An occasional pang of remorse?...ever?

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.

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 4:57 am

Lads have no problem ruining people's lives in order to get money for themselves, and it's despicable. We all know that, or else we wouldn't bait.

I'd imagine that many lads justify what they do by blaming the West in general for the hash conditions in West Africa. Still others don't see any need to justify it, as they don't care, they just want money. But there's almost certainly a third category...I don't know how prevalent it is, and in the end it doesn't matter a whole lot, but I would think at least some lads do feel bad about what they do, but they lack self control and continue doing it because they make so much money compared to people who work a regular 9-5 job. That, or maybe they owe an oga money and are trying to work it off. I mean...this does have to happen at least once in a while, doesn't it? I can't imagine being able to sleep well at night knowing that you coerced a person to send you money that was supposed to pay for life saving medication or something like that.

Now, please note that I'm in no way justifying their treachery. The reasons why someone chooses to scam people out of money aren't really relevant - they are thieves and should be treated as such, whether they feel bad about it or not. I guess I just can't imagine how someone can disregard their conscience to that point (but then again, I'm the person who finds a wallet on the ground with money in it and then gets it back to its owner, no questions asked).

Elite Baiter Joined: 28 Mar 2015 Posts: 1916

I believe that on very, very rare occasions, when a lad has been given what he believes to be a real paying job by one of us, he has dreams of being able to give up scamming and go straight with the proceeds. Then, unfortunately for him, the bait ends with no earnings for him, no matter how hard he has worked, and he is more, or less, forced to return to scamming, having lost what he thought was an honest opportunity.

When I suspect that may have happened, I do question some of what we do.

Then, I remind myself that these are only very, very rare occasions and put my conscience to rest, for good, or ill.

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 9:54 am

^ I almost agree with you Morgan, but having dealt with the victims of their scams

The only time I feel sorry, is when the lad doesn't get killed.

Elite Baiter Joined: 28 Mar 2015 Posts: 1916

^Having been a victim myself, Irishimigrant, I have great sympathy with what you say, despite my comments above. We really are dealing with scum and criminals, which ever way one looks at it.

ETA

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:12 pm

MorganleFay wrote:

I believe that on very, very rare occasions, when a lad has been given what he believes to be a real paying job by one of us, he has dreams of being able to give up scamming and go straight with the proceeds. Then, unfortunately for him, the bait ends with no earnings for him, no matter how hard he has worked, and he is more, or less, forced to return to scamming, having lost what he thought was an honest opportunity.

When I suspect that may have happened, I do question some of what we do.

Then, I remind myself that these are only very, very rare occasions and put my conscience to rest, for good, or ill.

There is the risk that they'll return to scamming after getting burned, but is there not also the possibility that, if they get burned badly enough, they'll not want to potentially waste more weeks/months on another mugu who might turn out to be as "wicked" as the last? Surely some of those tattoo/safari guys have questioned whether they should continue down that route after the likes of Shiver Metimbers had his way with them?

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

^^^

and there is always the chance, that the same "joker" has just created another identity and has started to screw with the lad all over again.

honestly, I wouldn't let a lad go at that point.

@morganlefay: yes, there is always the chance that a lad wants to quit scamming, and sees a real opportunity. and therefore, baiting such a lad might make things worse, because in this case, the lad focusses on a fake chance, and ignores real chances. and afterwards, he'll be so demotivated that he continues scamming over taking new chances.

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 1:19 pm

There was an article posted a while back talking about the culture of scamming. I think for many of them it is just a normal way of life, that they have been raised seeing others do, that no one looks down on them for doing. So they have no need to justify it, in their world it is just another job. I think that culture of acceptance is what really makes it hard to fight them. They don't see that they are doing anything wrong - and corrupt police and other officials who look the othed way for a piece of the pie reinforce this. So, it becomes up to us to teach them just how wrong it is, by giving them a good dose of their own medicine.

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:01 pm

Once. Long ago. But I got better.

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:10 pm

^^^ Yeah, just sit down for a minute and take a deep breath...it'll pass...

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:39 pm

^^
The thread is about do lads feel remorse. Smile

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:52 pm

Yeah, I mean, there's no reason why baiters should feel remorse.

