Risks of giving out real phone number?

Hi,

I just thought it would be funny to play cat and mouse with a 419 scammer from Benin, but I've read that I should never give out any kind of personal information, and that includes my phone number.

I gave my real mobile phone number to the scammer, but the rest I gave him is fake. I even spoke to him a few times (I don't call him, he calls me).

I live in Romania, I use a pay as you go SIM card, but the SIM card is personalized - all my details are in Vodafone's database. There is no phone book nor lookup service that can match my phone to my name and address, and only the Police could get these, with a warrant.

What are the risks if I continue to do this? Is it imperative that I put an end to this and next time I'm in the mood for games, use fully-anonymous services? I'd rather know what I have to fear of before I fear it, instead of making a fobia out of it.

Thanks for the advice.

Welcome to the site. Have you joined our sister site 419eater.com? They have all the tricks and knowledge you will ever need when it comes to scam baiting.

Regarding your question, it is very unlikely that your scammer will even try to look up the details, let alone be able to get hold of them. More likely is that you might answer using your real name which is not a good thought. Even more likely still, is that as you progress at baiting, you will learn how to really annoy and wind up the lads (scammers). The more wound up they are, the more they tend to ring you. Do you want your personal phone being rang every 2 minutes because your lad cant seem to get his money from western union, or can't find your churches headquarters even though he's traveled 300 miles to go there?

I use 1 of 4 pay-as-you-go sims that i got free, after signing up to a site using fake details. You may have to buy one, but it's worth doing if you want to chat with a scammer. You may also want to get an old phone to put it in. Otherwise you have to coordinate with the scammer when to phone. As they are useless and lazy, it rarely works out well.

You can also get a free online voice mail number that costs a lot for them to ring and sends the recording of their message to your email. Of course, you can't talk to them on this, but it's good to give as a land line.

Once again, you should definitely check out 419eater.com. You may want to get a mentor to help steer your baits and make sure you are getting the most out of them. You may also want to read up on some of the stickies and the Eater-U section. All have piles of info that will help you and your baits.

Newdonym

Welcome to the site. Have you joined our sister site 419eater.com? They have all the tricks and knowledge you will ever need when it comes to scam baiting.

Hi,

Actually 419eater.com was the first place I went to. But I never received my activation e-mail, so after a while of waiting I said I should try here too.

Regarding your question, it is very unlikely that your scammer will even try to look up the details, let alone be able to get hold of them. More likely is that you might answer using your real name which is not a good thought. Even more likely still, is that as you progress at baiting, you will learn how to really annoy and wind up the lads (scammers). The more wound up they are, the more they tend to ring you. Do you want your personal phone being rang every 2 minutes because your lad cant seem to get his money from western union, or can't find your churches headquarters even though he's traveled 300 miles to go there?

The note about me answering my phone using my real name is insightful, thanks. But I don't usually say my name when answering the phone. It's either "Yes", "Hello", or something to that effect. And they have to ask me my name (which is usually "Are you Mr. Whoever?" rather than "Can I have your name?"), which means I should stop answering questions for phone market studies, just to be safe. I don't use voicemail on my mobile (It's a dreaded feature here in Romania), so there's no recording saying my name either.

As for my phone ringing every 2 minutes, I have these bonuses from Vodafone, where I get some pocket change for receiving calls (1.25 Euro for every 150 minutes of answered calls). Not really a purpose in life to collect this bonus, but if the scammer wants to give it to me, what the heck, right?

Another thing I'm worrying about is: do they share phone numbers? Do they make revenge calls so I can't sleep at night? Should I worry about this?

I use 1 of 4 pay-as-you-go sims that i got free, after signing up to a site using fake details. You may have to buy one, but it's worth doing if you want to chat with a scammer. You may also want to get an old phone to put it in. Otherwise you have to coordinate with the scammer when to phone. As they are useless and lazy, it rarely works out well.

You can also get a free online voice mail number that costs a lot for them to ring and sends the recording of their message to your email. Of course, you can't talk to them on this, but it's good to give as a land line.

Once again, you should definitely check out 419eater.com. You may want to get a mentor to help steer your baits and make sure you are getting the most out of them. You may also want to read up on some of the stickies and the Eater-U section. All have piles of info that will help you and your baits.

Newdonym

Thanks for the information. I read most of the other suggestions on the Internet before posting, but didn't see an answer about the effective risks of giving out my real phone number.

I'll get back to 419eater.com now and get in touch with an admin to see why my activation email got lost.

Hi and welcome Playfor fun,

I am not sure why you had problems with joining 419eater but whatever the problem is one of the mods should be able to help you, if you have trouble getting through you could also ask one of the mods here, in particular Scam Patroller or Sheboppe both of them can also help you at 419eater.

I am only guessing but perhaps you put your email address in wrong which prevented the activation email from getting to you, whatever it is, I am sure it will be sorted for you.

Happy baiting