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Post by Frazzle on Apr 26, 2020 22:20:14 GMT
We all have a story, something that brought us to this community and hobby (scambaiting community not this community specifically) Some of you know mine but since this is a new community I will share. Some years ago an elderly friend of mine got taken in by a romance turned AFF 419 scammer. They fell in "love" and she was at the airport on her way to visit him when she got a call from her fathers lawyer...father had died and she had to get on a plane to Nigeria to take care of the estate. At the time I knew of scams but never cared enough to learn how they worked. Well once my hard headed friend who was convinced it was real brought me and another friend in I went to school. Trying to get him help all the while learning how these scams worked and why. Well this one turned into an inheritance scam, the only way she could get her fathers inheritance was to be married or engaged...will you marry me. Of course he said yes and at the time you could not convince him this was not real. So the "barrister" got in touch with him and a few dollars later the paperwork was all complete the transfer of ownership papers were emailed, and the boxes containing several million dollars were on the way. After they drained his bank account he began receiving checks from her "customers" back home (she was a jeweler allegedly) of course none of these checks added up...they were all forgeries, most of them good enough to cash until they bounced. I ultimately found moneygram and western union receipts where he transferred in excess of 15,000 of his money and mule money. He was ultimately evicted from his apartment and is now renting a room in a flop house after bouncing around a half a dozen places. My quest to get him help resulted in visits from local law enforcement, county sherriffs, and even the US Postal Inspector who all did their best to convince him. Well I learned a whole lot about 419 and romance scams during this time and began scam baiting. In the years that have passed I have inflicted a lot of lad pain, reported NUMEROUS bank accounts and even been part of a baiting team that sent a couple of lads on a three or four day safari. I have seen several scammer websites get killed. While I have made a difference in some aspects and I am sure in some ITP lives who have been saved from hard core issues, I am sad to report that my "friend" still hasn't gotten it. While he has little money to send anyone, I know for a fact he is still sending the occasional I tune/Steam card to some "love interest" that he has happened across on line. At 81 years young I am not sure if it is cognitive, if he is genuinely stupid, or just want's to believe. My pleas for help for this man with the local authorities, elder care professionals, etc have fallen on deaf ears. I have even reached out to every single investigative reporter in the local area and while they have done little to help me get help for him (which was the reason I reached out to them) they did incorporate part of his story into a warning on romance scams last year (see link below). why I bait So while I may have failed to get through to this man, this is the reason I bait. I like to think I am making a difference somewhere, and having a lot of fun along the way. Frazzle is my name and scammer pain is my game. That's my story. What's yours? |
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Post by Yastreb on Apr 29, 2020 10:02:16 GMT
My story is quite simple... I mentioned to a friend that I'd been getting scam emails and he showed me a newspaper article about scammers and, wonder of wonders, scambaiting! The article referenced Scamorama, where I learned a bit more about scambaiting, and that's where it all started... fifteen years ago.
Since then Mal, Cammy (and her soul-sister Eliza), Roscoe, Jeffrey, Nicolae, Alik-Jay, and others have played their part in making scammers' lives difficult, if not miserable. I've had a scammer send me photographs of him reenacting the slaying of the Midgard Serpent by Thor, made another one believe that I had sent Yastreb-class semi-autonomous killer drones after him with orders to kill after sending him on a safari to Benin... and introduced Lee Sam Kong to Mr Pricky; we all remember what happened after that!
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Scamaranga
Roadside Gala Seller
When I was a boy I was brought up in a circus...
Posts: 76
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Post by Scamaranga on Apr 30, 2020 17:47:30 GMT
My story is a pretty common one. One slow day at work I was browsing one of my favourite Tech/Humor sites and came across a post here where a scam went awfully wrong from a technical perspective. The banter in the comments was much fun, and I became aware of how dangerous online scams could be. After a few google searches on the subject, I found a place where people actually engaged with the scammers and got them to do all sorts of silly stuff with crazy stories. I kept reading for a lot and noticed they weren't simple practical jokers. There was much, much more to it. There were real potential victims that could benefit. There was a huge, long collection of well written tutorials and advice. There was ethics. There was a very interesting psychological side of it. That moment I knew this was something that really deserved the effort of taking seriously and a few weeks later I started my first attempts at baiting. Since then the quality hasn't improved much but I'm proud of every email I have sent to a scammer if it made them waste a minute of their time. Curiously enough, my personal situation around that time was really rough. I got tricked a few years before all this into signing for a huuuuge loan I could never pay back - and didn't ever get a cent of that amont. Around the time I started baiting there was an also long, long criminal case going on in court regarding this (which only finished a couple of years ago, praised be Mensah with a great outcome for me and the nearly hundred more people involved). So even if it wasn't technically a scam as we know them here, I could perfectly understand how would a victim feel, or at least something very similar. The feeling of guilt, injustice and impotence is overwhelming and something I'd never like anyone to go through. All this situation only reaffirmed my determination to always have at least a little spot in my mind for baiting.
I mainly scambait for fun, but the chance to actually ever help out a potential victim is what keeps me in. Even if it is ridiculously low.
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Post by ScammingTheScammers on Apr 30, 2020 22:39:04 GMT
.... the chance to actually ever help out a potential victim is what keeps me in. Even if it is ridiculously low.
