Is Scam Baiting Worth it?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Master Baiter Joined: 21 Jun 2012 Posts: 105

I know Scam Baiting is worth it, but people like my mom thinks it's a waste of time.

Points Taken from our last argument:
It's all immature and childish.
It takes a lot of time when you clearly don't know what do with your time.
I would rather you send a computer virus and fry their computers.(Wow! that's a great way to go to jail, thanks, mom)

The little speech she gave me was a little bit more in-depth, but those were her points.

I know she is dead wrong because of what I personally know about scambaiting and research. Simply, She doesn't know anything about scambaiting, and I don't have any plans on stopping my baits.
How do you education people on the first hand on what is scambaiting?

How do you know that all of your efforts are helping your online communities?

And people, go easy on your answers it's my mom here. Embarassed

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 30 Aug 2016 Posts: 10

She needs to understand that it's all about the victims.

Show her some pleas for help from victims at places like romancescam.com
(http://romancescam.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22 is a good place to start)

But if reading stories isn't her thing, let YouTube tell her why we do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWOmPKZ4tnw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9u4-sK8h5c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kT2bec4WZ8

And that's just the romance scam.
There are plenty of other scams ruining people's lives.

Every minute you spend with a scammer is a minute they can't use destroying a real victim's life.

*Edit
I've been doing this for years.
My low post count is because I started a new account.

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 5:48 am

masterbaiterchief wrote:

Simply, She doesn't know anything about scambaiting

Well, that's the crux of the issue right there, isn't it. A very common one, so I'm going to address this generally, not specifically in your mom's case.

I've been around the block since late 2006. That's almost 10 years now. In that time, I've seen not only Eater but the whole baiting scene and communities grow not only in size but in scope as well. In fact, while baiting and the fun of it is still in the center, I myself wouldn't call myself a baiter anymore since I don't actually bait that much in the traditional sense. And I know plenty of people who are in a similar situation. Even with only sporadic interaction with the lads you can still contribute to the scene.

What we are doing now that we either weren't doing or were doing only to a much lesser extent in 2006? Let's see.

1) Raising scam awareness. That's what I've been doing for the last couple of years in public, so I'm listing it here first. It might not be the fanciest or the most visible part of the work, since I (and the others who do it) see very little point in writing reports about it in here. I mean, I'm sure you all enjoy reading an amusing bait more than an informational research / opinion piece of mine that was published in a newspaper recently, don't you? But there is more to it than that. Take Scamwarners, for example, and how volunteers there and on similar sites post scam formats for all to see and find through search engines and help actual victims / potential victims of the scams. All of this translates to possibly saving someone from falling for a scam in the first place. It might, in the most extreme case, translate to saving someone's life.

2) Co-operation with the authorities. Sure, piggies are nice, but think what you are actually doing when you report a bank account or a credit card. It's one of the few things the lad didn't just make up in his scams. It's an actual thing that more often than not belongs to a victim of a scam, a mule, or in the other case someone who has had their credit card details compromised. Think just how great service you may be doing to someone when you make the banks and credit card companies aware of this. We ourselves may not be able to do anything more than gather and pass information, but the people who get that information can do potentially a lot more. But they on the other hand can't act if they don't know. It's a service to the public again.

3) Systematically taking out of scammer resources. Bank account reporting is one of these things, but here even further praise goes to our site killers. Creating a fake site takes time and likely also money from a scammer. It's a great asset for their credibility during a scam. We have awesome people who dedicate their time for taking down these resources and therefore eroding the effectiveness of the scam formats, as well as making a dent in the scammers' wallets. It's incredibly well organized and systematic. Just like many other things we do these days are.

4) Assessing our own work and evolving. We are taking ourselves more seriously than in the past, I think. Take, for example, how cash baiting is now prohibited, or how we have reacted to the new kinds of junk mail such as beggars and decided not to bait them. We are way more organized than before, way more "mature" as a community I would say, and way more credible in many ways. We still may have the old stigma of "oh, it's just a handful of people doing something silly, what a waste of time", but honestly, that's just a lazy stereotype. Have a 10 minute discussion with any dedicated person from this scene and you'll see just how much more professional we have become. And why wouldn't we have: we've had over 10 years to learn about the online scam phenomenon, follow its progress and improve our own methods. We have become in a way experts on the subject instead of just saying "OK, let's reply with some random crap and see what happens next."

