Scam baiting

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Scam baiting (or scambaiting) is a form of

advance-fee fraud, IRS impersonation scams, technical support scams,[1] pension scams,[2] and consumer financial fraud.[1]

Scambaiters pose as potential victims to waste the time and resources of

civic duty, some simply engage for their own amusement, or a combination of both.[3]

Methodology

For scams conducted via written communication, baiters may answer

scam emails using throwaway email accounts, pretending to be receptive to scammers' offers.[4]

Popular methods of accomplishing the first objective are to ask scammers to fill out lengthy questionnaires;[5] to bait scammers into taking long trips; to encourage the use of poorly made props or inappropriate English-language idioms that surreptitiously cast doubt upon their scams.[6]

Baiters may deceive scammers with claims as ludicrous as the ones they have used to defraud their victims; or they may entrap them with

live streaming their sessions[1] or persuading them to produce humiliating images colloquially known as "trophies". Some of the images that were uploaded to early scam baiting websites have been described as a form of schadenfreude[7] or reinforcing racist stereotypes.[8][9] However, modern day scam baiting content is primarily centred around education on how the scams work and how to prevent falling victim to scams.[10]

Examples

In May 2004, a Something Awful forum poster asked for advice on how to deal with a bogus escrow scam from a buyer on eBay. Since the eBay auction was for an Apple PowerBook G4, the poster sent a three-ring binder crudely dressed as a PowerBook and declared it to customs at the value of a real product. The buyer, who lived overseas, paid several hundred dollars in import duties to claim the fake laptop.[4][11] A member of the scambaiting website 419eater.com was able to convince a scammer to send him a wooden replica of a Commodore 64.[12]

In February 2011, the Belgian television show Basta portrayed, with hidden cameras, how a scammer was fooled during a meeting with baiters, raising the stakes by involving a one-armed man, two dwarves and a pony. Eventually, a police raid was faked, during which the baiters were arrested and the scammer went free, abandoning the money, and without any suspicion.[13]

In January 2014, members of 419eater.com appeared in two segments of the Channel 4 show Secrets of the Scammers. In the first segment scambaiters persuaded a scammer to travel from London to a remote location in Cornwall by train and taxi to meet a victim (played by a baiter) and collect payment for a gold deal. In the second segment a female scammer met with two scambaiters posing as victims in Trafalgar Square to pass them a fake check. This scammer was subsequently questioned by the police.

In 2015 and 2016, James Veitch hosted three TED talks about scambaiting.[14] Veitch also presented the Mashable video series "Scamalot" on YouTube.[15]

In March 2020, an anonymous YouTuber and

CCTV footage of a fraudulent call centre scam operation in India with the help of fellow YouTube personality Karl Rock. Through the aid of the British documentary programme Panorama, a police raid was carried out when the documentary was brought to the attention of assistant police commissioner Karan Goel.[16]

YouTube and Twitch are popular platforms scambaiters use to educate and/or entertain their audience about various types of scams.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "A guide to trolling a tech support scammer". Wired UK. October 15, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  2. ^ "This is what a Social Security scam sounds like". Federal Trade Commission. December 27, 2018.
  3. S2CID 19138313
    .
  4. ^ a b Rojas, Peter (May 14, 2004). "Scamming the scammer". Engadget. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  5. ^ Ockenden, Will (June 6, 2014). "The dubious "art" of trolling". Social Media Week. Archived from the original on July 12, 2014. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  6. ^ Cheng, Jacqui (May 12, 2009). "Baiting Nigerian scammers for fun (not so much for profit)". Ars Technica. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  7. ^ "Baiters Teach Scammers a Lesson". Wired. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  8. ISSN 1470-4129
    .
  9. ^ Cox, Tony (November 1, 2006). "Providing Bait for Nigerian Scam Artists". NPR. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  10. ^ Tait, Amelia (October 3, 2021). "Who scams the scammers? Meet the scambaiters". The Guardian. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  11. ^ Roth, Wolf-Dieter (May 28, 2004). "Wir basteln uns ein Apple G4 P-P-P-Powerbook". Telepolis (in German). Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  12. ^ Madrigal, Alexis C. (September 28, 2010). "How to Trick an Online Scammer Into Carving a Computer Out of Wood". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  13. ^ Pest eens een internetfraudeur Basta on YouTube (in Dutch) Archived 2016-05-08 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ "James Veitch Keynote Speaker". WME Speakers. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  15. ^ "Man hilariously responds to stranger's totally legit $9 million inheritance offer". Mashable. July 29, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  16. ^ Dhankhar, Leena (March 4, 2020). "Udyog Vihar call centre duped at least 40,000 in 12 countries; 2 arrested". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2020. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  17. ^ Rigg, Jamie. "Making a living scamming the scammers". Engadget. Engadget. Retrieved February 3, 2020.

External links

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