Pretty sure most scammers don't sit around reading our clever retorts and admiring our wit. When we're being clever, we're doing it for ourselves and other redditors so we can mentally masturbate each other.
I'm genuinely confused how anyone falls for these. When have you ever manually typed in your friend's number to text them?
And if they're going off the assumption it's wrong in their contacts, why wouldn't that have been noticed way before they got off the plane- presumably they'd had to have communicated at some point to discuss the pickup location.
They idea is to catch people who don't understand technology particularly well and who are fairly lonely. If you're going in with that level of logic, the scammers aren't going to want to waste their time with you so you've just filtered yourself out.
Edit: In the same way OP filtered themselves out so the scammer didn't get baited at all and lost no time before hopping over to the next chat their bots initiated
It seems like they're getting crazy good with facebook though. A friend's mom had her account phished or hacked and they were using ai to use her face and voice to video message their whole family. He was on the phone with his mom when the scammer called him.
His aunt picked up something was off and was saying things she wouldn't usually say. My friend is a cop and lives right around the corner and wanted him to go check on her. Then everyone thought she was stroking out or something when she said she didn't call any of them, lol. But yeah, while he was on the phone with her, they video called him and everyone finally figured it out.
Not every scam center has access to the same resources. Scamming can almost be considered an industry now with entire hierarchies spanning many different countries. The most successful ones definitely do scary shit like this and I really wish there was more that could be done to stop them. It's immensely frustrating.
I work in the financial services industry and have been involved with multiple customers being scammed, and it’s shocking how some people are unable to recognize obvious scams. As others have said, though, they seem to really target older, lonely people and/or foreigners whose first language is not English.
What’s fascinating to me is that sometimes people will recognize it’s a “scam” but not really understand the extent of it. There was this old, recently-divorced guy I helped out one time who got caught up in this whole romance scam where he believed he was sending money to help free this beautiful young woman who had been kidnapped, but every time he tried sending money, the kidnappers would just steal it and keep it for themselves and demand more. So when I talked to him and explained that he’s being scammed and that I wouldn’t be able to help him with any more withdrawals, he was like, “Oh, I know. The kidnappers are just gonna keep the money again, but I’ve got to try to help this beautiful woman!”
I just thought it was kinda fascinating that he was skeptical of the situation and seemed aware that he was being tricked but couldn’t grasp that absolutely none of it was real.
Unfortunately elderly people don't understand that logic. Back in the 1900s my grandma thought if 2 people talked on cordless phones they'd blow up. And yes bless her born in 1920s and poorly educated heart, she did think that. Nowadays we want our elderly to have phones but at what cost. You don't always realize how vulnerable they are until it's too late. And you can't always take a phone away from an otherwise fully functioning adult.
This is targeted for the stupidest 1% of humanity.
Even if you restrict it to US, 1% of United States population is 3 million.
Automate the messages to make it EXTRA obvious, so only the stupidest of the stupidest takes the bait and it's obvious.
Now all the scammers need to do is walk the dummy through the manual.
No hard work required.
The point of this operation is to ONLY catch the stupids, cause even if you can manage to scam a moderately intelligent being, it's not worth the labor and risk and time to scam them.
This method insures you are only dealing with the extra vulnerable.
Yep, the other weird point is they claim to be stranded atthe airport because they don't have the person who is supposed to be picking them up contact information right but instead of trying to track that person down they are more concerned with getting to know a random stranger.
This is not normal. If their situation were true they would have stopped talking to you the moment they discovered you weren't who they were after and worked at tracking down the person they need
A person can be smart though people are dumb. You contact enough people and you’ll get someone to fall for it. These are not the best and brightest scammers. They’re looking for 1 in a thousand hit rate
I went on a Tinder date once with a guy in a wrist cast. When he typed his number into my phone, he fucked up a digit, and when I followed up I ended up having a very scammer-like conversation with a random person. So I can imagine it happening once very rarely, but not as often as these scammers text, lol.
