feel very, very, very sorry for any lad who went through all the trouble of tracking me down through Gmail. It's a complete and utter deadend. Even if he could get a government order to my company to release the account information on my IP, I live in a pretty well armed neighborhood, plus I'm only home in the late evenings. Laughing

419Eater is my life Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 264

I've got National Access Wireless Broadband. Anywhere you can get cell phone coverage I can log on the internet. If anyone gets my address we live where it would be hard to get anywhere near enough to see anything without being quite obvious and a target.

Also if they get on the property they will have this to contend with:

Although if she bit a lad I'd have to have her checked out. No telling what diseases a dog could get from biting one of these scum. Laughing

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:11 pm

Just to reassure you after the last couple of posts - technically you do leave traces when you browse/email, but even an "expert" has an impossible task - here's why.

I'm in the UK using gmail - so my IP says California (if a lad understood the concept). IF he, from Nigeria, got a US court order for google to hand over my details, all they could hand over is my IP address in the UK. Time for another court order against the UK ISP, who will tell you where the NAT router is based - which still leaves you approx 200 miles away - then the internal IP address resolves to a (unencrypted) wireless AP, all connections internally are DHCP - bloody hell it's a nightmare to identify even the computer that sent it, and all this is NOT a set of hardcore precautions, actually just me using a network to use gmail just the same as many other people - the obscurity is there by default, so don't worry about super hackers, it still takes court orders to get to you by simply following the tips here!

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