Question regarding victim stats

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Master Baiter Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 117

Obviously, this is the simplest for newbies such as myself.

However, what bothers me is that while I am silent or throwing petty stalls, there's still a very good chance they are keeping busy with a legitimate victim. I mean they sit at those computers all damn day (don't they?) and while I'm only receiving 1-2 emails from them a day (a response and then a follow up later if I don't respond), I know they're working their game on other people in between.

I have read some BRILLIANT baits that are really consuming these lads' time! I know I'm not there yet, and I know I can't be a super hero baiter like a lot of you guys out there, but I'm a humanitarian and I don't like to think about these things. Sad

So just for giggles, does anyone have statistics on how many victims of 419 scams there are a year??

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 5:10 am

FBI's Internet Complaint Crime Center lists 30,855 received complaints related to 419 and overpayment scams in 2015, but if you look at the statistics you will notice that they have separate categories for things lads also do (lottery, for example.)

https://pdf.ic3.gov/2015_IC3Report.pdf

Also notice that these are complaints received from the United States, not the entire world. And notice that they are complaints. I.e. the victim / potential victim has come forward and reported the crime / attempt to the authorities. It's a well known fact that the majority of victims do not do this for many reasons (shame, guilt and pessimism being some of the more common). So any statistic out there is likely to be more an estimate than accurate science. They all seem to point out towards the same conclusion, though: hundreds of thousands.

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 5:57 am

I don't know statistics, but sometimes we're the only people the lads are dealing with, and sometimes we aren't. When BearSeason and I baited Abdul Hasan, he told each of us that there was one other person he had a luggage for. But in a product lad bait, which we usually massbait, the lad got my order mixed up with that of a real victim.

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:47 am

Duckling has provided you with the link to a single agency reporting scams in a single country. Most first world law enforcement agencies publish similar stats for their countries. So multiply the number of victims that report a scam from there.

An under reported group are almost victims-people who almost fell for the scam. These are our target group-and our sister site is devoted to enlarging it. If we can get the info out there and accessible to search engines, more people will be informed. If we de-educate lads, the index of suspicion rises.If we blow up their sites and nuke their bank accounts, would-be victims can think twice or even three times about dealing with a lad promising millions who's site goes 404.

In addition to safaris, art baits, trophy and church baits, this is what we do. So it's about wasting a scammer's time but also about changing the circumstances so would be victims realize "This is a scam" and walk away.

BTW, if you aren't comfortable baiting, why don't you check out site killing?

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:15 am

^^
Yes, what friend Capone said. I actually can confess that I bait very little nowadays. I have been around for almost 10 years now and I can admit that I find correspondence with the lads boring. I know I'm probably a minority in this, but I do not find hilarity in baiting anymore. If I'm involved in a bait, it's either due to mentoring (which keeps me still active in the scene) or then I go for a quickie like a bank account every now and then. But I have a long time ago stopped actively trying to get safaris, trophies and similar things. I respect the people who go for them, but I also assume the respect works the other way around for us who don't.

What I do, however, and what keeps me here too at least as an observer (other than mentoring), is lot of scam awareness raising. Those who know me know what my biggest thing recently with this has been and that it will likely continue in the future, but in addition I write to the newspapers and take any other chance I get to get publicity for scams, scammers and their victims. And I have it on good authority that it has already had an impact.

There is so much you can do in this scene without even having a chat with a lad. Site killing is also a great alternative and incredibly valuable for the victim awareness purpose, as Capone pointed out. And bank accounts, while they may feel like a small thing, can be a literal life saver for a victim of a scam.

ETA:
What I think matters the most is that it's a team effort. Each of us does something and it all forms a big picture together. I'm very unlikely to ever get a golden pith hat or a golden pig. On the other hand, I know I have done something which, to my knowledge, no one in the community has done since Shiver. I'm not interested in comparing which of those is more valuable. I'm interested in the fact that we all work for the same goal.

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:17 am

It's worth noting that if you just bait for bank accounts, you waste the lads resources big time:
-you keep them occupied
-you waste the time they took to engage the account holder
-you stop the abuse of the account holder
-you can cut off multiple lines of revenue if other victims can't pay into that account and see the light.

Destroying instruments and assets is a big part of this. There are a lot of options.

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 117

Thank you all for your feedback! I like that this is a community working towards a common goal. I'm working on a bait right now and my mentor has encouraged me to go after a bank account which I intend to do.

I don't think I'm tech savvy enough for site killing. I came across 1 last night that I wasn't sure was legit and I was going to post it but it took me a long ass time just to locate the IP address then I couldn't figure out wtf a whois was. Then I googled the site and it came back on like Forbes and stuff.... It was kind of weird.

Anyhoo, side question: are the bank accounts that of the lads or are the hijacked from innocent people?

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 3:11 pm

They belong to the mules usually. A lad may or may not have an actual access to the account. Usually not as far as I know. See here:

https://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=275656

As a sidenote, wasn't that a sticky not too long ago? Confused

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