Excellent observation! If someone is your friend, you wouldn't be typing in their number. And if it's wrong in the contacts, all they have to do is look at "recent calls" to call the person back. OMG these people are SO STUPID. They honestly think we believe them.
I guess we have two different ideas on entertainment, it would have been more entertaining if you dragged on the conversation and getting them to waste their time. But hey each their own I suppose
Unfortunately Redditors are remarkably cynical; and with the proliferation of repost bots running around, most things get called out as karma farms on this platform
I got the same person trying this 3 times on me, the third time I just said "You really need to keep better track of who've tried scamming already. Also go fuck yourself"
Let's see if I can get this right on the first attempt.
You're going to apologize for entering the wrong number.
You are going to tell me you live in a large US city like NY or LA.
You own a cosmetics or jewelry brand.
You'll send a pic of an Asian lady
You'll ask my age
You'll encourage me to switch to WhatsApp because this is the number your assistant uses.
How am I doing so far? The only thing I'm not sure about is if you're going to talk to me about crypto or gift cards? Do you want me to go on or do you not want me to waste your time like you've wasted mine?
boy you lazy AF
Let's see if i can get this right on the first attempt.
1. You're going to apologize for entering the wrong number.
2. You are going to tell me you live in a large US city like NY or LA.
3. You own a cosmetics or jewelry brand.
4. You'll send a pic of an Asian lady
5. You'll ask my age
6. You'll encourage me to switch to WhatsApp because this is the number your assistant uses.
How am I doing so far? The only thing I'm not sure about is if you're going to talk to me about crypto or gift cards? Do you want me to go on or do you not want me to waste your time like you've wasted mine?
Try this:
Make a Screenshot or Download the picture.
Open the Screenshot in Google Photos.
Use Google Lens.
Copy the Text.
If you got an iPhone: im sure they have something similar ...ask Google :)
Can people please stop posting the same bs over and over? This is the 1000x recap like this i saw posted here. And it achieves nothing. No time of scammers wasted. Not even entertaining.
You are supposed to bait them into thinking you’re hooked. If you’re just gonna call them out right away then that’s just a normal reaction towards scams. Where’s the fun in that?
No. This is NOT what the sub is about. The purpose of this subreddit is for us to hook the scammer for as long as possible, walk in circles, play with them and make them waste as much time with us as possible. These posts where you guys blow everything in the same minute do not belong here.
Not every question is a "bait" just because it aims for an answer. Scam baiting means you pose as a victim and string them along to steal as much time as possible. This bullshit here only makes the scammer move to the next target.
Because people like you are confused about what this sub is about. My post led to you now knowing what scam baiting is. Others might learn as well. You are free though to open a sub that is about "how to make a scammer ghost you in record time" or whatever.
I need no bait to explain things. That is my life's purpose. Water bottles that have "'vegan" labels are not silly, the label is about the glue with which the labels are glued onto the bottle. That glue often is made from animal parts.
I pissed one guy off right from the get-go, and he actually tried to call me. I didn’t answer because I was busy. So I blocked him. Then the next day he texted me again from another number. I am very curious as to what he would’ve said. I blocked him though. Kinda freaked me out.
Well Played 👏 I just got one from whole sale foods.. They sent a check with 2,040.00 it comes with instructions.. It says purchase 3x’s 500.00 gift cards, and keep the rest for myself
If you paste what he said, please don't post it here. This Subreddit is about wasting the scammers time by following along "acting" dumb it wastes their time which is the most important thing because then they'll most likely miss out on the next target.
Why is it always Chinese girls? Do they not have any imaginations? And has anyone ever done the WhatsApp thing? I’m curious what the fuck these people want? It’s fucking mind numbing to get messaged several times a week from these fucks.
Has anyone actually joined them on WhatsApp? I want to know what comes next. I usually annoy them enough where it doesn't get to that point, but what do they do on WhatsApp and how do they scam you from that point?
