Fresh, inexperienced scambaiter has plunged in headfirst

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 5

Hello 419Eaters,

I just started scambaiting! I received an email from Ivory Coast proposing a highly profitable business deal, and I've been stringing the scammer along for the past week. I am about to send the sixth email in our correspondence. I'm having fun doing this on my own, but I wonder if anybody here is interested in seeing our correspondence and perhaps offering suggestions?

FWIW, this person would like my assistance purchasing a cattle vaccine from Europe and shipping it to Cote D'Ivoire. Thousands of dollars of profit are guaranteed.

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 6:42 pm

Just double checking: are you baiting safe? No personal real life information or anything like that disclosed to the lad?

And yes, please do share the correspondence on the forum. It's impossible to say anything without seeing what's going on. The scammers' script sounds interesting. I don't remember seeing it before.

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 6:48 pm

Welcome AsimovW.

As Duckling has asked, are you baiting this lad from a RL email account? If so, a polite note saying "No thanks. I am not interested." followed by not responding is in order. Then, you can open a new email account not tied to you and have a go at this or other lads.

Remember, as fun as baiting is, these people are criminals, and have the willingness to hurt people.

My advice:
1) find a mentor to work with
2) look for a "mass bait", which is where other baiters work in a group and bait a lad or lads. You can learn a lot!
3) have fun!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 5

Hi Duckling and dr stephen williams,

Unfortunately the email came to my real email address, with first and last name. However, I replied as a junior manager at a nonexistent bicycle factory in another state, with a false middle name. It might have been better to decline the offer as you suggested, but it's too late for that now.

Elite Baiter Joined: 17 Jun 2015 Posts: 1738

Removed unnecessary quote of previous post - bware419ers

Stop corresponding and walk away. Open up a completely fake email account and head on down to the surplus forum, take your pick from various lads with various angles.

Have fun & bait safe. Most of all bait safe.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 5

It would be a shame to stop now. Just to be clear, when I said "the email came to my real email address, with first and last name," I meant that my email address contains my first and last name. The email that came to my address did not contain my first or last name. There's nothing to indicate that the scammer knew who he was sending the email to, and I don't think it's likely that my identity could be guessed just from my name, especially when I'm surrounding it with false information. Or is it possible? What are the risks?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:43 pm

Again, bait safe. Lads are willing to hurt you. Not even kidding. This is the deep end of the pool, so be careful. I have a lad who just put hits out on two (totally fake) people. He believes they are being killed. And they, being totally made up, will be.

Some of these lads have compatriots in your country, whatever your country is.

My strongest advice would be to drop this lad and find a new lad. There are plenty! If you really want to bait this lad, send a "I am interested. Tell me more" email from a new email that has NOTHING at all to tie you to it.

Master Baiter Joined: 03 May 2011 Posts: 237

As has already been said, scammers are criminals and therefore it's not wise to share any real-life information with them - regardless of how innocuous it may seem.

If you really would like to continue to bait this scammer, first of all cease all contact as you are now, then create a brand new e-mail account and start all over with them - completely disassociated from your real life identity.

Baiting with RL information is both against the policy of the forum, as well as potentially compromising your person safety - regardless of to what degree the actual risk may be.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 5

Understood. When I ask "what are the risks," I mean "is it possible to figure out that (for example) John Randolph Ford, the president of the Rhode Island Yacht Owners Association, is actually John Michael Ford, the poor son of a sanitation worker in Dallas, Texas?"

Master Baiter Joined: 03 May 2011 Posts: 237

Realistically, the chances of the lad trying to track you down are very slim. However, by using your real name you are theoretically endangering yourself; not necessarily from the lad himself, but as it's been said the scammers will almost certainly have accomplices local to yourself.

Put it this way: is it worth the risk (however small) using your real name, when you can create a false identity which you can develop from scratch? Is it worth the risk (again, however small it may be) of some angry lad who's time and money you've wasted, knocking at your door?

Yes, scammers are lazy so it wouldn't be worth his or his goons' time coming after you, but why leave it to chance?

Either way, please stop communicating with the scammer using any real life information.

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:21 pm

Don't even say you are not interested. Just stop responding.

When you create your baiting character, make sure that the character's name has no resemblance to your own or to your Eater name, the address is plausible but does not exist (e.g. I have a little-used character located in Argleton, which has geographic coordinates but no government or ceremonial status, on a street that is a pun on an actual street nearby, in a postcode that looks like it's in Lancashire but doesn't actually exist), and the bank account is well-formed but refers to a nonexistent bank.

You can respond to a scam that came to your RL address, or that you find in surplus, as if it were sent to your baiting character. The lad won't know.

Welcome to Eater!

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:40 am

Create a new email address without any personal connection and then start over again with the new addie as if you had just received the original email.

The lad will be happy to get a new victim and you can keep winding him up.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 24

Removed unnecessary quote of previous post. We can see it right there ^^^ - bware419ers

I know it may be covered somewhere else (I did try to look), but when choosing a new email service, is there a preferred provider? My two obvious ones are the ya-hoo one and the g-mail one, are there disadvantages to either one...header info that will potentially cause any risk? Any IP masking beneficial or required?

I ask, as I played with some romance scammers a long time ago, and have started getting more than a bit of 419 spam in my spam filter, with plenty of email addresses to bait. In the past, I used a fake name, had a fake email address set up (think I had a baiting email through a company that was not one of the biggies, and think they may have even masked the IP...it's been too long to remember).

