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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Sep 2015 Posts: 8

After an initial good time with a CC "artist," I have not had any success in getting a reply on any of my attempts to get another bait running, either CC or 419 scam.

Some of my attempts started with the "surplus" letters posted here. I copied the email address and made the subject look like a reply to the original. Some of my attempts were using emails I picked up with my real world business and forwarded to my baiting account. All involved sincerely worded replies to the original solicitation.

I have used a couple different email accounts set up through hushmail, either @hushmail.com or @hush.com. I am thinking perhaps that is tipping my hand or else the lads are checking that replies are coming from addresses that they originally solicited?

Suggestions?

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:52 pm

Keep your initial reply short and sweet along the lines of "tell me more about - - - - - "

419Eater is my life Joined: 11 Sep 2015 Posts: 335

What woody999 says is true, i made the same mistake before and already wrote long initial replies which never got me any answer. A short "i may be interested" and maybe one small hint to your wealth or your characters stupidness will do the job.

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 8:24 pm

Lads tend not to track where they send their spam so, even if you reply from an address they didn't send mail to, 99.9% of them aren't going to realize it. Similarly, most lads tend not to read your first couple of responses and just send out the next page of their script, so don't waste time crafting responses specific to their spam -- just keep things short and sweet.

My favorite opening line is:

Quote:

My friend,

I think I may be interested in your offer. Please tell me more.

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 9:46 pm

My favorite opening line:

Quote:

-Sent from my iPad Air

You'd be surprised how often it gets a response.

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 1:15 pm

Yes, a lot of them don't read the first couple of responses. A few times I've amused myself by sending short, silly replies and had lads email me back. For example, if a lad is posing as some diplomat holding on to a trunk with my name on it, I'll might reply with something like, "If your trunk is purple, I'm interested in knowing more about it." Or a widow dying painfully of cancer might get: "I pray that your suffering ends soon. How can I help that along?"

Some I've given short answers to that should have hooked them, but they never replied. Maybe they already had a victim on the line they were concentrating on (although you hope not), or weren't checking that email anymore or missed your email entirely. Who knows? There's plenty more fish out there, so just grab so more emails from surplus. Wink

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 1:29 pm

One other reason people sometimes get low response rate: responding too long after the initial scam mail was sent.

If you wait too long to reply:

Sometimes scammers won't reply because their initial email addresses have been shut down for spamming (and you don't always get an auto-reply in such cases, it depends on the provider).

Other times they may be focusing on potential victims who are a little bit further into the scam. If this is the case, keep your eyes open as you may get an unexpected reply when the scammer looks back to see if he got any new replies.

And still other times (especially mails posted in Surplus here), the scammers may have been baited in various ways by the time you reply, and more suspicious of new replies.

By the way my own current "standard response" to initial scams is

Quote:

I'm sorry, did you mean to send this to me?

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:33 pm

DealBreaker, I recommend this lad. He doesn't like phone calls so you can give him an invalid number, he won't call and he won't let you know his number for security reasons.

Don't use the deafness excuse! It's already in process (I didn't know he was anti-calls when I started the bait).

His first two messages are relatively articulated, but he starts babbling when it comes to the Western Union part.

I'm posting my exchange with him here.

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 10:36 pm

My standard response is "I'm confused, are you sure you sent this email to the right person?" Invariably, the lad replies that he did, and it immediately establishes that Roger will be confused about everything in the bait.

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 12:07 am

Unfortunately it is quite common to find a lad that is so successful that he simply doesn't have time to communicate with someone who hasn't paid him yet.

The biggest mistake that new baiters make is thinking that they can turn a random lad into an epic lad. The epic baits get published here. What doesn't get published here? Several thousand baits that go nowhere.

Just keep at it. The advice given in the previous posts is extremely valid. Combine that with a shotgun approach and you will find a lad that is begging to be recognized by this community.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Sep 2015 Posts: 8

This shouldn't be this hard! I finally had two responses and was off and running.

Now I have been "kicked out" of the email provider (hushmail) that I was using...for violating their terms of service. So I have lost both of those due to everything being on their server.

I went to gmail to resurrect an identity but they want details like my cell phone number. I prefer not to associate that with these identities. What email providers are you guys using?

Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 3:40 pm

Gmail is a good choice. Another one that does not give out your location is Inbox.com.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:40 am

Keep trying gmail. I have several accounts and have never given my number. Most of the time you can ignore the telephone questions and continue with the sign up using an alternate email address for recovery. Microsoft now also hides IP addresses.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 3:55 am

Hushmail used to be baiter friendly, but now it is best to avoid it. I lost a couple of accounts there too. But I switched to Gmail, and I've never had a problem since.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 11:19 am

Re phone numbers. Lots of options so you never have to pick up. Ignore the question. If your lad gets persistent, explain your employer pays for your phone and you can't make/receive personal calls. I've never had this questioned. Or get a K7 number and set up a phone mail greeting for your character. Or your phone doesn't have international service.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:35 pm

Also, I leave a draft in my G-mail boxes. Something along the line of: "To whom it may concern. This is a 419baiter account. I use it to E-mail scammers for the purpose of collecting their information. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding the use of this E-mail profile. Thank you."

Try opening an account on different days. Sometimes G-mail asks for a phone number and sometimes not. One easy way is to Buy a Skype Baiter number and use it for the E-mail phone number.

ETA: Many of the tactics discussed here:
https://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=259589&highlight=doom+dakar
..will work on many different kinds of Lads. Maybe you can get some pointers there.

Also, do you have a Mentor? If not I suggest you apply for one.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Sep 2015 Posts: 8

Yep, Mugu Eater is my mentor. I've been kind of bogged down with work and haven't had the time to pursue this....hope to change that soon.