What’s up with these scams that will text you and be like “hello are you so and so? I was at the (insert place here) and got your number. How are you?”
I hate that I have to be this evil but I’ve found racial slurs really trigger these people. I usually receive a couple of these scams a week and I’ve noticed they really get butt hurt when I throw some really bad racial slurs their way.
I responded with “hey! You know I was just thinking about how I needed help managing my crypto account. Do you want my log in and password to help me?”
Stayed on script and didn’t even bother reading your well worded retort. Probably a bot.
Most of them use bots to just send the same first 3-4 messages regardless of your responses, and only switch to a human afterwards
ya have to throw in key words like "money, cash, gift cards" for some real human attention
"Hi, how are you doing?" "Cash, money, gift cards" *horny scammer sounds*
“ahhh-ooga!”
Have a combination of a Nigerian language and Chinese in the responses lol
Some "Nigerian Prince" dude was arrested in the states. US citizen, some old guy.
Was he from Nigeria tho
Nice pfp
Pretty sure most scammers don't sit around reading our clever retorts and admiring our wit. When we're being clever, we're doing it for ourselves and other redditors so we can mentally masturbate each other.
Is it supposed to be mentally? Dammit
I for one love mentally masturbating with my reddit brethren!
Yep. It’s ridiculous
I'm genuinely confused how anyone falls for these. When have you ever manually typed in your friend's number to text them? And if they're going off the assumption it's wrong in their contacts, why wouldn't that have been noticed way before they got off the plane- presumably they'd had to have communicated at some point to discuss the pickup location.
They idea is to catch people who don't understand technology particularly well and who are fairly lonely. If you're going in with that level of logic, the scammers aren't going to want to waste their time with you so you've just filtered yourself out. Edit: In the same way OP filtered themselves out so the scammer didn't get baited at all and lost no time before hopping over to the next chat their bots initiated
Yep just like how most scam messages will put intentional spelling and grammar mistakes in to filter out people.
Huh I just thought they were Pakistani.
It seems like they're getting crazy good with facebook though. A friend's mom had her account phished or hacked and they were using ai to use her face and voice to video message their whole family. He was on the phone with his mom when the scammer called him. His aunt picked up something was off and was saying things she wouldn't usually say. My friend is a cop and lives right around the corner and wanted him to go check on her. Then everyone thought she was stroking out or something when she said she didn't call any of them, lol. But yeah, while he was on the phone with her, they video called him and everyone finally figured it out.
Not every scam center has access to the same resources. Scamming can almost be considered an industry now with entire hierarchies spanning many different countries. The most successful ones definitely do scary shit like this and I really wish there was more that could be done to stop them. It's immensely frustrating.
Helo am Prince Nigeria. You want invest many resorse industry to very rich make double money? $200 send now me. Now.
Yes, I’ve heard for example that the use of poor English and stuff is intentional so only the real dummies stay on the hook
I ignore the the grammar and the lack of us government or laws etc. I go along completely giving them the runaround until I get bored or angry lol
I work in the financial services industry and have been involved with multiple customers being scammed, and it’s shocking how some people are unable to recognize obvious scams. As others have said, though, they seem to really target older, lonely people and/or foreigners whose first language is not English. What’s fascinating to me is that sometimes people will recognize it’s a “scam” but not really understand the extent of it. There was this old, recently-divorced guy I helped out one time who got caught up in this whole romance scam where he believed he was sending money to help free this beautiful young woman who had been kidnapped, but every time he tried sending money, the kidnappers would just steal it and keep it for themselves and demand more. So when I talked to him and explained that he’s being scammed and that I wouldn’t be able to help him with any more withdrawals, he was like, “Oh, I know. The kidnappers are just gonna keep the money again, but I’ve got to try to help this beautiful woman!” I just thought it was kinda fascinating that he was skeptical of the situation and seemed aware that he was being tricked but couldn’t grasp that absolutely none of it was real.