Thoughts, ideas, etc, all accepted. I also plan on changing my username, as I have used it someplace else.

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 5:54 am

IP masking depends on your IP. Mine points into the middle of nowhere. No one is going to find me based on that. Least of all lads who don't really care about the whole thing or necessarily know about it. Most IPs I know of are like this. So safe baiting is much more than being mindful of your IP.

The exception are the static IPs. Institutions such as schools, libraries and universities often have these. So if you are using their network, then it might pinpoint you more reliably.

The best way to find out is to trace your own IP address and see where it goes. You can use this site, for instance: http://www.infosniper.net/.

Does it point somewhere far away from you? You are safe.
Does it point to a big city you are living in? OK, so how is the lad going to know you from all the hundreds of thousands of people living in there?
Does it point to a rural village you are living in? Maybe be cautious.
Does it point to your living room and tell that you have a half-eaten quattro stagioni pizza in your fridge? Mask it. And while you're at it, tell me what tool you used to find this out because I could use some pizza.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 24

Removed this quote, too. - bware

I ran my IP, and it came back to a small town about 5 miles from me. The small city I live in is less than 20,000 people, so I suspect I would be wise to do the research to mask the IP before I start with the fun. I am guessing the big 2 email places I mention have little to no masking of IP. I wish I could remember the company I used before, it was an add-supported email that would either mask or spoof the IP. I have some homework in front of me. Better safe than sorry.

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 6:06 am

Gmail, Yahoo and the Microsoft brands all mask IPs in headers if you use their web interfaces and not mail clients. They also now cache embedded images so that sites like whoreadme.com no longer work.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 24

And this quote - bware

Ahhh, perfect! I did some research, found my first IM that I received here, it mentioned the service I used to use (fastmail.com), but it appears to be a pay service now, if only $10/year. I'll just need to get one of the ones you mention, as I use the webmail interface. Good to know they won't tell on me...

(Edit) Can someone assist me in how to get in touch with a moderator, so I can change my username? I am pretty sure I saw that as a wise idea (that I need to do)

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 7:14 am

As a friendly reminder,

Please bait safe. Using your real email address is a no-go. Have fun baiting and give them pain xD

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 9:11 am

dave30076 wrote:

....Ahhh, perfect! I did some research, found my first IM that I received here, it mentioned the service I used to use (fastmail.com), but it appears to be a pay service now, if only $10/year. I'll just need to get one of the ones you mention, as I use the webmail interface. Good to know they won't tell on me...

(Edit) Can someone assist me in how to get in touch with a moderator, so I can change my username? I am pretty sure I saw that as a wise idea (that I need to do)

Fastmail.com is no longer baiter friendly, there were a lot of complaints of baiters losing their accounts etc., and now that it's a pay service there seems no reason to use it.

To change your username you could post in "TECHNICAL RELATED QUESTIONS, PROBLEMS & REQUESTS..." forum indicating your desired username, or you could send a PM to a moderator (names appearing in green).

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 2:15 pm

To the OP, your thread title, "Fresh, inexperienced scambaiter has plunged in headfirst" has warranted great advice above from experienced baiters.

AsimovW wrote:

It would be a shame to stop now. Just to be clear, when I said "the email came to my real email address, with first and last name," I meant that my email address contains my first and last name.

It would be a shame to continue. There are plenty of lads out there. While you might think changing your middle name and location might make a difference, ultimately, it won't. Do a Google search on your email address. Go to facebook or twitter and enter your email address in the search bar. Maybe you care nothing about your privacy, but it can certainly lead to a lad finding out about your family and friends. As stated above, it's, simply, not safe.

@dave30076, you can PM any Mod to request a name change.

To those of you who insist on fully quoting the post directly above your post, why? Let's keep this as a conversation, not a repetitive scramble to read the messages.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 5

Thank you all. I'll take your advice—it was fun while it lasted, but I'll just stop responding. Maybe I'll set up a new email address, only use it through webmail, and start over with the original email again; or maybe not. ;) More likely, I'll wait to do that until the next scam email I get comes.

Thank you all again. For the curious, I'd like to post our correspondence here. Is there a good/standardized way to format it all?

Elite Baiter Joined: 17 Jun 2015 Posts: 1738

Plenty of eager lads in the surplus forum. Very Happy

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 09 Aug 2015 Posts: 1

Sorry for the excessive quoting above, I come from forums where that is actually preferred.

(I'm the guy with the Kermit avatar, chose to switch to something a little different.)

Oops, know better now. Somehow, jacked up my profile when I tried to change the email address on the file (was for a former employer). So, I am back. I'm in awe of the baiting I've been reading the last few weeks. May work some minor time-wasting for lads until I get comfortable with more. Baiting safe, of course.

05/29/15

Hello, EENS -- and welcome to Eater!

To echo bware419ers, you have indeed been given some extremely sage advice by some very experienced and successful baiters. They know what they're talking about.

There isn't much of value that I can add -- other than direct you to read all of the stickies in all of the Forums. I would also like to stress one of
dr stephen williams' points -- please request a Mentor. You can sign up for one here:
https://forum.419eater.com/forum/cherrie_mentor_program.php

Fresh, inexperienced scambaiter has plunged in headfirst	View next topic View previous topic