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:51 pm

I baited a lad who was impersonating my non existent college aged daughter who was on a trip to West Africa. Based on what the lad believed, my daughter was in Africa during the Ebola outbreak and died and her body was burned before it was ID'ed. Because I didn't know she was dead the scammer was able to act like her and attempt to fleece my character for travel expenses. It was a complicated bait and didn't end well for the scammer. One of my characters rivals was in contact with the lad to get a piece of the pie. Eventually, my main character learned that the lad was a scammer and accused him. He swore up and down that he was so sorry and would never do it again, that he only did it because he was desperate, that he woke up guilty every day etc. Of course, I was straight baiting him with another character at the very same time, and I have emails with him begging for forgiveness the same day he berated my other character for the MTCN.

No, I don't think many, if any, of them regret it.

Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 3:22 am

Oops! My mistake!! From what I've been able togather, lads do a LOT of justification along with a (un)healthy dose of denial. The following song sums it up pretty well, from the thieves' standpoint at least.

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

Elite Baiter Joined: 28 Mar 2015 Posts: 1916

Another reason I have read with regard to guiltless scamming seems to be that there is an urban myth amongst some scammers that this is a victimless crime. It seems there is some belief that scammed individuals can claim reimbursement through insurance schemes, etc. Lol.

Which just goes to show how little is often really understood about Western economies and how they work.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

The only pang of regret I ever get is when I eat Thai food. Other than that I am fine.

Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 2:43 pm

I used to feel some level of empathy for the lads. my first safari was a gay love lad. He revealed a little about himself, being gay, not being accepted, etc, and I felt some degree of empathy for him. When I expressed it, here, on Eater, a few people reminded me we are dealing with scum.

So, hoping to weed out the ones who might be redeemable, I came up with a screening method. This is the test i used to do with my baits: I would tell hem my 4 year old daughter had cancer and needed the money for treatments, and that without the money, she would die. I would explicitly ask, "is this real? and how fast will I get my money back?" hoping to have someone drop me as a victim. That never happened. I have done it dozens of times. They never dropped me. Not once. They asked for the money. Every. Single. Time.

So, no, I do not think they feel empathy towards their victims. At all. Which is way I feel none for any of them. At all.

As baiters, our job is to destroy them. Utterly. Completely. And it shall be good. Selah.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 3:11 am

Another thing I often wonder is how a lad would react to finding themselves on Eater and finding out EVERYTHING about how they have been baited. Obviously they'll outwardly threaten to put a voodoo curse on you and god punish you and your generation ooo, but do they sort of shake their heads and think "damn, these guys got me good and beat me at my own game", thus begrudgingly giving us a bit of respect?

I know that happens only rarely, and even when it does, lads don't seem to understand the point of what we do because we don't make money from it.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:20 am

Your victims suffer, no be small
Upon say you no get sense
Poverty no good at all, no
Na they make me kill your business

Scambaiters no be mean, it's just a game
Everybody dey play am
If anybody fall mugu,
Ha, my brother Gomer chop am

Abeche, Chad, na you go there
TWAT monument na you build am
Long safaris my sister brother
You be the mugu, I be the master

Barrister man Gomer go chop your dollar
He go take your money and disappear
Scambaiting is just a game
You are the loser, I am the winner

Lad deck tattoos na you get am
Piggy farms, na you go give am
But I go give you fake forms make you bring am
You be the mugu, I be the master
Na me be the master ooo

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 5:14 am

In my opinion, if they felt genuine remorse, they would stop scamming. People who say "I have no self-control" are just looking for excuses and do not feel true remorse.

I remember reading a great baiter story on here about the baiter getting a scammer to record a reading of a book. To prove that the guy was still a scammer despite being in the process of doing a relatively non-scammer job, the baiter sent the scammer an email using a new character. The scammer returned to his normal scamming self with that new character. So really, all that the lad wanted was to do easy money. He was still scamming while busy reading the book and recording.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 5:29 am

^that holds true probably 99.999% of the time.

The only way I can think of where there might be a exception is if a love lad actually falls in love with his victim (which is bound to happen here and there, for the same reason that, say, two actors who are involved in a romantic relationship with each other in a movie will sometimes end up falling for each other).

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 7:37 am

^ If a love lad actually fell in love with his/her victim, he would stop scamming him/her and asking for money.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 8:04 am

Right. The only potential pitfall would come when the victim asked the lad about the money. If the lad admitted the truth, the lad would once again be single.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 9:51 am

Not only would he stop scamming, he would also return money to victims. Since he never got any money from us, we'd never hear from him.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 3:49 pm

Quote:

Another thing I often wonder is how a lad would react to finding themselves on Eater and finding out EVERYTHING about how they have been baited.

It has happened. Hecturd is one of the more priceless examples.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:38 pm

Well...he's special. And he got a 419Eater tattoo

An occasional pang of remorse?...ever?	View next topic View previous topic