Scam baiting
Scam baiting (or scambaiting) is a form of internet vigilantism primarily used towards 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 scammers, gather information useful to authorities, and publicly expose scammers. They may document scammers' tools and methods, warn potential victims, provide discussion forums, disrupt scammers' devices and systems using remote access trojans and computer viruses, or take down fraudulent webpages. Some scambaiters are motivated by a sense 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 Trojan horses, such as remote administration tools, that enable baiters to gain sensitive information from or damage scammers' computers. Baiters may publicly humiliate scammers by 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][10][11] However, modern day scam baiting content is primarily centred around education on how the scams work and how to prevent falling victim to scams.[12]
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][13] A member of the scambaiting website 419eater.com was able to convince a scammer to send him a wooden replica of a Commodore 64.[14]
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.[15]
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.[16] Veitch also presented the Mashable video series "Scamalot" on YouTube.[17]
In March 2020, an anonymous YouTuber and grey hat hacker under the alias "Jim Browning" infiltrated and gathered drone 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.[18]
YouTube and Twitch are popular platforms scambaiters use to educate and entertain their audience about various types of scams.[19]
See also
- Internet vigilantism
- Lenny (bot)
- Prank call
- Sting operation
- Vigilantism in the United States of America
References
- ^ a b c "A guide to trolling a tech support scammer". Wired UK. October 15, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
- ^ "This is what a Social Security scam sounds like". Federal Trade Commission. December 27, 2018.
- ^ Zingerle, Andreas; Kronman, Linda (2013). "Humiliating Entertainment or Social Activism? Analyzing Scambaiting Strategies Against Online Advance Fee Fraud". 'Humiliating entertainment or social activism?': Analyzing Scambaiting Strategies Against Online Advance Fee Fraud. pp. 352–355. doi:10.1109/CW.2013.49. ISBN 978-1-4799-2246-8. S2CID 19138313.
- ^ a b Rojas, Peter (May 14, 2004). "Scamming the scammer". Engadget. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Cheng, Jacqui (May 12, 2009). "Baiting Nigerian scammers for fun (not so much for profit)". Ars Technica. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
- ^ "Baiters Teach Scammers a Lesson". Wired. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ Nakamura, Lisa (December 16, 2014). "'I WILL DO EVERYthing That Am Asked': Scambaiting, Digital Show-Space, and the Racial Violence of Social Media". Journal of Visual Culture. 13 (3): 257–274. doi:10.1177/1470412914546845. ISSN 1470-4129.
- ^ Cox, Tony (November 1, 2006). "Providing Bait for Nigerian Scam Artists". NPR. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
- ^ Gordon, Bennett (June 1, 2007). "Scamming the Spammers". Utne. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
- ^ Lupton, Deborah (2015). Digital sociology. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-138-02276-8. OCLC 877366534.
- ^ Tait, Amelia (October 3, 2021). "Who scams the scammers? Meet the scambaiters". The Guardian. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
- ^ Roth, Wolf-Dieter (May 28, 2004). "Wir basteln uns ein Apple G4 P-P-P-Powerbook". Telepolis (in German). Retrieved December 26, 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Pest eens een internetfraudeur Basta on YouTube (in Dutch) Archived 2016-05-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "James Veitch Keynote Speaker". WME Speakers. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
- ^ "Man hilariously responds to stranger's totally legit $9 million inheritance offer". Mashable. July 29, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Rigg, Jamie. "Making a living scamming the scammers". Engadget. Engadget. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
External links
- ‹ The template below (Curlie) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›Advanced fee fraud humor at Curlie
- Tait, Amelia (October 3, 2021). "Who scams the scammers? Meet the scambaiters". The Guardian.
- Semuels, Alana (September 18, 2024). "Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams". Time. Archived from the original on September 18, 2024.
- v
- t
- e
confidence tricks
- 1992 Indian stock market scam
- 2G spectrum case
- Advance-fee scam
- Art student scam
- Badger game
- Bait-and-switch
- Black money scam
- Blessing scam
- Bogus escrow
- Boiler room
- Bride scam
- Charity fraud
- Clip joint
- Coin-matching game
- Coin rolling scams
- Drop swindle
- Embarrassing cheque
- Exit scam
- Extraterrestrial real estate
- Fiddle game
- Fine print
- Foreclosure rescue scheme
- Foreign exchange fraud
- Fortune telling fraud
- Gem scam
- Get-rich-quick scheme
- Green goods scam
- Hustling
- Indian coal allocation scam
- IRS impersonation scam
- Intellectual property scams
- Kansas City Shuffle
- Locksmith scam
- Long firm
- Miracle cars scam
- Mismarking
- Mock auction
- Moving scam
- Overpayment scam
- Patent safe
- Pig in a poke
- Pigeon drop
- Pork barrel
- Pump and dump
- Redemption/A4V schemes
- Reloading scam
- Return fraud
- Salting
- Shell game
- Sick baby hoax
- SIM swap scam
- Slavery reparations scam
- Spanish Prisoner
- SSA impersonation scam
- SSC Scam
- Strip search phone call scam
- Swampland in Florida
- Tarmac scam
- Technical support scam
- Telemarketing fraud
- Thai tailor scam
- Thai zig zag scam
- Three-card monte
- Trojan horse
- Wash trading
- White van speaker scam
- Work-at-home scheme
countermeasures
- Avalanche
- Pig Butchering
- Carding
- Catfishing
- Click fraud
- Clickjacking
- Cramming
- Cryptocurrency scams
- Cybercrime
- CyberThrill
- DarkMarket
- Domain name scams
- Email authentication
- Email fraud
- Internet vigilantism
- Lenny anti-scam bot
- Lottery scam
- PayPai
- Phishing
- Referer spoofing
- Ripoff Report
- Rock Phish
- Romance scam
- Russian Business Network
- SaferNet
- Scam baiting
- 419eater.com
- Jim Browning
- Kitboga
- Scammer Payback
- ShadowCrew
- Spoofed URL
- Spoofing attack
- Stock Generation
- Voice phishing
- Website reputation ratings
Ponzi schemes
- Aman Futures Group
- Bernard Cornfeld
- Caritas
- Dona Branca
- Earl Jones
- Ezubao
- Foundation for New Era Philanthropy
- Franchise fraud
- High-yield investment program (HYIP)
- Investors Overseas Service
- Kapa investment scam
- Kubus scheme
- Madoff investment scandal
- Make Money Fast
- Matrix scheme
- MMM
- Petters Group Worldwide
- Pyramid schemes in Albania
- Reed Slatkin
- Saradha Group financial scandal
- Secret Sister
- Scott W. Rothstein
- Stanford Financial Group
- Welsh Thrasher faith scam