In short, we have come ridiculously far from the time when it was just a bunch of guys having random fun. I would even argue that such time has not necessarily ever even existed in the way some people think, but we can without a doubt say that it's even less true these days. Baiting has evolved from it's origins into resembling real volunteer work that still maintains its old traditions and roots, but has shifted its focus more from "us" to "you": "you", obviously, being the potential victims and the public instead of just "us" amusing ourselves with this obscure hobby.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

^^^^

great posting Smile

Quote:

It's all immature and childish.

yes, maybe. but as duckling wrote, they make a lot of things up and only a few things are actually true (like bank connections). a lot of the things the lad has to make up are things which he does not actually understand (hey, he bought the script from someone who claimed that the script is great). it's rather easy to persuade the scammer to edit his script with bogus things. the most prominent one is perhaps the "shyster" instead of "barrister". that damages the lads script and draws victims away (they start thinking, that a real bank manager would not refer to a shyster).

yes, it is childish, but it helps lowering their success rate.

Quote:

I would rather you send a computer virus and fry their computers.(Wow! that's a great way to go to jail, thanks, mom)

that's something that can be achieved quite easily without actually sending a virus (which would be caught by the email-provider anyways)

bait the lad to the point where he expects the money. dollarchop him and hint, that your fake-lad has access to his computer, phone, whatever. the gullible victim-character sends the money again, and it gets chopped again. rinse and repeat.
bring in an IT-guy (a friend of your victim-character, or maybe the victim knows a bit about IT himself), and suggest to try a factory reset. the lad will happily do that, because the computer is a very important item to him, and not being able to trust the computer (because of a virus and the risk of dollarchops) is a major problem.
of course, anti-virus programs will not find that dreamed up virus, best case is that it doesn't find anything, worst case is, that the lad actually removes existing viruesses from his computer (which are not planted by the baiter).

this strategy could even lead to the point, where the lad replaces his entire hardware, costing him a little fortune. and even then, your dreamed up virus is not gone, as the dollarchops continue.

Twisted Evil

Master Baiter Joined: 21 Jun 2012 Posts: 105

Thanks for the help all. I will keep this in mind. I will bring these points up during any conversation that I might have with someone who doesn't know anything about scambaiting.

-mbc

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 5:36 am

Duckling wrote:

Take Scamwarners, for example, and how volunteers there and on similar sites post scam formats for all to see and find through search engines and help actual victims / potential victims of the scams.

This is the one area that people who don't understand scambaiting often don't realise is linked to the "hobby".

Do a search on an email address, phone number, URL, snippet of text from a mail or an image and usually the same 4 or 5 sites will be returned at the top of the results. The one thing that all of these sites have in common is that they are not run by law enforcement, Government departments or other official bodies, but by volunteers. The majority of those volunteers are or were scambaiters (and current or past members of Eater).

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 12:51 pm

"Value" is a relative thing, isn't it?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 1:21 pm

I just received a mail from my lad and the first thing I thought of was this thread.

the parasite wrote:

I'm glad you still business minded. For now I'm thinking of a big investment that will make Rudy invest heavily that will be a company investment but there is the other one i have now in mind that will be faster than the company investment is charity works of Mercy . I'll explain Rudy have always be a kind and generous man who likes supporting Gods work, now we are going with the approach of an orphanage home somewhere that he will need to support and donate money to we will bring an approach that before the wedding you will like him as your husband to please support the orphanage and the less previleadge people. You are going to bring up the suggestion to him. I'll give you more details on how it goes if you can set this up.

If I can make this scumbag feel miseralble, frustrated, freaked out... it's worth every minute of my time spent.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

^^

"Is Scam Baiting Worth it?"

well, he'd say noooooo ooooooooo Wink

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:40 pm

I doubt you will be able to actually quantify a figure on what our actions have saved. But look at peoples sig lines. The wonderful rants, and curses, and death threats.To a lad scamming is a job. As real as the one you or I go to every day. Those wonderful lines they deliver to us are heartfelt and real. Yes, to me it was worth every bit of my time to enrage that worthless thief that much. I think everyone here feels pretty much the same way.

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 5:21 am

Chief, I'm looking at this from a slightly different angle here, and I'm going to put on my Mom hat for a moment. Obviously, the woman loves you and is concerned about you, and everything she's saying screams "I want you to be successful in life". Quite seriously. I love your mom for the concern she's showing toward you.

OK, having said that, I haven't been doing this quiiiiite as long as Duckling but it has opened my eyes to the dangers that are out there, lurking in inboxes, and which often snare older people. Er... parents. My mother was a bit concerned about me as well at first. She saw my enthusiasm, and let's just say my choice in hobbies has worried her more than once over the years. After several years of gently describing what I'm doing, she's come to the conclusion that baiting is a great way to practice writing and communication skills, and she goes into fits of giggles at times when I tell her about all the proposals I get. (I hope it's giggles.)

