Scamming the Scammer

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 May 2017 Posts: 2

So I'm in sort of a pickle here.

I recently got a call from the "IRS" and I went along with their bullshit for a while. Then I decided to sort of turn the tables and I went on about how I could make them a lot of money in a short while. Told him if he sends me 150 dollars on PayPal I can add a 0 and give him 1,500 dollars. (Tryna carve out some money for that OK Computer box set) He totally bought it and he's getting his other people in on this. I didn't expect him to be into it.

Of course I'm not sending any money back, so how safe and legal is this? I'm using a fake name on PayPal and I'm using some Visa debit account. Can I get in trouble from the law? I'm expecting him to send something within the next few hours so I need to know if I should do this.

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 2:23 am

To put it bluntly, you are now a scammer. Hopefully, the police will be arresting you shortly.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 May 2017 Posts: 2

B8er wrote:

To put it bluntly, you are now a scammer. Hopefully, the police will be arresting you shortly.

Smh was just askin. I'll just block em all

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 2:58 am

We don't scam scammers. We bait them. Big difference.

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 5:08 am

radioheadass wrote:

So how safe and legal is this?

Simply put - unsafe and illegal.

We do not extract cash from scammers for several reasons

• Safety is at risk - somewhere there is a connection between your fake PayPal account and real you and your real identity receiving the money. You might not see the link, but it is there.
• Legal problems - you are obtaining money by illegal means. Need I say more?
• Ethical problems - again, simply put - the money you would be receiving comes from a victim to the same scammer.

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 7:34 am

Yeah, that's very unwise.

Also, I doubt they are going to send you any money. You'll probably get a fake PayPal email saying the money is there when it really isn't.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3876

there are a few thoughts, that popped up in my mind...

first, as the others have said: you are doing cashbaiting, that's not a wise move and illegal.

second: really? they are doing that? and are perfectly fine with the idea, that you'd give them 1500$, if they send 150$?

and just a thrid idea: what is, if that IRS-scammer (by the way, not advance fee fraud) sends you 150$ from a hacked paypal-account, and then wants you to send 1500$ to an account of the scammer, that is not hacked.

this way, you would launder money, essentially, you've turned into a mule. so even by not paying the 1500$, the original owner of that account would start legal actions against you, not the hacker/scammer.

Elite Baiter Joined: 28 Mar 2015 Posts: 1916

To be fair, I don't think the OP had thought this through. It wouldn't be the first time that someone thought that relieving a scammer of hard cash would be good payback. If I remember correctly from reading some of the stories of the early days on this site, cash baiting wasn't unheard of. Mustn't be too hard on the gal/guy.

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 10:48 am

radioheadass If they have not sent you any money yet, simply block them. As others have said there are some good reasons not to "scam the scammers" by stealing their cash.

1. Any money the scammer has is likely money he stole from a victim. So, you're basically taking the victims cash.

2. You could easily find yourself in a money laundering situation as Robert Heinrich der 1. said.

3. Covering your tracks could be harder than you think, in terms of receiving cash. I'm not just talking about the police here, I'm talking about the possibility of the scammer finding out who robbed them.

4. It is illegal to steal, even from bad people.

I agree with MorganleFay - we as members, have learned these things through experience and years of "baiting" (not scamming the scammer and becoming thieves ourselves, but engaging with the scammers and wasting their time, efforts, etc. so they are less able to spend their time with real victims). We can't and shouldn't expect people who have no experience with scammers or scambaiting to know all why we wouldn't say "scam the scammer", that the $150 either isn't coming or belongs to a victim but regardless shouldn't be touched. etc.

You came here and asked about it before doing it. So, you knew instinctively that it might not be a good idea. And now you've learned a little about why. Feel free to read some of the excellent stickies in the forum that go into what scam baiting is, etc.

As a side note, as others pointed out, we don't cover all types of fraud here. This site is about advance fee fraud scams. The IRS guy you dealt with is a different type of criminal. Our advice on the money etc. still holds, but I mention this so you know you won't see information or baits here that concern IRS scammers or other scammers who primarily reach out to you over the phone such as tech support scammers.

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 10:57 am

Question answered. As this is an illegal activity, the thread is now locked.