Talking with a scammer

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Oct 2017 Posts: 14

(Admin feel free to move if this is in the wrong section)

Long story short, I have been talking to a scammer on GH for some time now. Initially baiting the 'lady' who eventually got to the point of breaking and was honest with me - who they are, why they do it etc

I'm not new to this, I know a scammer will always try and scam, however I believe most of the responses I have had from him are genuine. (I will update this thread with the chat when I get round to it, it makes for some interesting reading) From what I've been told, hes a financially struggling student - and has even shown me his Uni portal log in with his grades.

In all seriousness, is there anything that people would like to ask?

Not quite a Newb Joined: 01 Jan 2020 Posts: 63

Why go for scamming people vs. doing a real job? Something that one can put into CV.

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 2:50 pm

There are plenty of threads on here involving lad confessions. I'm always curious as to how much money these scammers rake in, the time they put into it, and the formats they find to be the most lucrative. The problem is that lads lie so you'll get highly inflated $ amounts if they feel like flexing or equally deflated amounts to help to propagate a sob story.

One thing I've never understood about lads is their incessant desire to talk on the phone. Especially lads in West Africa that pretend to live in the US/EU and say they are white when they are not. It's quite easy to determine they are lying by their accents. I would just assume they would instinctively shy away from phone conversation in general but especially in those circumstances. If you listen to all the "Lenny" and "MTCN" thread recordings, most are very hard to understand and communication proves difficult...yet they still want to yap on the phone despite that doing so may jeopardize the entire scam. You have to be pretty quick on your feet when on the phone and most lads aren't. In fact, many of the Lenny lads quickly get frustrated and abruptly end the call by saying "just check your email". I really don't get it.

Another question I have is if he is forced to open new email accounts often. Scamming requires constant mass mailing and their outgoing mails are likely to often be marked as spam at the recipient's end. One would think that the lad's email provider would shutter their accounts on a relatively frequent basis.

It is interesting to hear the perspective of a lad confession but it is just one perspective and it may or may not be truthful.

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:47 pm

Lads sometimes use the confession as a way to evoke sympathy ("I'm so poor I have to resort to scamming") but it's usually a segue into another scam. I'm baiting a lad right now who confessed to one of my characters that he is scamming another of my characters, and talked "me" into helping in the scam. Yeah, that's going REALLY well for him Rolling Eyes

He even gave me his real life information, and it turns out he is an amazing furniture maker. Quite seriously, if he let go of scamming & focused on his furniture skills, he'd be making a very good living. The sad truth is he's not content with his honorable work, but would rather live large and have an outlandish lifestyle and not have to work at all.

It's a commonly accepted fact here that lads lie, even when they tell the "truth". It's good to never stop being suspicious of them, and expect a new twist on their scam. Cynicism is our friend in this case Cool

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:39 pm

As others have mentioned, the "confessional" is a pretty common scammer tactic. They reveal their "true selves" in an effort to make the victim feel they know them and will therefore trust them... and pay them.

Michaelwalsh9900 wrote:

and has even shown me his Uni portal log in with his grades.

This nicely illustrates three common misconceptions about scammers:
That they're poor, stupid and uneducated.

On the whole, scammers are likely to be reasonably ok financially (and thus have at least enough resources to be online to scam you), clever (smart enough to get your money) and educated (often multilingual, technical savvy, etc.). It is not at all uncommon for scammers to scam while attending university or holding regular employment. Kitty La Gore and I baited a scammer who was not only a university graduate but was serving in his country's military. All while making a pretty good chunk of money (by any country's standards) romance scamming.

Your lad may be attending school. He may not have all the money he wants. But he has enough money to have some transcripts under his belt and to be online to try and dip into your wallet.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Oct 2017 Posts: 14

It's been an interesting chat to have, as I said before whether or not theres truth in what he's saying, I'll never know.

From what he's said, he's:

*Studying at university
*Holds a job working in a petrol station that pays very little
*Lives at home with his family

From what he's said, he just needs money to pay Uni fees (I think $120 to cover the term) - I asked for proof of this or an invoice which I haven't been able to get.

My understanding from him, is that poverty makes him try to do what he does (he's also mentioned he's never got it to work) as money in the area he's in, demands respect from people, and the fact he has to pay his Uni fees. I understand poverty generally breeds crime - however he has a job, an education. It's all about having money to get respect from people.

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:28 pm

Hmmm... at this point, it may be that he has moved into mere begging. If that's the case, you should simply cease communication:

Quote:

We don't bait beggars. You may get emails just simply asking for money, there may or may not be a sob story attached. There are however no inheritances, pretend love or fraudulent 'fees' to pay.

This lad needs to focus his time on school, and you are developing skills that are best used with the real lads. I encourage you to find another lad more worthy of wasting his time Cool

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Oct 2017 Posts: 14

Kitty La Gore wrote:

This lad needs to focus his time on school, and you are developing skills that are best used with the real lads. I encourage you to find another lad more worthy of wasting his time Cool

Absolutely. For the most part he's gone off grid now, whether that be he's abandoned his account or just busy elsewhere I'll never know. None the less it was a first for me that a lad had broken and told me his game. On to the next Thumbs up

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 1:34 pm

What type of scam was he running when he hit your radar? Of the confessions I've read on here most come from love lads (romance). I assume because that format is less scripted and its easier to catch them in a lie the more you press them for intimate details. Plus there's the off chance that their victims will feel sympathetic and send cash anyway as previously mentioned. Maybe your little lad is now reformed but don't be surprised if he comes crawling back out of the blue or "someone" (wink wink) with a similar grammatical style blesses your inbox with an offer you can't refuse or whispers sweet nothings into your ear. Thanks for sharing!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 17 Oct 2017 Posts: 14

It was the typical romance scam, very basic though and very little script. I did manage to squeeze a piggy out of him before he cracked (already reported)

I got the email from scamwarners, I'll give you a PM with the email if you want to give the lad a go Wink