Running Race entry scammers - any mileage in this?

[Crusty]

Not strictly speaking an advance fee fraud per se, but still quite a nasty little scam. To explain:
I am a keen, if not-very-fast, runner these days who enjoys taking part in organised events - think 'London Marathon', that kind of thing. There is a popular social media site aimed at runners, swimmers, cyclists etc, called Strava, which allows like minded individuals to connect with each other. In there, one will find groups set up to cover specific events. All well and good, however in recent times there has been a growing influx of fake accounts trying to sell non-existent race entries to unsuspecting runners who are desperately trying to get a place in whatever race. Most of these 'lads' are plastering the same offer across multiple event groups, so plainly running a scam attempt.
My question is, might there be an opportunity to try and get these individuals to waste their time in a fruitless attempt to scam a baiter, or maybe even cough a bank account or two? Or is this a complete non-starter?

[Punchbox]

Hey, this is right up my alley - I'm a runner myself (15:46 5k if you're curious) and I've used Strava for 2 years now and I've noticed the types of scams on Strava that you see along with a bunch of other ones, like blatantly fake accounts with one activity in Nigeria, accounts with female names and fun pictures, advertisements for their cryptocurrency/investments, possible advance fee scams, etc..

I don't know if these lads are worth baiting though. These guys probably won't contact you/respond to you unless you have a fairly large/real-looking account with a lot of followers, activities, posts, etc. and it's pretty hard to create that without revealing your real identity, which is something you obviously don't want angry scammers to have.

It's a bit of a shame that Strava's mod team hasn't done anything to combat these types of scams, but considering how awful the mod team there is it's no surprise.

[Crusty]

Wow, that's a great time for a 5k - leaves my 24:48 5k PB in the dust!
I've noticed that since I've been IRL calling them out on their no-activity / WhatsApp BS, several of them have resorted to claiming 'their sister' is looking to offload the entry - even more encouraging is that some of them are offering email contact!
I had it in mind to try and play them at their own game, by requesting to buy the entry on behalf of my character's elderly technophobe father 'Lenny' (see where this might be heading? )
Definitely will not be using my actual Strava account for this, I well remember the 'bait safe' mantra from back in the day - I have a dummy account all ready to go, just wanted to get a feel for the viability of getting things like bank account numbers from them

[Crusty]

I'm going to give this a try - I've had an immediate response (4 emails in quick succession!) to my character's initial tentative inquiry!

[bware419ers]

^^^Please make sure you bait safe!

[Crusty]

Absolutely, completely fictional email has been set up for this - oddly enough Google got really tetchy about it and suspended it almost immediately, but I appealed using another fictional email from way back, and got the new account reinstated after a few hours. Bizarre!

[Crusty]

The lad is obviously very keen to close out a deal judging by the speed of his replies to all my character's daft questions (one per email, of course!). He hasn't sent any payment details yet other than the expected 'fee' of €20, but I am wondering now what I would realistically supply as evidence of a scam to a mod in order to close the account down?

[Kitty La Gore]

If you're interested in reporting a bank site or payment method, please be sure the original scam post and user name of scammer (plus platform) is posted at our sister site, scamwarners dot com, which will help warn other potential victims if they do the googles, and then message a mod with the following:

Link to post at SW dot com showing the original scam post and user name
Bank Name
Bank Address
Account Holder Name
Account Holder Address
Account Number
Some designator of the branch/bank (Swift/Sort/Routing numbers, etc)
OR
payment app name, recipient user name, any other information that can be used to identify the account.

[Crusty]

Just sent some details to bertje, for another scammer I managed to connect with - hopefully enough to go on!

[Crusty]

Just managed to squeeze another bank account out of my lad, I have passed this one on to Bertje. However, the first one hasn't been read yet. Should I be sending these to someone else, please?

[Crusty]

The lad is obviously getting desperate now, he's fired a Revolut name and a 16-digit card number at my character! I'm not sure if a card number and a name is enough for reporting purposes, can anyone enlighten me?

Cheers,

[bware419ers]

That would not be valid. It should have a 20 Digit IBAN, if it's located in Europe. You can simply tell him your bank said this is the wrong number of digits.

[Crusty]

Had a bit of a moan about that, so he's now coughed for a third, completely different account - It's like he actually wants to go out of business!

[Crusty]

We're now at the stage of him asking for 'Steam Card' payment! I guess he's run out of bank accounts to call on. He's even sending me a link to go and buy it! Not sure how to progress it now, never gotten this far with a lad!

[Madlib_629]

Ignore it. Steam Card? What the heck is a Steam Card? You don't like cards, you're used to paper money, transfers and whatnot. What does the lad think this is? A Monopoly money trading deal??

Then push for you preferred method of payment. Maybe even claim the lad is wasting your time or suggest that this other guy has a better deal and he's happy to take X method of transfer - so the heck's your problem??

Really, your options are infinite

[Crusty]

Nice one, I gave him some grief about cards and stuff, and he has duly coughed a 4th account! Thanks!

[Crusty]

And now I have a first account detail from another Strava lad - I think I should refer to these as 'Strads' now!

[Crusty]

Managed to get yet another set of bank details out of Strava lad 1, having delivered a fake 'payment success' which he tried to claim I didn't execute properly because I didn't put the correct reference code in the instructions. Oops. So, after several expletive-laden tirades from my character, he has now coughed up for a fifth time!

[Kitty La Gore]

Well done!!

[Crusty]

Noticing that he had supplied new account details for the same crappy bank as the one I had the 'trouble' with, I launched another tirade at him this morning - result! I now have a 6th set of details, which I have sent on to Bware419ers per his instructions!

It's almost painful to watch... almost!

Cheers

[bware419ers]

It's only painful the first time.

[Punchbox]

Seems this has been fruitful for you. Maybe I should try this out!

[Crusty]

Definitely recommend, although you'll obviously need a fake Strava account. But what I found was, I can manually create activities enough to fool lads who may wish to connect with my character in order to sound me out.
I'm pondering how to go after the WhatsApp scammers, but in the meantime I'm playing the email-only technophobe to reasonable effect. If you do, let me know the Strava name to look out for! Could prove interesting!

[Crusty]

Having decided that this lad has run his course with me, I just quietly dropped him with the news that my character was dealing with a family crisis.
Several SW reports later, I decided that, rather than chase them round the groups I would invite them to come to me instead. So I had my Strava user (with name changed from the first bait) post a suitably inert request for a bib on one group, then sat back. The first bite on Sunday morning got deleted whilst I was out running, ironically, but a second arrived later that afternoon, with the usual WhatsApp BS. I managed to get an email out of the lad by reply, so we are now on with him. Interesting, lad 1 also weighed in last night with the same email that I'd been interacting with for the past couple of weeks, so I may invent another character and have another go at him.
Then this morning, yet another lad has added his (presumably new) Telegram username for contact! So, looks like I have indeed set up a honey trap for Strava Lads, happy days!

Smellin' me some pork, boss!

[Crusty]

Another set of bank details snagged and reported!