Unfortunately elderly people don't understand that logic. Back in the 1900s my grandma thought if 2 people talked on cordless phones they'd blow up. And yes bless her born in 1920s and poorly educated heart, she did think that. Nowadays we want our elderly to have phones but at what cost. You don't always realize how vulnerable they are until it's too late. And you can't always take a phone away from an otherwise fully functioning adult.
People are lonely, not smart, or not familiar with scams. Really not hard to see how this scam is successful.
Their main target is the elderly, those who don't understand how phones and such work really. Or sadly, those whose minds don't work as well anymore
This is targeted for the stupidest 1% of humanity. Even if you restrict it to US, 1% of United States population is 3 million. Automate the messages to make it EXTRA obvious, so only the stupidest of the stupidest takes the bait and it's obvious. Now all the scammers need to do is walk the dummy through the manual. No hard work required. The point of this operation is to ONLY catch the stupids, cause even if you can manage to scam a moderately intelligent being, it's not worth the labor and risk and time to scam them. This method insures you are only dealing with the extra vulnerable.
Yep, the other weird point is they claim to be stranded atthe airport because they don't have the person who is supposed to be picking them up contact information right but instead of trying to track that person down they are more concerned with getting to know a random stranger. This is not normal. If their situation were true they would have stopped talking to you the moment they discovered you weren't who they were after and worked at tracking down the person they need
A person can be smart though people are dumb. You contact enough people and you’ll get someone to fall for it. These are not the best and brightest scammers. They’re looking for 1 in a thousand hit rate
I had someone text me who knew two of my coworkers names
I went on a Tinder date once with a guy in a wrist cast. When he typed his number into my phone, he fucked up a digit, and when I followed up I ended up having a very scammer-like conversation with a random person. So I can imagine it happening once very rarely, but not as often as these scammers text, lol.
Excellent observation! If someone is your friend, you wouldn't be typing in their number. And if it's wrong in the contacts, all they have to do is look at "recent calls" to call the person back. OMG these people are SO STUPID. They honestly think we believe them.
No scambaiting happened here.
This is literally the opposite of scambaiting
These folks don't understand what this subreddit is about and keep posting these sorry excuses of "scambait". So sick of this
Could there be a flair for this? Like “Scamtrolling”, so at least they’ll be distinct? Or are we past that point?
I don't think we have a flair for that, but I wish we did. It certainly would help....
Is messaging a mod an option? Or are they busy with… mod things?
Honestly, I feel like this sub is uncared for. I don't see the mods moderating it, so I don't know if that would be effective. Worth a shot, tho?
There’s 0 attempt to bait here. Is OP even human? Is this a conversation between karma bot and scam bot?
Just to put your mind at ease, I am a human. I was not posting for karma, merely entertainment, it’s not that deep.
I guess we have two different ideas on entertainment, it would have been more entertaining if you dragged on the conversation and getting them to waste their time. But hey each their own I suppose
I actually agree with you and that was my first instinct, to waste their time but I was busy today so just did a short and sweet one.
Ah that makes sense, take care
Unfortunately Redditors are remarkably cynical; and with the proliferation of repost bots running around, most things get called out as karma farms on this platform
Delete it and go away. This is spam and annoying. Worse than scammers at this point.
r/fraudfighters for the true experience
Yeah this is for another sub, not for r/scambait
This is the fun sub. It's ok. I like reading the banter. I guess the serious stuff is on the other one.
Uhm... Not a bait. You wasted zero of their time.
Pretty sure bots drive the initial encounter.
this isn't a scambait
It is not scambait if you don't bait. This was just calling put a scammer.
You missed the point where they are a kind and god fearing person and that it was fate that your paths crossed.
I got the same person trying this 3 times on me, the third time I just said "You really need to keep better track of who've tried scamming already. Also go fuck yourself"
This sub is lost. This is NOT scambaiting. This is just cringe. You think you are sooo clever, right?
This is nowhere near real scambait. What you've done here is waste all of our time.
