West African Scammers Eradicated!

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondAttempt One of my hobbies is "scambaiting," engaging with the scammers through a series of fake accounts to frustrate, anger, and humiliate them and more importantly, to waste their time. There is a whole community out there that does this. I currently have 6 different lads thinking a money transfer is on the way. Of course most of these lads claim to be women in love with me. I have been doing this for something like 20-25 years. Back in the day it took fake Western Union receipts to get them excited but now they all want cashapp. I'm old school and only do (fake) wire transfers that, for some reasons, always get delayed. With wire transfers we also get real bank info that we can use to report them to the bank and get the account shut down. This weekend I have a girl visiting me in Hawaii from Kentucky and I am also going to visit another sweetie in Ghana when I am in Nigeria on business. Don't hate me. PS. I take very strong technical precautions and have numerous technology tools I have developed over 20 years to protect myself. I do not suggest anyone do this without good IT knowledge!

There are some amusing YouTubers who do this all the time. The scam callers he targets all seem to come from the same country…

[Rianne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack +1, why?

Because it's fun. I dare anyone to respond to that e-mail address.

I had to engage when I was called on the phone by the IRS that I owed back taxes from 10 years ago. My AT&T call identifier showed 000-000-0000. I spoke to "supervisors" who were clearly the same person each time. I'm sorry, I enjoyed it. I asked for the address to send my check. I said it's on the way.

[jazz4cash]

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Originally Posted by Rianne Because it's fun. I dare anyone to respond to that e-mail address.

Yes, I thought it was amusing and harmless. Clearly several others did also.

As for responding to the email, I’ll take that dare! I already looked up the mail.com domain and found out it is a generic free service.

[jazz4cash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rianne Because it's fun. I dare anyone to respond to that e-mail address. I had to engage when I was called on the phone by the IRS that I owed back taxes from 10 years ago. My AT&T call identifier showed 000-000-0000. I spoke to "supervisors" who were clearly the same person each time. I'm sorry, I enjoyed it. I asked for the address to send my check. I said it's on the way.

If the IRS does call, it will say No Caller ID. Don’t ask me how I know.

[SecondAttempt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack There are some amusing YouTubers who do this all the time. The scam callers he targets all seem to come from the same country…

I have been in contact with some of the biggest youtubers. They mostly target the tech scammers. I target the romance and inheritance scammers. A south asian country is popular for tech scams. I work mostly in west africa and have a couple of helpers there.

[SecondAttempt]

Well I closed out two positions for two groups of scammers today. They get SO angry when they get beaten at their own game. And it totally freaks them out when they challenge me to tell then what brand of phone they use after I tell them I can track their exact location and listen to their mic and watch their camera. I not only tell them what phone they are using. I tell them their provider and operating system version of their phone. (There are tools to gather this information if I can get them to click on a link. And they are so greedy they will always click on the link to the wire transfer confirmation or image of their gift card.)

[RobbieB]

I'm getting scam texts now.

My amazon account has been suspended and I need to verify my CC number.

Yeah, I'll get right on that......

[SecondAttempt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB I'm getting scam texts now. My amazon account has been suspended and I need to verify my CC number. Yeah, I'll get right on that......

OMG, the same thing happened to me! All my shipments were cancelled. I was all over it.

[SecondAttempt]

Seriously folks, scambaiting is for the most part harmless, but some of these guys have networks in the United States and could possibly have operatives near you. One I popped today claimed to be in Louisville Kentucky. I located the original scammer in Lagos Nigeria but in the course of my antiscam an associate sent me bank charge history (to prove he had not received my transfer). It showed activity in Louisville businesses!

So please be careful. I am confident in my precautions. But these criminals can be dangerous if they get real information about you.

[scrabbler1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB I'm getting scam texts now. My amazon account has been suspended and I need to verify my CC number. Yeah, I'll get right on that......

I have gotten several calls from Amazon thanking me for my order of some high-end iphone (which I didnot order, of course), asking me to "press 1 to speak with a rep if I didn't order it." A few times, if the call came on my land line, I press 1 just to mess with them a little, yelling at them that I know they aren't Amazon and are just a bunch of shameful scammers. Then THEY hang up.

[Rianne]

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Originally Posted by jazz4cash If the IRS does call, it will say No Caller ID. Don’t ask me how I know.

I had the old AT&T caller ID that showed up on our TV screen. If we were watching, our landline rang, and the TV displayed who was calling. I know the IRS does not call, but the accent and seriousness of the caller had me amused. And yes it showed 000-000-0000 as the caller ID. We no longer have a landline. So I engaged and had a few minutes of fun.

[jazz4cash]

I’m getting daily emails from “K0hl’s”, “Hom3 Dep0t”, “Ama>on”, and many, many other retailers informing me “YOU HAVE WON!!”

The logos and typeface look legit and sometimes they don’t use the crazy spelling. It’s to the point that I have occasionally mistaken them for legit email.

[GenXguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondAttempt One of my hobbies is "scambaiting," engaging with the scammers through a series of fake accounts to frustrate, anger, and humiliate them and more importantly, to waste their time. There is a whole community out there that does this. I currently have 6 different lads thinking a money transfer is on the way. Of course most of these lads claim to be women in love with me. I have been doing this for something like 20-25 years.

That sounds like you're wasting a lot of your own time.

[CaptTom]

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Originally Posted by GenXguy That sounds like you're wasting a lot of your own time.

Not at all. It's a great hobby, and it's doing a public service.


Just one scam call center can bring in millions every month. All stolen from innocent, often elderly, victims.



Anyone who does battle with these scumbags has my respect.

[scrabbler1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash I’m getting daily emails from “K0hl’s”, “Hom3 Dep0t”, “Ama>on”, and many, many other retailers informing me “YOU HAVE WON!!” The logos and typeface look legit and sometimes they don’t use the crazy spelling. It’s to the point that I have occasionally mistaken them for legit email.

I have noticed a recent uptick in scam emails telling me I have won power tools such as power drills. Seems like an odd item for scammers to choose for their otherwise lame hooks.

[GenXguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptTom Not at all. It's a great hobby, and it's doing a public service. Just one scam call center can bring in millions every month. All stolen from innocent, often elderly, victims. Anyone who does battle with these scumbags has my respect.

Considering all the time involved, I suspect there's barely a dent in the amount of scamming that perpetrated.

[SecondAttempt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GenXguy That sounds like you're wasting a lot of your own time.

Everyone has hobbies. I do it for fun, not because I think I am making a dent.

[Souschef]

I have gotten the power drill scam, but I have been inundated lately with the McAfee scam

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondAttempt Everyone has hobbies. I do it for fun, not because I think I am making a dent.

I think it's great! When you waste their time it means they're not working with someone else who might believe them.

I do it on a very small scale because I lack your tech tools. I get scam e-mails pretending to be someone I know and asking for gift cards for some worthy cause. Sadly, they're generally people who have hijacked local clergy names, including our past Bishop. Example:

Scammer: I'm in meetings and very busy but I want to give some gift cards to some women at the hospital who have cancer.

Me: Sure, I'm happy to help. How much do you need? (I then offer to buy double the requested amount because "times are tough". )

Me: I have them. It would be my pleasure to be with you when you hand them out. When and where should I meet you?

Scammer comes up with all kinds of excuses- "just scratch off the numbers on the back and send me pictures of them".

Finally I ask "because you can't be too sure" some question only they could know- who was the previous priest at our church, which member was recently widowed...

And then they get angry and use language totally inappropriate to address to a Church Lady.

Our priest told us that one parishioner actually fell for this scam and sent money so I'm happy to waste their time.