Back to baiting after ten years

[Yabadabadoo]

Hello agaIn, Baiters!

It’s many years since I joined Eater, my last big bait being the saga of Mrs Rose and the Rev. Cy Fillis away back in 2011, after which Eater really got going with a link to the banks enabling us to report scammers’ accounts and get them frozen.

My best hits arose from the Autotrader scams of 2016, which gave me four accounts and three websites in one day -- I think I owe B8er for killing the sites within a few hours. I also learned a selection of Romanian curses as the scammers became quite annoyed.

After those great hunting days the baiting seemed to change, with the advent of new methods such as WhatsApp and Instagram which I couldn’t be bothered to learn at my age -- not helped by steadily declining health which I’m lucky to have fixed for another few years. Hopefully.

I’m writing after reading this story on BBC News today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrpedexleno to be followed by a programme on BBC3 at 9pm tonight. It follows the death of a teenager who was targetted by cyberscammers in Lagos. A BBC reporter tracks some of them down in Lagos, confirming what we all knew: the Nigerians believe that all Westerners are rich and can easily afford a few quid for a poor boy.

I was surprised to find that the Lagos Yahooboyz are still very much online, still using email, with some still using juju to make their scams more effective. At the risk of raising my blood pressure (a Bad Thing) I am tempted to conjure up my tame dollar-chopping demon Satan Gomer and have another go at these *******s.

In the meantime my very best wishes to all on 419Eater and may all your baits bring you a rich haul of bank accounts and scam websites. All the best -- Mike.

[Madlib_629]

I wonder why that story is going viral. You're the fourth baiter who's recommended it to me today.

Welcome back to baiting, things are pretty much the same as they always were, except the slang and some of the methods have changed. A lot of scams are phone based now (over text and social media) but there's still AFF lads hanging around. Great to have you back, and by all means conjure up Gomer or whoever, they're very much needed lol

[bware419ers]

Good to see you back at it and glad the health is better. Sextortionists are particularly bad. "Hunting My Sextortion Scammer" is streaming on Channel 4 and YouTube in the UK and I highly recommend watching it. Last night, a 45-minute doc was on CBC in Canada about the problem this is causing. And it's not just Nigerians or West Africans. The scam problem is worse than ever.

[Yabadabadoo]

Watched the programme Blackmailed: the Sextortion Killers on BBC3 last night -- it's the work of a very brave young woman who went onto Lagos Island (We are not safe here, warned her Nigerian companion) and even worse went down dark passageways in that grim shanty town to meet the scam gangs for a spine-chilling interview.

She explained that she had recently met the parents of a 16 yr old who had killed himself because of demands from a scammer -- the gang leader she met said it didn't worry him because he needed the money. She also tried an AI program costing about £2,200 in Nigeria to see how it could put her face onto that of a black girl who was providing the scam character.

Then she was taken to a 'priest's' house where they performed a ceremony to ensure the scammer's success ... no wonder she covered her face when a dove was decapitated in front of her, its blood smeared on the scammer and the floor before it was taken outside, cut up and then brought in again for the scammer to eat the raw bird. This ceremony cost 20,000 naira, about £10.

I know that Eater is not in favour of Facebook postings because they educate the scammers in baiting techniques. This is the opposite and it's worth viewing by everyone on Eater. A brilliant programme now available on BBC Iplayer.

@bware419ers-- you have a pm

[bware419ers]

Sextortion continues to grow. You wouldn't imagine the playbooks passed around on Telegram.

https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Event ... -operation
https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/202 ... S-508C.pdf
https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2025/s ... ke-up-call
https://www.thorn.org/research/library/ ... ng-people/
https://www.wired.com/story/child-sexto ... east-asia/

[CruelGecko]

I too am getting back into scambaiting after a long absence. I never stopped completely but was much more casual about it. In the past, ending about 12 years ago I had bait that I kept going for close to 7 years! I also participated in a couple of group baits with others here. I recently retired and now have more time for this hobby.

I think I disagree somewhat that baiting/scams are the same as they always were. It seems to me that now there are a lot more scams involving bitcoin and also more romance scams. They hardly mention western union and moneygram anymore. There are also a lot more tools to get information about scammers and to mess with them. As I'm sure most of you know there are tools like grabify to get the scammers ip address, location, and sometimes much more.

In the past I was reluctant to use a phone because that can be traced unless you take a lot of precautions. I did have a burner phone for a while but it was too expensive to be worth it to me. Now you can get an app for your phone that gives you an anonymous second number for about $7 per month. I'm thinking about getting that as I get back into this.

I have maintained my persona(s) including a somewhat gullible businessman (who happens to be very rich now since he bout $1000 worth of bitcoin in early 2012) and a no-nonsense lawyer he relies on to keep him from doing stupid things.

Anyway, here's to reviving old hobbies with new and improved tools!