Do scammers/baiters use bots?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Oct 2016 Posts: 5

Hi guys, I as you can see, I am a beginner. Reading this forum, I was quite surprised that there was no reference to the scammers using AI to communicate with victims. If I respond to a scam email, is the following communication always with a human?

If so, why don't scammers use computer algorithms to do most of the work for them? If victims are gullible enough to fall for the scam, they probably wouldn't notice they are talking to a bot.

Equally, can't the baiting community produce a bot, which will bait thousands of lads at te same time? Imagine what a huge impact a single algorithm like that would have!

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 7:41 pm

It is extremely hard to make an algorithm that can distinguish between scam mails, ordinary spam and ITPs. It is recommended to handle the lads manually, and a lot more fun, I have to add.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Oct 2016 Posts: 5

Yeah, it surely is fun, but fun aside. I don't think that what you wrote is a problem.

You could have a separate baiting address, which will only be contacted by scammers and the bot will communicate with those.

AI is super advanced these days. You've got bots on websites which communicate with customer to save work for employees. Surely, with only a few types of scams, you could build a pretty good algorithm to keep the lad busy for at least 10 emails.

Even if the bot didn't try to understand their emails, it could just keep throwing generic questions at the scammer. It would be very hard to recognise it's a bot since real victims could do that as well.

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:19 pm

It has been tried by people knowing what they were doing, and trust me; it was a problem .

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:43 pm

I agree with TheDane. That said, if you're interested in the topic of "automated baiting" you can search this forum for "autobaiter" and see multiple threads where it was discussed, and how/why the members here came to the consensus that it's not the best idea.

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 11:34 pm

I'm sorry, I think I came off a bit snide in my last post, and that wasn't the intention - I was on my phone, so I made it short. Allow me to elaborate.

If you would make an algorithm for baiting, there would be one rule above them all: there can be no mistakes. Not 1 % failure, not 0.1 %, not just a single one. What if it is a victim? It could be disastrous. How can you guarantee, that a lad half drunk on palm wine doesn't send an email for a victim with you on cc by mistake, and the algorithm somehow mistakes that victim for an accomplice? You cannot guarantee that in any way. As far as I know, it is not possible. And if a mistake like that should happen, it's not like those costumer service bots, who would anger a costumer in worst case scenario. Bot-baiting the wrong person could be very counter productive and even damaging in a number of ways, to the victim in particular.

Another thing is, that an algorithm cannot report bank accounts, post warnings at Scamwarner, do research, close sites, etc. etc. etc. Only live baiters, who bait manually, can do that. I guess it could be possible to semi-automate a few elements, but a bot built on an algorithm is simply too much of a risk, and I recommend that it's not even attempted.

My advice to you is to read as much as you can digest on this forum, particularly published baits. Understanding lad psychology is key to scambaiting, and is the best education you can get - and should be understood before you even consider such things as algorithms. So read as much as you can (remember not to 'necro' old threads, though), bait manually - and make sure to get a mentor. (<- CLICKY) It's free and it's awesome.

Welcome to Eater. Smile

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

eastern european lads (usually called vlads) like to use professional mail client systems like "the bat" to handle massive amounts of victims.

I've read hilarious baits with these vlads, who nearly never ever read incoming mails. sure, some victims will drop out in that process because they constantly get no real answer to their questions. the baiters have sent short wikipedia articles and descriptions from the ikea catalog to them, and the lad-character thanked for their kind words.

it's the most rudimentiary form of autobaiting, just send a mail or two per day, that references to earlier mails and to the most likely type of answers to their questions (in a romance bait at the question "do you love me", it's common to get a yes as answer Wink

).

the only thing they are actually searching are mails with high numbers (either phone numbers or hints that this victim is rich or has access to money). otherwise, they don't read messages...

Not quite a Newb Joined: 25 May 2008 Posts: 23

I am a baiter, I use "TheBat" as autobaiter for 8 years.
IMO, it's the best mail client, very accurate.

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