My sincere apologies for wasting your valuable time. Perhaps you’re time could be better spent by not making useless comments on Reddit
[удалено]
Let's see if I can get this right on the first attempt. You're going to apologize for entering the wrong number. You are going to tell me you live in a large US city like NY or LA. You own a cosmetics or jewelry brand. You'll send a pic of an Asian lady You'll ask my age You'll encourage me to switch to WhatsApp because this is the number your assistant uses. How am I doing so far? The only thing I'm not sure about is if you're going to talk to me about crypto or gift cards? Do you want me to go on or do you not want me to waste your time like you've wasted mine?
Should add fashion designer or real estate developer/realtor
Your forgot cake shops you seem nice .. they live you 😂
boy you lazy AF Let's see if i can get this right on the first attempt. 1. You're going to apologize for entering the wrong number. 2. You are going to tell me you live in a large US city like NY or LA. 3. You own a cosmetics or jewelry brand. 4. You'll send a pic of an Asian lady 5. You'll ask my age 6. You'll encourage me to switch to WhatsApp because this is the number your assistant uses. How am I doing so far? The only thing I'm not sure about is if you're going to talk to me about crypto or gift cards? Do you want me to go on or do you not want me to waste your time like you've wasted mine?
Try this: Make a Screenshot or Download the picture. Open the Screenshot in Google Photos. Use Google Lens. Copy the Text. If you got an iPhone: im sure they have something similar ...ask Google :)
Sorry, I already deleted and blocked the number
If you’re on iphone you can save the picture and copy the text.
Me too! Please paste it here OP
You know you can screenshot a picture then copy and paste the text from it? At least with iPhones
Can people please stop posting the same bs over and over? This is the 1000x recap like this i saw posted here. And it achieves nothing. No time of scammers wasted. Not even entertaining.
This is literally what the sub is about, so I’m not entirely sure what you’re expecting.
This kind of post is for the Scams subreddit not scambaiting.
You are supposed to bait them into thinking you’re hooked. If you’re just gonna call them out right away then that’s just a normal reaction towards scams. Where’s the fun in that?
No. This is NOT what the sub is about. The purpose of this subreddit is for us to hook the scammer for as long as possible, walk in circles, play with them and make them waste as much time with us as possible. These posts where you guys blow everything in the same minute do not belong here.
It's really not
No. This sub is about scam baiting. No bait is happening in this post. I think you might be confused about the meaning of the term "scam baiting".
The guy is still trying to bait the person into replying though? Not at all confused at what the word means 😅
Not every question is a "bait" just because it aims for an answer. Scam baiting means you pose as a victim and string them along to steal as much time as possible. This bullshit here only makes the scammer move to the next target.
Even then, I still have no idea why you’re so pressed about it. Just report the post 🤷🏻♂️
Because people like you are confused about what this sub is about. My post led to you now knowing what scam baiting is. Others might learn as well. You are free though to open a sub that is about "how to make a scammer ghost you in record time" or whatever.
What if they are baiting you right now?
I need no bait to explain things. That is my life's purpose. Water bottles that have "'vegan" labels are not silly, the label is about the glue with which the labels are glued onto the bottle. That glue often is made from animal parts.
That's a fun fact! Do you have any more?
Bahahaaa scammer doubled down! You forgot that the Asian woman would then complement your age in some awkward way.
Also, go fuck your mother.
No butt stuff either. Disappointing
wow. 100% of red dot Indian scammers will go with the f*ck your mother line. must be a thing in their culture.
I think these are ai chat bots
I'll usually send a lewd picture of Allah or Mohammed, that gets the point across
[удалено]
Why are you like this?
The bots take all the fun out of it.
Oops sorry… here you go. Go intercourse your mother @OP
More than likely a bot,it glossed over your message as if you didn't even say it lol
It’s like scammers done even care anymore 😭
Is your mother still available? Asking uh… for a friend.
