How did you get into baiting?

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Master Baiter Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Posts: 200 Location: UK

Just a thread for a bit of idle chatter.

I have been aware of the 419 scams from my charity days when we were often sent a copy Will and told we had been left millions. I used to have pitched rows with the directors with them getting terribly excited and me having to explain that a will witnessed by Mickey Mouse and Prince Charles was unlikely to be the real McCoy.

Last year though, a friend of mine met a "girl" on the internet. She had a "legal" problem and he put "her" in touch with me. I immediately sussed her as a scammer - he was on the point of sending her money for her plane ticket. Thankfully, he listened to good sense. The particular "scammer" is still in touch with one of my alter egos and after over a year is still professing undying love and not once asked for money. Perhaps he is playing the "long con".

Just being generally nosy tho on a Friday night with not much else to do!

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 4:46 pm

I really can't remember but I've just looked up my first ever post and most of the people on the page have been banned!

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 619

For me it was the UK technology news web site www.theregister.co.uk. On that site, they would occasionally post a story about something new that lads were doing (who they call "the lads from Lagos"). A quick search on their site will show you the type of articles I mean. I believe it was a link on one of their stories that got me reading here in the first place. Well before this I had received a few of these emails but never thought to bait them.

At first I didn't notice the forum and just read the published baits on the front page, but then found the gold that is in here.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 02 Dec 2008 Posts: 518

I had, previous to my time here, never received a 419 scam letter. Still, somehow I found this site and started reading the baits published by Shiver. Eventually I started visiting the forum and started baiting myself. I can't remember how I found the site though. Most likely is was the chance result of a google search I did.

Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 1407

I did it for the free hooker service and toaster provided by joining the "Premium" section of 419.

Master Baiter Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Posts: 200 Location: UK

So do the ladies get a free gentleman escort service? And can we choose our model of toaster? Or can we trade it for a crate of Pinot and a cheese sarnie?

Trophy Videos · Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:49 pm

I stumbled on this site somehow. I don't remember how. But once here, I blame YeaWhatever, BigWorm, and ScamPatroller for hooking me. They had some amazing safaris going at the time, and I never laughed so hard in my entire life. Laughing

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:57 pm

Quote:

I started visiting the forum and started baiting myself.

The easiest way into baiting although the replies you get are somewhat predictable.

On the plus side, Trophy pics are a breeze!

Apologies Mr. Larson, it was irresistable.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

^^^

Almost exactly two years ago, a friend sent me a link to Eater saying "I think you'll get a kick out of this".
I had never received a scam email or even heard of Advance Fee Fraud. I also didn't know what a domain/hoster/registrar or whois information was.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 6:16 pm

I started off at aa419 killing escrow sites because I was fed up with scams on Ebay - it's all been down hill since then. I'm sure I used to have spare time once Very Happy

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

I got a scam email one day, instead of deleting it like I normally would, or sending back some abuse, I decided to Google the contents of it and found a baiting site, someone on there called klass gave me a link to eater, so here I am Very Happy

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 8:37 pm

I handle the bulk of the email for a humane society, and since the primary addresses are posted on the web, 419's like the typical NOK were pretty common. I always deleted them, thinking that they were too obvious for anyone to fall for, and also knowing that nobody else who had access to the organization email would even read them (if it isn't clear that it is relevant to the organization in the first few lines, they would leave it to me anyway).

But then the pet-specific scams and fake check donation scams started coming in, and though I quickly realized they were fake (it helps to be naturally very cynical), they really pissed me off because I knew people in the animal world (including at my own hs) that would probably be naive enough to fall for for them. I lurked at several scam and baiting sites just to keep myself informed, but didn't get involved. Then last summer I discovered that my grandmother had been scammed into numerous "item of the month" clubs in response to free offers and realized that if she were online, she would probably be falling for lottery scams, etc. too--so I stopped lurking and started doing.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 8:47 pm

I got my internet connection, the spam followed hot on its heels which brought me here when I did a search on ways to stop it. I've been on Eater for almost as long as I've had internet.

This place has taught just about all I know on the way the net and its users operate.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

I had an email address
Had no spam filter
I got fed up of the spam.
Searched about it, looking for way to stop it, landed here.
Ended up with lots of email addresses
and lots of spam Rolling Eyes

This week I am mostly a widowed rennet farmer with a fierce guard haggis

I do love how silly I can be with the lads
It may not be much in the giant scheme of things but I do feel when they look for a W onion near to my fictional home, admire my pet goat pictures or give me their bank details thay are less likely to be spending time with a real victim

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 10:08 pm

I, too had no clue what an advance fee fraud was until I came here. A few years back I complained to a friend about all these e-mails I kept getting about winning lotteries from other countries, etc... She told me to stop by this "eater" site and post one of them in the surplus section. I lurked for a while, signed up, and the rest is history... Smile

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 10:33 pm

I came in here purely for the entertainment value originally. I liked the idea of fighting scammers with their own weapons, and as a battle of wits. Shiver proved in so many examples that it could be possible to make a lad safari, or a funny picture for you...so I read and read and read, everything in the letters archive, and also on the drschmoo and frank rizzo site, during the whole autumn 2006.
No, I was not aware of 419, of the Nigeria Connection, before I found an article in a computer magazine about the 419ers, with an Eater link...

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 11:23 pm

I fell off my horse last year.

<--- that one

Bust a few ribs and whilst laid up found this idiot called "Shiver" who made lads travel to the end of the earth and put fish on their heads. "ooh that looks fun" I said.

The rest is history.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 11:24 pm

my grandmother got hooked by a scammer, but my father caught it before too much damage was done.
i mentioned this to a friend, who mentioned this site, and i started lurking here.
i loved the idea of turning the tables on scammers!

subsequently i was involved in a very bad accident, from which i'm still recovering [hence the smallcaps]
and as the recovery is going to take many months and i'll have time on my hands, i figured i should stop lurking and start baiting.

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 2:39 am

I was traded from my original team..

...I think the deal was a stick of gum and a filter cigarette. Wink

Like some others here, a protracted recovery is what gave me the time to become a real <strike>postwhore</strike> baiter and member of the Eater community.

Plus I have always been cynical.

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 2:39 am

This is what brought me here.

http://missingexploited.com/2006/07/19/nigerian-money-scam-and-mary-winkler-an-odd-couple-indeed/

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 2:48 am

Probably around a year and a half ago I started answering some of the scam mails I received, just out of curiosity.
I basically just asked them a whole bunch of dumb questions about their offers in order to try and stump them. (which wasn't hard)

Then one day I was bored and googling one of the scammers email addys and it brought me here. Read most of Shiver's stories and never laughed so much in my entire life. I was hooked from there on out! Very Happy

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:06 am

Shiver's book did not come out at the time that I joined, but I knew it was in the making. I waited patiently while getting into the scene and here me was. Cool

Hello again! Laughing

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 5:15 am

About two years ago, I had a friend who would forward to me the
more outrageous 419 emails that she received, and I started writing
to the lads asking for photographs.

Then I found 419Eater.

Shocked

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

One day, well, I was here.

Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 4:10 am

I found the site via a Google search, a long while ago. Then sat on it for months before I did something about it.

But the great part about it, is you can be nasty to people Wink

and people on here, tell you your doing a great job. Confused

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