How did you find your niche?

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Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:12 am

I'm new here and have replied to a few lads, hopefully some of them will go for the bait. I've read most of the tutorials and there are many things I want to try. I've decided to start with mostly straight baiting formats to get a general idea of how this works and the psychology of the lads but leave them open ended enough to see where they go...

Once I have straight baiting down a bit, I plan on trying to deviate from the scripts of the lads and being more creative with my baits. But rather than being interested in only one or two types of baiting formats, a lot of them seem like they have potential.

I've noticed through reading the stickys and threads that many of you seem to have a niche or preferred baiting format. How did you end up finding your niche? Were you interested in it from the beginning or did it develop over time? Was it something you tried once that just stuck?

I'd like to hear your stories.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:19 am

Mine is half talent and half circumstance I guess. I found a project and found I was good at it. I still try other types of baits to help keep me learning and rounded out. The more different types of baits you do the more angles you get on the scammers in Total.

If you ever need help with the Dakar Darlings, just let me know.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:34 am

Over time, you work out what you like and what you're good at. Read around a lot and don't be afraid to try any angles or ideas that take your fancy. If something doesn't work, there are always more lads in the sea.

Myself, I've found I prefer agonisingly long straight-ish baits (they generally get more ludicrous as they go on), collecting trophies here and there when the opportunity arises.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:22 am

My suggestion would be for you to develop your baiting alter ego. Eventually what will happen is that your alter ego will pick the type of baits you will be most attracted to. My baiting character owns his own business and I gravitate toward investment baits.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:37 am

^^
A very good piece of advice! Once you find a character you like and start using more and more, he/she will likely develop a life of his/her own and you will notice just going along with it. Any hobby or professional writers here probably know the phenomenon. It happens to me all the time, whether it's a bait I'm writing or a novel.

As for me, I'm a straight baiter and a mentor. Although I do occasionally gravitate towards other types of baits out of curiosity, those are my niches, if you will. I have found that they support each other well. In my own baits I concentrate on perfecting the art of playing a regular everyday Joe victim, and in Eater I concentrate on teaching it to those unlucky souls who end up as my mentees. As Kuromaku said, straight baiting is a good way to start. You could say I have chosen to be an eternal newbie.

But truth be told, I also like straight baiting. Most of my baits would be boring to read, but I like writing and doing them. I like developing the story as it goes and taking any opportunity I can, but mostly I just like trying to come across as so real that a lad could in the future believe a real victim to be not worth of his time because he/she would do similar things as I have done to the lad in the past. Whether I succeed in it or not is impossible to answer, but it's my highest goal: paranoia. Straight baits are also easy to run on several lads at once even if your real life keeps you busy.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:59 am

So in that case, do each of your characters tend to gravitate towards different types of baits?

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:37 am

Mine don't. I only have a handful of recurring character types that I have learned to like, and they are (mostly) all suited for straight baits. Apart from an occasional gold lad or two, I don't do nor own a business. I'm not rich, I definitely can't afford private jets or to pay initial fees of thousands of dollars. For personal reasons I also don't often do church baits, though occasional charity character to support the main straight one is OK. And then of course fake lads. But they, like most of my recurring ones, are there just to support the main one, the average Joe who seems to get caught in all sorts of trouble while trying his very best.

The rest are just fire and forget types that I use when I need to vent and don't care about the results.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:37 am

My character is a business owner who is a hardcore libertarian, a misogynist, and a religious zealot. All of those character traits are in place to frustrate any attempts by the lad to move things forward with demands that the lad do something (like get a document notarized, redo a contract, travel across the continent to meet me, or apologize for some invented slight or insult perpetrated against me.)

So in light of my character I am often interested in next of kin or investment scams.

If your character ends up being a clergyman, an artist, an executive, a blue collar worker, a pool hustler, or whatever; you will find yourself gravitating to different types of scams just based on that. So my advice to you is to try to figure out who your character is by straight baiting a couple of lads with different scripts. Remember it is all a learning process for you at this point and just getting the lads to sit down and respond to an email means that you have already won regardless of what happens in the bait.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:17 am

I have three main characters. One lives on the west coast and makes various mechanical parts. He's the one I send after product lads. The others live on the east coast and catch fish. They like to adopt orphans, but they also do other types of baits.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:45 am

I have numerous characters ranging from a couple of young girls (one Indian the other Argentine) who only go after au pair scammers, an elderly Swiss clock maker who likes talking to young Russian girls and a middle aged Dutch widow who is always being propositioned on FishMeetFish.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:49 am

My characters developed in response to baits. My snotty lawyer modality with a stuffy, evil senior partner just evolved. He's good for love baits. I also have a ditsy blonde, a surfer dude and a diamond dealer. Except the dealer, all of them will work for a straight bait.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 3:10 pm

This is a very interesting question,shame I hav'nt got an answer.
I have not been at it long enough to fully develop any real alter egos.
But I learn something new every time I go on the site or send or receive an email.
I think it is more of a case of discovering what you don't like as much as what you do.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:14 pm

The types of Baits can be controlled by the Gender of your character too. My Female character probably wouldn't work well on the Darlings baiting as a Gay woman wanting to bring her lover to the USA. Doesn't mean it can't work just that it wouldn't be as successful.

