A Scambait Movie?

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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 12:31 am

What are your thoughts on someone creating fictionalized scambaiting movie, possibly inspired by real baits (all identifying details would be changed, of course)?

What should the filmmaker keep in mind in order to do such a movie responsibly? How much would you worry about it "blowing the cover" of the scambaiting community?
What would you like to see?

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 12:56 am

Scambaiting has been fictionalized in books before, so it might be interesting to see one of those turned into a movie. For example, this one.
Novel 419 via Internet Archive snap of Toronto Star article

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 1:36 am

At least from my perspective, I don't think watching a film from the perspective of the scambaiter would be too exciting, seeing as any depiction close to reality is going to be somewhat un-literary (if our forum threads are any indication). While it's interesting seeing how we weave our stories, reading "ooh, what if we send him to Adre after he arrives in Abeche?" wouldn't provide anything that people couldn't get simply by reading the forum. Doing some sort of psychological thriller from the perspective of a lad getting slowly sucked into a world of absurdity would have potential for a bit more variety, seeing the panoply of baits on the forum; this also has the advantage of now "blowing our cover," as it could be a story about a scambait without it being about baiting. If a film were to do this, I think making up a plausible new bait instead of bringing something already done to the big screen would be interesting, as while reality is often stranger than fiction, being able to take liberties when needed to make an interesting film would be essential. Something in the vein of Turd or Shorty would be ideal, probably closer to the former, as safaris I think have the most potential to come through in a film setting without being a slog of exposition and emails. This could be synthesized with a church bait or something else, given how most baits are purely safari-based. I think the main point, at least in my opinion, is that a movie from the scambaiter's perspective wouldn't be terribly interesting, nor would it benefit from the format of a film.

If I may ask, is this just a theoretical question, or do you have plans of making a film or screenplay (or know someone who is)?

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 3:12 am

I think we should bait some lads into making the movie, personally. I'd watch that.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 18 Aug 2015 Posts: 66

I could see a movie being made in which baiting would not be the major theme, but rather a common interest among a group of friends, or perhaps what sets the main plot into action.

Imagine Ross, Chandler, Phoebe, Joey, Monica, and Rachel sitting in the coffee shop with their laptops, sipping espresso, making jokes, and discussing their baiting alter egos, stupid things their lads are saying, and giving each other obscene ideas to use in their baits.

At this time the elderly lady at the next table overhears them and pipes in. She informs the Friends she has indeed been sending money to a nice young man in Africa who is a prince being held in a refugee camp.

Feeling bad for her the gang decides to target the scammer in an coordinated mass bait. Things go well for them for about a week, delaying payments, phone calls using a Transformers sound board, and getting him to send silly pictures.

But then everything changes. Joey reports a bank account to the mods at 419eater which turns out to be connected to a dangerous terrorist operation.

The FBI, NSA, CIA and even the president get involved. Turns out the feds have unsuccessfully been targeting the same organization for years. After a tense argument with the director of Federal Intelligents Phoebe explains that it makes more sense to train experienced baiters to use automatic weapons, explosives, and learn advanced defensive driving techniques than it does to train federal agents the subtle art of the bait. The gang, having more expertise in advanced fee fraud than any federal agents are the only ones qualified for the mission.

After a week of intensive martial arts training and montages they go undercover in Burkina Faso. Through a series of high speed car chases, gunfire, explosions, international border hopping, love triangles and betrayals, they work their way up the chain of scumbag terrorists. Taking cover behind trash cans and reloading MAC 10's with fresh magazines they quip about the time Monica got the Senegalese love lad to dress like a clown and sing happy birthday to a muppet. After gunning down one terrorist Ross searches the body and finds a CDXIX tattoo on his arm. Rachel gets all excited and says "Hey, I know this guy" and they all have a good chuckle.

In between action scenes they find time to check their baiting accounts, staying up to date with their current baits and even getting a lad to safari to their current location for some much needed humor.

At the climax, on the top of the Eiffel Tower in the midst of a Mexican standoff, in a Scooby Doo prosthetic face reveal, they discover the kingpin of the notorious Gomer Boyz is none other than Janice, who concocted the cockamamie plan in order to knock off the gang one by one until only Chandler was alive in an effort to win his heart and marry him.

And she would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling scambaiters.

I mean, at least that's how I see a scambaiting movie going down. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 4:32 pm

That sounds more like non-fiction than what I expected, with one exception: members of Eater would never bait in an unsafe manner.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

It can't be done. In order for it to be semi-interesting you would have to have what the baiter and lad are typing played out on screen. Even then it would be difficult to mix fact with the story and I can't recall a time when trying something like that has not sucked. Plus, in doing something like this I can't see any way it doesn't come out as appearing racist.