And then.... a family member with cognitive issues decided to respond to an email. Who did they call for help? OK, after they called my brother, who do you think they called? Yup, me. (Suck it, brother, you should have been baiting.) Interesting how this suddenly sparked their attention in avoiding scams! And now I no longer have to defend my time spent with the lads.

Hang in there, Chief. Let your mother know you recognize she's got a good heart. Talk about the creative writing practice you're getting. Mention (as Kiwi Pete said) the victims, and how you're preventing people from being taken advantage of. Tell her about the things Duckling mentioned - this truly is a remarkable community we have here, and very professional indeed! And then hug her. Take her out to lunch. Tell her you appreciate her. (OK, that may be the mom in me speaking here...)

Cool

Elite Baiter Joined: 28 Mar 2015 Posts: 1916

My position is the other way round to yours, Chief, in that it is my son who can't understand why I am involved here. He thinks I should get out more. LOL. But, there again, he never knew that I was once ripped off to the tune of many thousands of pounds sterling by a very insincere beggar-boy. It was at that point that I realised that my philanthropic tendencies had got way out of hand and needed to be reeled in.

However, the experience led me to understand that many people like me are also targeted and can lose so much more. This led me here, to Eater. I have never regretted it.

Very Happy

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:37 pm

^^ I too have an offspring who isn't too sure about my baiting activities, but he jokes about my "boyfriends" and seems to tolerate it. And he too is unaware that I was once on a dating site & had several lads attempt to woo me. While I didn't fall for any of their attempts, I started seeing patterns, and that's what led ME to Eater!

Also, side note, this community basically took over the tiny amount of energy I had left in me for dating. So FWIW, I've pretty much been dating all of you ever since. Dancing Banana

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:10 pm

Don't be shy Kitty. We all know that Pastor Frank is irresistible to women. Forget what he said about Liberace
Laughing

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 3:21 am

Chief! Good to see you here.

I became enraptured with baiting the very moment I stumbled across the 419eater entry on wikipedia. I thought it was one of the funniest activities I had ever come across. As a matter of fact, I still do!

In the beginning, I thought it would be obvious that everyone would share my fascination with the activity. However, I soon learned that while most people I spoke with found the activity somewhat amusing, many people were skeptical, suspicious, dismissive, etc. Why everyone did not share my level of enthusiasm for an activity that was so obviously entertaining, humorous, and good for humanity was something I did not understand.

For some reason, not everyone will share our fascination/love/obsession with baiting. Just like everyone does not share my belief that the movie "This Is Spinal Tap" is one of the funniest movies ever made. As a matter of fact, I have even spoken with some people who say the movie is "stupid". Imagine that! Confused

After I was baiting and site killing for a while, it dawned on me just how "special" we baiters and site killers are in terms of our rarity. Think about it - the world has a population of over 7 billion people, and there are probably no more than 100 scambaiters (and perhaps a dozen site killers) who are really active any given week. We are a very select group of individuals, and do not let anyone tell you otherwise, we are doing tremendous work. We have shut down over a hundred thousand fraudulent websites. We have saved thousands and thousands of would be victims by posting scams on scamwarners. We have disrupted untold numbers of criminal scammers by wasting their time, money, and resources. We will not "save the world" ...entirely, but we do make it better.

I also would like to comment about hobbies or interests in general. I have come to learn that hobbies and interests (whatever they are) really do enrich people's lives. We are very fortunate to live in an age where so many of us have the technology, resources, and leisure time to be able to devote to activities we find fulfilling. I might not find knitting, visiting battlefields, scrapbooking, or motor sports the least bit interesting, but I respect people who do find enjoyment and fulfillment in these activities.

If you are meeting the ethical obligations in your life (school, work, family, etc.) and not neglecting important things like health, friends, physical activity, etc. and you wish to spend some of your free time baiting, I say, "Go for it!" even if others in your life you love and respect do not fully understand. The Bard said it very well, "To thine own self be true".

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 4:52 pm

"Is scam baiting worth it?" Yes.

"Why?" Because it is.

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 4:34 pm

Nigel Tuffnel wrote:

So very much this. Thumbs up

Baiting is something you either get or do not get. If you don't get it, you will never understand why people would waste their time doing it. And, if you do get it, it's really difficult to *not* do it. And (speaking as one of the least altruistic posters on this board) I feel about as much need to justify my baiting as I do any of the other activities upon which I spend my free time.

Nigel Tuffnel wrote:

Just like everyone does not share my belief that the movie "This Is Spinal Tap" is one of the funniest movies ever made.

Spinal Tap may very well be one of the top five funniest movies ever. If you don't agree ... you're just wrong.

Is Scam Baiting Worth it?	View next topic View previous topic