My Female character goes for Romance, Lotto, & dying widow types.

All of my Male characters kind of go for any type of bait that falls in their lap when they aren't baiting the Refugees.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:44 pm

I'm relatively new here as well (although signed up years ago). I do marketing for a number of companies and became involved in Scambaiting when a winery I consult for had a retail store member fall for the "Charge my credit card but I want to use my own shipping company scam". The poor gal ran the lads credit card for $3,800 and packed up all of the wine (8 huge boxes) and contacted the "shipping company". Fortunately I called in that day to check in and she asked me "How do I send money via Western Union?" Of course I told her to shut the entire thing down. She was upset because she thought she had a huge sale (to Lithuania!!???) and had spent all of that time packing wine.

The winery receives at least two or three similar emails a week so I respond from a fake email and winery I have set up and I specialize in 1) quickly getting a credit card to report 2) wasting as much time as I can 3) lad frustration - I make them feel like they are SOOOO close to getting paid 4) Attempting to get a bank account for Alan to kill. I always use the same character, same gmail, same details, same fake winery etc. It keeps it consistent. The lads ALWAYS want to talk on the phone so I use the SAME fake phone number which forwards to my back up cell phone. Keeping things consistent seems to work for me. I have some hilarious email trails that include lads filling out the entire form in the scam baiting tools (including the "what do you see outside of your window"). Fun fun.

Only problem is when I have 3-4 baits going on at the same time I get confused at times when they call. So hard to understand them and who is on the line. Small problem though.

Happy baiting!

Surfowl

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Welcome, kuromaku!

My suggestion is for you to dabble and find what you like. The information here from members is helpful, but there isn't one right answer - there are many! Baiting is pretty individual. When I first joined, I thought I would enjoy baiting romance scammers. I didn't. A standard Advance Fee Fraud dying widow format ended up being my favorite bait, but not necessarily because of the type of format, it was because of the lad. I think the scammer on the other end makes more of a difference in a bait than the type of format.

I also notice that if I stick narrowly to one type of thing here, I get bored. So, I dabble. I've done straight baits, silly baits, short baits, trophy baits, killed fake sites, worked with victims on ScamWarners, etc.
Diversifying is probably the best way to find your own niche.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 5:22 pm

Just try different things and you will find that some formats are more fun (for you) to bait than others, or easier, or work better with the ideas that you want to use. Cool

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:24 pm

I have a demented ability to spend lots of time and twist the love lads. I have 2 characters I use and pull in different types of lads. I am finding now they tend to bring in straight baits along with them- boxes, alternative payment types, etc. Or they add extra characters with additional needs. I agree that doing one kind of bait is boring but I also enjoy being the best with the romance lads. Just don't be afraid to develop your character and then tweak as needed for a particular bait. A lot of it depends on also what you are comfortable with- phone calls, email only, chats on YM or Google or Skype. What should make you encouraged is we all have different styles and ideas and I think that's what brings the success as well as fun. Good luck!

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:46 pm

I started off all gung ho that I was going to get lads to go on safaris and send me funny pictures and wooden carvings, but very quickly discovered that I am terrible at those kind of baits. Other than one safari that came as part of several that occurred during a massbait, I just don't have the creativity or patience to get lads to do those sorts of things. But a month or so into baiting I decided to see if I could wheedle a bank account out of a lad and got one pretty quickly, so I went for a few more. Before I knew it I was going after piggies in a large-scale, almost assembly line fashion. And the others are definitely right about characters taking on a life of their own. The little old lady I bait as has developed her own personality that makes it very easy to switch into baiting mode and write as someone completely different from myself.

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 7:33 pm

Ima wrote:

A standard Advance Fee Fraud dying widow format ended up being my favorite bait, but not necessarily because of the type of format, it was because of the lad. I think the scammer on the other end makes more of a difference in a bait than the type of format.

I second this. When I decide I want to play a certain character, I take a dozen or more scams from Surplus, write to them all, and then see which lads I enjoy writing to - and drop the rest. The format doesn't really matter - they all just lead to The Payment Stage anyway. I prefer the lads who get involved with my character's storyline and comment about his or her life. Then they so much more easily accept the delays and problems that occur.

But I do need to like the character I've created, and find them entertaining. I had 'good ideas' for some characters, then later found them boring to play. So they went the same way as the boring lads.

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:40 am

It's been very interesting to see how you all have found your niche: both what you are best at and what you enjoy doing most. Glad to hear your experiences.

