Spammig the scammers

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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 5:56 pm

Hey, I'm just curious. I've seen where scam baiters have gotten email accounts shut down. Has anyone tried spamming the scammers account(s) instead, or in addition to? I'm thinking flooding these inboxes with their own scam emails would cause them to waste time parsing through to find the mails from their intended victims. If this has already been done, I would be interested in learning about it.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18312

Hi Thursten3rd.

We don't recommend doing this. Flooding their mailbox has the same effect as shutting down their email address, which is actually counterproductive to the work we do, and also something we don't recommend doing.

This article explains it: http://www.antifraudnews.com/do-not-report-scammers-email-address/

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 6:03 pm

Hi Th3rd,

Closing scammers emails or spamming them is pointless and counter productive for 2 reasons:

they will just open another one in seconds

their email address will not be available for potential victims to google and find on scam warners

HTH

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 6:03 pm

Thursten3rd wrote:

Has anyone tried spamming the scammers account(s) instead, or in addition to?

No, you are the only one in the history of mankind to think of this.

Seriously speaking, we don't do that. I'm not even going to make the ethics argument of flooding boxes, but it's simply not practical. A lad's inbox is just as much a throw-away tool for him as it is for us. If he gets annoyed, he will create a new one. That, on the other hand, is not good for Team Us, because then they can't be found as easily by potential victims searching for information in the internet (such as Scamwarners). We may have the lad's old address readily available for anyone to see that he is a scammer. With his new address we need to make that information available again and again and again. The more the lads keep using their old addresses, the better for us.

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 6:09 pm

Spamming is illegal in the EU and US as well so it is a bit of a legal grey area.

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 6:51 pm

Thanks for the info. With the exception of ethics (I mean, there is a LOT of wiggle room being taken advantage of in baiting), you all make very good points. Again, thanks!

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:38 pm

On behalf of all of us you're very welcome, just bait safely Smile

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:17 pm

Quote:

Spamming is illegal in the EU and US as well so it is a bit of a legal grey area.

Not grey, just plain illegal.