I doubt it's as low as you think Scaramanga. What I love about scambaiting is whether you spend 5 mins a day, 1 hour a month or..... it ALL helps. There isn't a minimum investment of time / effort before it becomes useful. I particularly like that if you can't be bothered for a while and leave things, you are actually baiting while you are absent as any lads on the hook are kept dangling and waste their time pestering your unattended inbox. I've known a few victims who have lost a lot of money, pride and confidence. As you said... they are victims in the true sense of the word - as you experienced with your loan swindle. Let the memory of that spur you on. I suspect many of us use that sense of social justice and protecting the vulnerable to give us energy - as you described. On a personal note: I had a lightbulb moment early on in my scambaiting. I was pondering how those initial scam emails could be soooo bad. The grammar, the spelling, the ludicrous proposition.... how could anyone fall for that!.... and then I realised.... The emails are not designed to fool the informed, the cynical, the savvy.... they are there to fool the vulnerable. By making them so unbelievable, the email acts as an excellent filter, ensuring that only the naive and vulnerable will reply. Everyone else deletes/ignores them. That infuriated me as we should protect the vulnerable - not exploit them. I have become a bit obsessive about it. I see any scam email that is deleted or ignored as actually focusing attention on the vulnerable. I'd rather do the opposite and encourage and engage the scammer to take the focus AWAY from the vulnerable. I think it's a really valuable role of scambaiters is to screw up that 1st email "filter" that scammers use. That's how we are ALL (even with one reply email) protecting victims. Thanks for sharing STS |
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Scamaranga
Roadside Gala Seller
When I was a boy I was brought up in a circus...
Posts: 76
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Post by Scamaranga on May 1, 2020 12:33:04 GMT
and introduced Lee Sam Kong to Mr Pricky; we all remember what happened after that! That was pure gold. I vaguely remember Pricky hiding in a hotel room in Ghana scared to death of some guyman running around with a gun  He was a real shouter! |
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Post by Pricky on May 3, 2020 11:29:18 GMT
That was pure gold. I vaguely remember Pricky hiding in a hotel room in Ghana scared to death of some guyman running around with a gun He was a real shouter! ![]()  That Safari was a lot of fun! I got 2 scam gangs to meet on live webcam. Never been done before or since. The Scammers are all outside the gate. (Those inside the gate are not involved). The 3 on the left are LSKs gang. The guy on the right and the black car is the other gang. I told each gang that the other gang was armed and after trouble. This exchange ended with the black car driving off rapidly with a door open! |
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Post by Fred on Jun 26, 2020 13:49:56 GMT
My story is; A couple of years ago I was looking at videos on YouTube and I came across people doing prank calls to tech support,the IRS scammers etc. I was phoned by a tech scammer and I knew his routine. After a few minutes of playing with him the scammer called me stupid. I think he said that because after my stroke I was left with a speech impediment. His comment really offended me. It was then I realised I wanted to waste ANY scammers time and get my own back. I couldn't do prank calls so anybody who scams deserves my revenge. One of the prank callers had a link to Scambait Central. Mr P's videos made me laugh. I contacted Mr P and he taught me how to bait without talking to the scammer. ALL scammers are criminals and deserve whatever I, as a baiter, can do to waste their time. So I suppose it's a personal thing. It has been 2 1/2 years of great fun and thank you to all the experienced baiters who answer my questions on this helpful site
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Post by ScammingTheScammers on Jun 26, 2020 22:26:51 GMT
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Post by Honey Sis on Nov 15, 2020 13:12:10 GMT
A romance scam went wrong- for the intellectually limited scammer- he picked the wrong victim- me. I was angry and naive enough to think I could track him. In the beginning, I even believed he was the person he said he was. By coincidence, I bumped into the best baiting channel there is online( my opinion). I met someone who was honest, hard-working, competent, and happy to share their extensive knowledge. It became an exponentially growing eyeopening experience and learning experience -and I am still learning. One day, this person asked if I would like to learn how to do straight baiting(emails) at first, I declined- being afraid I would fail. Unfortunately, this person has now stopped supervising me. I find supervision very developing and inspiring because your own ideas are not always the best, especially when you measure them against the experience of someone experienced! Now I dare speak to scammers. I sometimes co-bait with others and I enjoy co-baiting more because it gives you the possibility to discuss ideas and you get feedback. And now that I've started I don't think I'll give up. Because baiting makes me happier than I have been for a long time.
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4 Gold Pith Helmets. 83 Safaris. Abidjan-Bouake/Belgium-UK/B'ham–Liskeard/B'ham-Looe/Cambridge-Looe/CdI-Ghana/Ekpoma-Kano/France-UK x2/Ghana-RoB x4/Ghana–CdI x4/Ghana-Chad/Ghana–Nigeria x2/Ghana-UK/Lagos-Pt Hct/London-York x2/London–Plymouth x10/London–Looe x6/London-Liskeard x3/London–Rame Head x19/Mali-CdI x2/Manchester-Looe x2/Manchester-Plymouth x1/N'lands-UK x3/Nigeria-RoB x2/Nigeria–CdI x3/Nigeria–Ghana x2/Nigeria–Liberia/Örebro-Malmö/PortoNovo-Parakou/RoI-UK x2/Togo-Nigeria
