QUESTION: Should we be closing Lads accounts after baits?

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Not quite a Newb Joined: 20 Apr 2007 Posts: 35

QUESTION: Should we be closing Lads accounts after baits?

I've been refered to William$ Kut� who will be acting as my 'laywer' and preparing my paperwork. I decided to do a search in the forums to see if anyone else was baiting him only to find a thread which is over 3 years old noting the same baiter who is still using the same name and the same email address.

Shouldn't we be acting to have the accounts of these long term scammers closed after baits?? Surely closing an account would result in a mugu losing most of his contact details. His database and current 'real' scams would disappear over night and he'd have to start fresh. I know that lads usually keep records of their baits etc, so not everything for them will be lost, but surely it would mean that all the lads 'seeding' i.e. posting on websites for vitcims etc. would become worthless.

Am I just being short sighted here?

Rikki

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:02 pm

No. It may be tempting but do not do it. In the event that law enforcement is monitoring a lad (yes, they sometimes do), you are destroying a potential source of valuable information.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7101 Location: Yes

This topic comes up every few months with well intentioned baiters wanting to close down the lads' boxes as they imagine it will do them much harm.

However, in the end, it does not and you don't know who else may be baiting that lad and you can end up killing off their bait. Now, you may think that's not a very good reason to keep it alive, but there are other considerations at hand, i.e. letting the lad know he was burned -- it will only make him more careful in the future (i.e. keeping better track of his victim information in a safer box).

The enemies we know are better than the ones we do not.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:21 pm

As JMRazor says, this topic comes up regularly but there is no harm going over it again for the benefit of newer members.

The consensus here is not to close lad accounts, by a margin of 95% to 5%, or thereabouts. See this old thread

If I thought that closing a lad's account would help genuine victims who are on the hook, I would want to close them myself, even if it could harm ongoing baits. A real loss by a real victim counts more than a fun bait, IMO. However, my conclusion is that the scammers suffer only minor inconvenience - they usually get the victim's phone number early in the game, in case email boxes are lost, and they can also try to re-establish contact through an alternative box.

I also know of cases where police investigations have been hampered by a sudden box closure and loss of its contents. OK, it's rare, but it has happened.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:54 pm

In my early days I was very excited about closing accounts, and I did it with relish wherever possible. Only.... the scammers virtually always got back to me from a different account. It seems they're quite keen to keep records elsewhere, just in case. So all that happens most of the time is that the scammer loses one of their huge collection of free accounts. Probably more time and effort to close the account than it was for them to open ten more.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:59 pm

You only have to look at how hard it was for you to open your fake accounts. Thats the amount of damage you are likely to do to the scammer. Is it really worth it?

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:29 pm

There are some scam busting sites that list scammer email addys and some potential victims will find the scammer's email and name there. Closing accounts makes it more difficult to keep track of the names and email addys and may make victims more vulnerable.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:37 pm

The only accounts we close are those of phone lads. Those little buggers open them up again so quickly and the bait isn't normally long term, it makes no difference to other baiters.

Closing a regular lad's account is a no-no.

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:46 am

In addition to all the good reasons stated above, also please remember that although your bait may be over, someone elses may not be Wink

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:56 am

Damn straight!

My mate Ch3ng Z3ng had his account closed today.

Absolutely hilarious because his "barrister" had to tell me his new account when i demanded to know why i hadn't heard from him.

Then, old Ch3ng emails me from the new account saying "i had to set up a new account for security reasons, can you please send me the loan application forms again" hahaha! yeah... right! stupid fool lost the forms... well fat chance i'm filling those out.

So he got some nice slaps for his incompetence, i mean, i've got $3mil riding on this!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 2:15 am

Agree with the above about not closing the email accounts. And was guilty of the 'enthusiasm' of starting out..

The only email accounts that should be closed would be the ones listed online in the fake websites (which is already part of the process (aa419) of closing down the websites anyways)