I do think Robert DeNiro would make a great Mr. Gomer though.

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 4:50 pm

^^ something like that has been done in a movie before

Unfriend trailer on Youtube

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 5:10 pm

I picture this as a "buddy" film. A comedy told from the scammers point of view. Something like:

A young Lad from Nigeria is told by his friend that he found an easy way to make money on the internet. Lad tries it and found a "victim" who is a young woman in Europe. He sweet talks her, and professing love, convinces her that he needs a laptop, cellphone, etc. The parcel will be shipped through a five star courier service. Lad finds out that the parcel is being shipped to another city and another country. Lad and his friend decide that they have to go to this other place to pick up the parcel. That's when the real mis-adventures begin. A bus trip, sleeping on the street, dishonest deliverymen. You name it, it happens. Down hearted, they return to Nigeria. Happy ending! The Lad has found another young woman in Europe. She wants him to get tattooed.
Morgan Freeman can do any narration needed.

No wait. This story would never happen! LOL

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 5:45 pm

^ I like that take. A bit more comic, and it side-steps needing to show anything from the baiters' perspectives (which I previously argued would detract from the quality of any movie).

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

Bertje wrote:

^^ something like that has been done in a movie before

Unfriend trailer on Youtube

5.5 on IMDB and 38% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I have not seen the flick but the consensus seems to be that it sucks. Smile

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 6:58 pm

^^^ It's not that great. The sequel is better IMO. I can't really see the scambait thing being a full length movie but maybe as a cartoon skit of some sort. Maybe as a set of scenes in a Simpson's episode. The family flies into W Africa for whatever reason and as the show carries on you see a bunch of wacky scambait related activites: random TWAT pyramids dotting the landscape, initiation rituals with goats and fish and bread, lads with crazy tattoos wandering around and asking everyone where P-LOG/SSC is located, other lads screaming on the phone about MTCNs, and even more lads posing for BIPs etc. Laughing

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 7:50 pm

Not quite scambaiting, but "The Laundromat" with Meryl Streep is a fairly decent movie about money laundering, and includes a lead up to the Panama Papers being released. Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuBRcfe4bSo

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:03 pm

Expect a backlash from people thinking we deal “unfairly” with sending the scammers on safari etc – “look what they do this poor innocent guy”

We find it funny, because behind that, we know what they do. To someone with only the film to go on, we will probably attract a deal of criticism ….

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:44 pm

As far as people from outside the scambaiting community disapproving, adding a few extra scenes would soften any criticism. Adding such as:
1. Alien Abduction scene - I don't think anyone here has perfected that modality.
2. An encounter with the Kikomba (West African Bigfoot)
3. Narration by Morgan Freeman

Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 2:51 am

Still, the main issue with doing a movie on scambaiting is that the baiting process itself isn't that interesting. Sure, seeing the hell lads go through on safaris and as part of church baits (so on and so forth) is interesting, but nobody really wants to watch how we get there, at least in a movie form; most of the drama comes from what the lads experience. And at that point, we get what Logar suggested: an amusing buddy movie that doesn't really involve scambaiting in extensive detail. I do love that plot outline, however, of the "buddy movie," as the comedy then comes through the hijinks the lads experience, not the drawn-out process of brainstorming and emailing. Through putting the emphasis on their increasingly ludicrous adventures and distancing any such theoretical movie from the idea of scambaiting itself, it also averts the questions of racism and ethics, as those moral questions don't need to be unpacked thoroughly. It's just a lad and his buddy facing increasingly improbable and comic situations; we wouldn't even need to reveal that it's a scambait at the end, just two novice crooks having the experience of a lifetime.

Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 3:52 am

^^^ this reminds me of the Shorty bait. He wrote several really long movie scripts detailing his own bait. He thought it was all real of course and felt that he was the mastermind protagonist even though all the other characters were criss-crossing the globe while he mostly sat on his ass. The best part of that bait chapter was the criticism he received about how boring his character was because all he did was "send emails and talk on the phone". Nobody wants to film that kind of boredom. In fact, one of the film studios told Shorty to completely get rid of his own character because he was too stupid and to make his gay arch nemesis Preston the star instead. Good times. I think a better movie would be done in the viewpoint of the lad and then the big reveal at the end would show the audience that it was all an elaborate hoax. The lads would not be privy to the twist because we do not burn lads Twisted Evil

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:55 pm

A Lad version of The Italian Job (the original 1969 one) complete with cliffhanger ending.

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:11 pm

In Production now!

In theatres soon!

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:33 pm

I removed a spam post and some comments on it - Bertje