When your lads twig...

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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:16 am

We've all had it happen: From the new members to the mods, sometimes our baits end before we want them to because the lad twigs before we're done with him. The reasons for twiggage are as numerous as the lads themselves, and it's not like we can ask them why they did it afterward.

I don't mean baits that you've run long enough for the lad to realize he's just not getting any money, I mean those baits where you still have lots of evil plans but your mugu just stops playing along. Here are a few mistakes I've made (and I mean last month) that probably ended my bait prematurely...

TOO STRICT: When my lad wants to talk about WU payments and I won't let him discuss it until my demands are met, he would have to give up too much control over his scam. Maybe I slapped too hard, maybe my questions were too difficult, but I don't look like a good victim anymore.

OUT OF ROOM, NO PLAN B: I've played out my sinister little plot and the lad still doesn't have any money, now he wants that payment and no more negotiation or delaying. Unfortunately, I didn't leave any options open and now I'm stuck.

TOO DEMANDING / OUTRAGEOUS: My lad looked at my conditions, and decided that shaving his pubes with a table-saw on video to prove his sincerity is just not worth it.

BUSTED: My lad did a quick google-search and realized that I could not possibly be Hugh Heffner, a disabled veteran Star-Destroyer Pilot with low-grade narcolepsy. He now knows I was playing him, and I'll have to prove myself to him before he'll continue.

NOT MY FAULT: Either yahoo.com shut him down, or somebody told him they hacked his account, or maybe he found a potential victim more promising than my character.

No bait lasts forever (we know this because forever isn't here yet), but those are probably my biggest reasons for losing lads. What happened when your last lad left you?

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:32 am

There was no poll option for me.... Crying or Very sad

All of my baits have just petered out of their own accord after a few months, usually when the lad gets bored and eventually sees that there's probably no money there after all. Usually there is a follow up mail a few weeks or months later, out of desperation when they don't have any new victims to pick on.

That may change soon as I'm embarking on something a bit more spectacular, but so far I've been very straight acting, just constantly bringing up small problems.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:37 am

Put me in the same category with Mugatu. My last few baits just kinda ran their course and we both got bored. Now, that doesn't count my big safari - I think I just pushed that one too far, and he finally started to question things and then just started writing back. But for regular, unexciting baits, they just petered out, I guess.

Maybe you should have an option for "just petered out"?

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:48 am

Quote:

Maybe you should have an option for "just petered out"?

Heck no! A bait just fading away doesn't count as a true twig in my book, nor does it count when you end the bait at your discretion.

I don't mean your most recent lad, I mean your most recent lad who twigged. Very Happy

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:52 am

^^ Ah, I see. I only had one lad who twigged (Ikenna, see sig) and that was because he'd had about 12 trips to Western Union and several dozen unsuccessful goes at 1TV5.
He twigged when he called a UK WU agent and asked them why he was being pissed about with this new security modality.
It was nice of him to write back though.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:43 am

My longest bait ended when the lad, stuck in another country, somehow got directed to Eater and started to quote my posts back at me...

Quote:

VERA YOU ARE RoycroppeR SO DONT EVER EMAIL ME...

Trophy Videos · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:47 pm

My last twig happened because I might have been a little silly. I asked him to send me a picture of himself, holding a banana. Lots of lads have done sillier things, and I took a chance. He was baited before by others, too. He replied,

Quote:

Dear Friend,

Are you seriouse or a joker. How can you ask me to hold a banana. If you need the money do what i ask you or forget about this deal i will take care of it by my own self.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:53 pm

[smug] Never lost a lad, only had baits tail off without him twigging [/smug]

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:58 pm

I always keep up the facade, so my laddies just generally lose hope and give up.

In all honesty I don't ever rememeber being twigged, but then I don't pursue trophy pics or even completed forms, so I am sure that is significant.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:26 pm

My lad twigged when I didn't check for embedded urls or watermarks in some pics I sent him. He went to the website I'd got them from, and dropped me so fast.

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 May 2007 Posts: 428

My last lad vanished from the face of the Earth. I'm chalking it up to the Collective. Wink

After several emails, his address started bouncing. The one before that just stopped responding.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:39 pm

My lads generally peter out. I have never been openly twigged (except Joseph Twumasi, gay mugu, [email protected]), and I never burn them.

