Could other forms of scam/shady business be baited?

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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 4:32 pm

Hi,

after seeing what great job you do with the 419 scammers, I got thinking. If scambaiting could be established all around the world, and if more and more people would get into it, couldn't it be used to take down other kinds of illegitimate or shady business?
I'm thinking about unsolicited advertising calls or subscription traps (like, for example, these "free trials"). If we baited this kind of business, we could easily force the owners of such websites into more legitimate ways of financing their business...

Like this:
Say, a "payer" (a victim who gets into the subscription trap and -actually- pays) earns 25 €/month. Then, we say that sending out a letter costs 1 € (you know, postal fees, staff expense and so on) - if 26 baiters per genuine victim trigger the subscription trap (of course, 26 fake identities), then this subscription trap would no longer be profitable.

Or maybe that:
I recently received an unsolicited phone call of someone trying to sell some forex stuff (probably binary options, but I have no idea) - after picking up the phone, saying "Beak & Feathers Law Office", he decided calling me is not worth the trouble. What if we baited them, tricked them into lengthy phone calls, talking about our characters parents, kids, girlfriends, cats, dogs, fish (penguins keep fish as pets - we domesticate them, so we can make it through the winter. It's our kind of farming) or even into sending out some affiliate info to get their accounts shut down for spamming.

What do you folks think about this?

Something the mods dream up Joined: 22 Apr 2014 Posts: 905

Quote:

to get their accounts shut down for spamming.

We don't shut down their e-mail accounts because they would have another in 30 seconds and real victims would not be able to check it by googling it.

Besides, I'm happy knowing that I'm tying up their time, rather than they are scamming real victims

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 5:50 pm

Quote:

What do you folks think about this?

I think "we" deal with AFF, and, unfortunately, have our hands full. "You" are welcome to start whatever kind of scam fighting site you wish.

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 6:07 pm

Hi,

username1939: I did actually meant to say "accounts on these forex sites they affiliate with". That'd certainly be more of a loss, since there is often money they earned with this "phone marketing" business in these accounts. Don't shut down free mailboxes, I know that, and I won't ever violate that rule.

bware419ers: I want to fight AFF together with you all. That is why I signed up here. 419 scammers are criminals, and making them get what they deserve is probably pure gold for both my karma and my conscience (besides, it's fun).

What I wrote on other scams was more of an idea that struck my head and that I wanted to share.

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 6:25 pm

thePenguin,

Before I came to Eater, I had no idea that such a community like this existed. Sadly, I didn't know there was such a need for one. After being here for a month or so, I started seeing all they different types of scams that Eater doesn't deal with, and wondered "why not"? Well, the simple answer is that there are more of "them" then there are of "us", and there isn't really enough of "us" to totally take down all the 419ers, let alone all the other types of scams that are out there. That's why we only concentrate of AFF. That is where were are most needed. That's not to say that we don't care about the other types of scams, we do. We hate there are people losing money to criminals. Absolutely hate it. But we can only do so much, so we concentrate all our efforts on AFF.

I am glad you're here! We need you! You're doing a great job. Razz

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 6:40 pm

sbah,

I also wish there wasn't a need for Eater. Not because I don't like Eater, but because I don't like what we're fighting against. But the world isn't perfect and there's always lots of people with no decency.
Edmund Burke once said "The only thing required for evil to thriumph is good people to do nothing" - I'm glad that currently, 60.000 good people here are doing something.

You all are doing a great job. I'm browsing to 419eater for hours to get better at baiting - just an hour ago, I submitted my first domain to site killing, hopefully, it'll be 404 soon. I can't even tell you how much I learned about baiting since I'm here.

It's just that I'm going against internet scams since around 2012, speaking of phishing sites, a fake software seller and such, but also against illegitimate business practices like the ones outlined - but I did it alone, on my own, because eater showed up on my radar only two months ago...

It's great to see some friendly faces fighting on the same side, resisting the ever-present temptation to ignore all bad things.

And now, I feel like making a lad feel sorry for being born, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do now!

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:07 am

Hi TP,

Welcome to Eater-I'd suggest you read the stickies so that you have better feel for what we do here and how. The Fake Bank forum, which you've already visited, also has it's own stickies to explain terms and reporting.

Just a suggestion, but think about signing up for a mentor- 100% risky-free!

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 3:52 pm

Hi Capone,

I already read through the stickies and got a mentor - and I don't say that I don't want to fight AFF. I want to, and I actively do... well, since 2 months, that is.
But I am in-between baits at the moment, as one is most likely to die (I try to reanimate it, but if I don't get a reply soon, I'll consider it dead and publish it), and you know... idle minds sometimes get struck by ideas, and that idea seemed worth sharing.

And thank all of you for your kind words of advice! I'm happy to be here and now and help cleaning up the internet. Perhaps, one day, all scammers will be brought to justice - it's only sad that it would also mean the end of a great community like this (but we could keep it online just for fun, and do other cool things. You know, annual meetings, bbq's (I could supply fish), the kind of stuff that veterans do. But by now, let's do our best in fighting this war against AFF. I'll publish my small contribution to it very soon.

Regards

thePenguin

Something the mods dream up Joined: 22 Apr 2014 Posts: 905

^ only if the fish is smoked salmon Laughing

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