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 2:59 am

As a Mentor I stress Safety, Straight Baiting and taking Bank Accounts but I’m not sure if I’ve found a niche yet as there are so many possibilities out there. This is a Fantasy World here you can be or do anything you want just use your Imagination.

A while back a Mentee wanted to learn all about Romance Baiting and for me to play a character in her Bait. So I said “SHIT” and wandered into the Forum to learn what I could. While I was there I met some fine Folk, some Masters and a few Newbs looking for the same answers I was (I pretended I was an expert eh?). Most of those people are still there and the Newbs? Well many of them Mentor now because they are that good.

All in all it is what you want not what anybody wants from you. Enjoy the Ride and set your own terms, rinse, repeat, act like a complete tool but remember to treat this is a Hobby and you’ll have Piles of Fun!
My First Bait which was a result of what I read here gave me this:

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:58 am

Finding your "niche" can be difficult.

I first joined Eater in 2010 under a name similar to the one I use now and then forgot the password. I used an email address similar to my Eater name without the 419ers part and had two characters, Brianna and Brennan, using the names and genders as I felt the situation required. I bait with both genders but rarely use much of a back story which is odd, I suppose, since I studied fiction writing and poetry. My characters often share traits, depending upon the situation. Since I will not do phone calls for personal reasons, the male characters, typically, have lost their hearing from an IED explosion while serving in one of the Gulf Wars. The female characters are waiting for their new phone to arrive since they dropped it in the toilet or have a work phone that cannot dial or receive international calls.

Although, some have said I have a knack for Romance Baiting (in an unpublished bait, the scammer actually wanted to send me a phone), I was almost a victim of a romance scam and really do not have the patience or time for it, but will do it from time to time to practice my skills. I have a difficult time with site killing and have a ton of respect for those that can do it, so I often send a message to those site killers I respect and let them do their thing.

Going into 2014, I had 23 pink pigs in my siggy and no black ones. Then I reached out to Gimli for advice and joined the 500 in 6 thread. It does a ton of damage to the lads and I look forward to reporting them several times a day. As for the product lads, I'm still finding my way, but managed to pick up 4 this year. I think if I would do phone calls, I could increase this.

I, too, get bored at times and decide I need to learn or practice something new, so that;s where I head. I have a feeling you will find that, too. As long as there is something you pull from it, that's the important part.

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 5:57 am

Ha, I already feel like I'm learning a lot from everyone here. Here's to hoping I do things right and one of my baits leads somewhere interesting. And if not, there are plenty of lads and opportunities out there.

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 6:27 am

I've straigh-baited for a long time.

I take the view that presenting a strong character to the Lads is vital in building a rapport that keeps them in contact. My Captain Mal persona is given to anecdotes of his service in Iraq and Somalia to reinforce the image. Case in point; after I'd mentioned a lucky escape from a sniper in Iraq, a Lad had told a tale about his lucky escape from death in childhood - supposedly the sole survivor of a fire that killed seven classmates - and it seemed to be a bit callous. So I wrote back:

Quote:

I don't think there's any higher purpose making things occur. Life is a mosaic of millions of events and choices. Things just happen; that's it.

As for the sniper... it was during operations in Sadr City, and there were snipers in the AO. Our intel stated that they were working in pairs - one shooter, one spotter - and my close shave happened when I spotted one of the spotters - and instead of designating him for the counter-snipers, I chose to put an M203 round in his nest (that's a 40 mm frag grenade). It blew him to pieces, but the sniper lined up on me as I stayed up trying to see the effects on the grenade. I started to turn to the comms man at the moment he fired, and the bullet clipped the rim of my helmet. Believe me - I dropped right there and then, just as one of the counter-snipers double-tapped the shooter - two hits, head and throat. We found the shooter later - a veteran sniper with seven Marines and 11 other coalition troops killed or wounded; he'd actually put notches in his rifle stock - a Yugoslav M76 rather than the usual Dragunov.

I didn't make that mistake again, believe you me!

One thing to remember is that your good luck may be someone else's bad luck. You survived the fire; your friends didn't. The IED that ended my career killed one Marine and left four others crippled; I was one of nine less seriously hurt. You see what I mean?

Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:05 pm

I started out on Eater by straight baiting to waste time and report bank accounts. I was decent at it, but I didn't think I was doing the damage to the lads that I was capable of. Then after a few weeks, one of my lads sent me a fake bank site and asked me to sign up for an account there. I asked my mentor about what I could do about this, and she directed me to the fake sites forum.

I found great advice and mentorship from the site killers, particularly Woody and El Capitan Borracho. Fast forward 15 months and I am now burning down lad sites by the dozen. This is my niche and my specialty, and while I still like to keep a few baits going at all times, and I occasionally join mass baits (credit card or otherwise), I enjoy nothing more than seeing the Client Holds and blue and orange suspended pages that all site killers know and love.

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