My biggest problem is when I take on too many baits and then devote my attention to the most promising one, and the rest dry up.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:00 pm

Mine all happen for one simple reason... not all lads like to safari. Period.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:26 pm

Mine just tend to peter out, too. The lad won't do what I ask or sees there's no money there and sells my contact information or just disappears.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:29 pm

I usually loose them after the 10th trip to Moneygram. My main character does not have a WU within 500 miles.

B

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:51 pm

I got passed up to a very articulate money man who was there for one job only - to close the deal. I tried to appear compliant yet incompetent (something that works well with most mugus), and he just wasn't buying it.

Unlike many lads he was totally inflexible, and from the start he was (correctly) convinced that I was a time waster. Unless I showed him otherwise he would put a stop to the whole transaction. He told me this, and gave me a deadline, and to my surprise once the deadline had passed, the transaction was over! I did not get even one more email concerning this transaction from any of the various parties involved.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:01 pm

Ha! I have never lost a lad! Laughing

... on the more serious side I lose them because they are lazy. Sometimes they just don't want to keep up with the game, which is fine with me. I'd rather toy with the die hard ones anyway... just to make them insecure and less confident.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18312

I'm not sure of the question here. Do you mean why do they end the correspondence, or if/when they figure out that they're being baited?

I don't think a lad has ever figured out that I'm just a joker. Ray K1ng (8 months and counting) has probably suspected it at a few points, but he's still with me.

By the way, sorry to be this way, but it bothers me that this word seems to be used incorrectly:

Quote:

twig2 (twĭg)

v. Chiefly British., twigged, twig�ging, twigs.

v.tr.
To observe or notice.
To understand or figure out: �The layman has twigged what the strategist twigged almost two decades ago� (Manchester Guardian Weekly).

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 May 2007 Posts: 428

Not at all. When they "twig", they understand that their time is being wasted.

EDIT: It's being used like "catch on".

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18312

This thread seemed to read as if "twig" was used to mean drop the "victim", ie: the bait ended.
I understand what the definition I posted meant. Wink

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 May 2007 Posts: 428

You're right, I just realized that it's been used to describe real victims as well as baiters. It probably started referring to baiters, but it caught on for regular vics too.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:05 pm

My first two promising lads didn't like my wacky religion.

One lad didn't like MTNC $ecure.

Two lads almost gave me great trophies for my advertising company, but one twigged last minute, and the other kept demanding money in advance.

Victoria the Unicorn Seller keeps trying to drop me because I keep demanding to see the unicorn's papers. A few days ago she tried to end it for good (little does she know... Twisted Evil

)

And of course, a lot of lads just drop off the face of the earth.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:24 pm

Well, I voted that I got stuck with no backup-plan, although that's not the full story.
You could also say the baits petered out (to pick up this expression, although I don't really understand how something can peter...) and I had no idea how to keep the lad on the hook.
On one occasion the lad didn't believe the dollar-chop, that was the hitman I worked with, and then dropped me, although I tried to support my story.
He also caught me on my story about a crazy lady blowing up herself with a gas-station, and the next day she was hiding in the church to avoid being lynched by an angry mob...

I'm still looking for the one lad that really keeps on the hook by himself, and is easily played. I actually thought Joseph would be the one, but he finally twigged too because of the pic I sent him.

And Yuliya might have twigged on me now, after having asked for a trophy. But that's not sure yet.

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:27 pm

I get stuck in the corner with no exit. Eventually, they twig from the religious, political, or just stupid crap I continue to send them in every email. Almost got one to vote for Ron Paul Very Happy

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:36 pm

Well there's one thing I got out of this thread - and that's a better understanding of the definition of the word "twig". So - thanks for that! And yes, in my earlier post I was misinterpreting your question.

I've only had one lad twig on me, and I'm not convinced it was a real twig, or whether he just grew disgusted with waiting. He was expressing some doubts and suspicion over some of my more outlandish claims in his last emails, and then he stopped responding to me at all. But that still leaves me with "none of the above", as my response would be, "He may have figured it out, but I don't know because he just disappeared". I can't say it's not my fault, because it probably WAS my fault - I was definitely getting a little outlandish towards the end. Wink