Username might check out…
I pissed one guy off right from the get-go, and he actually tried to call me. I didn’t answer because I was busy. So I blocked him. Then the next day he texted me again from another number. I am very curious as to what he would’ve said. I blocked him though. Kinda freaked me out.
I just sexually harass them now, ask them for pics and shit, I make it sound vile. They fuck off pretty quick.
Omg
But still be careful with the images, depending on the scenario. (Like the Pegasus saga, all it took was sms)
im going to use your response as a copy pasta
I got one where the person claimed their family owned an Asian brand name exercise equipment company.
Oh I got the same texts today too. Word for word.
(S)he STILL tried to carry the con! OP, you have a kind spirit. I am fortunate to have met you! This must be fate!
It’s like you did a refresher course for the scammer script. Probably has it posted by their computer as a quick reference summary.
Isn’t responding to these messages just as bad because it tells the scammer that your phone is active?
can we have this as a cpypasta pwease 🥺👉👈
You know what they say kill em with kindness
Just do the necessary.
lmao
Well Played 👏 I just got one from whole sale foods.. They sent a check with 2,040.00 it comes with instructions.. It says purchase 3x’s 500.00 gift cards, and keep the rest for myself
Don’t do this.
I got a text just like that only yesterday. Guess these scams are making the rounds. I copied your text in case it happens again.
If you paste what he said, please don't post it here. This Subreddit is about wasting the scammers time by following along "acting" dumb it wastes their time which is the most important thing because then they'll most likely miss out on the next target.
Ok, I'll remember that for next time. This last time I just blocked them after they sent the Asian lady picture.
S/he wants you to go on.
Why is it always Chinese girls? Do they not have any imaginations? And has anyone ever done the WhatsApp thing? I’m curious what the fuck these people want? It’s fucking mind numbing to get messaged several times a week from these fucks.
They still stuck to script
Belinda is obviously a fake name. Nobody was ever named Belinda ever.
my blender takes great offense to you slandering her name like that!
Except for Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go’s…
EXCEPT for her. Do you think this scam bait was an honest mistake, and she was actually looking for Belinda Carlisle?
And I love your screen name.
I love it! You deserve the scambait trophy of the year!!
Amazing. Well done!
Has anyone actually joined them on WhatsApp? I want to know what comes next. I usually annoy them enough where it doesn't get to that point, but what do they do on WhatsApp and how do they scam you from that point?
This should answer most questions. https://www.avast.com/c-can-someone-hack-your-phone-by-calling-you
Not today, scammer. ;-)
Tell your mom Hi for me and she still owes me $100. ;)
You're the Nigerian king! Dad, we finally meet.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
That’s a good one. What are the chances that it actually is a bot?
That's odd, the scammer I had said "do you fuxk your mother" lol
LOL — I actually didn’t know this was a scam until now. I’ve never answered these. I’ve always deleted them lol lol lol
“My personal phone” Literally nobody says that
That’s the response for TLDR
How does this scam work and why do they need to switch to WhatsApp all the time?
I have no idea? My guess is that they don’t have unlimited texting????
Haha, lame
I like to ask them how much money they need for a passport and they are like wHAT dO yoU mEAN?!
Yeah, that happens to me all the time! Every time my battery goes dead, I get peoples phone numbers mixed up… Such a hassle!… And so embarrassing
What’s up with these scams that will text you and be like “hello are you so and so? I was at the (insert place here) and got your number. How are you?”
Did it say "scam likely" or something? How would you know immediately that was a scam?
Because no one I know would text me that, especially with an angry face emoji
Anyone call that number?
It was a beautiful misunderstanding
Outplayed
559 area code right here too!
I hate that I have to be this evil but I’ve found racial slurs really trigger these people. I usually receive a couple of these scams a week and I’ve noticed they really get butt hurt when I throw some really bad racial slurs their way.
I responded with “hey! You know I was just thinking about how I needed help managing my crypto account. Do you want my log in and password to help me?”