why scam baiting?

I am a danish journalists working for the danish paper Berlingske Tidende

I am doing an article about scammers and scam-baiters and have some questions about the subjects
First of all i can someone tell me how big the phenomenons scamming and scam-baiting really is?
How is the trafic on this page, and are there other pages with similar subjects?
Why do so many people use so much time on scam-baiting?
What is the purpose?
Is it because people fell they are doing other people a favour, or just for the fun of it?
How does scam-baiters protect themself
-How do you fell about a statement from an Interpol crime intelligence officer critisising scam- baiting saying "they are fraudsters and they are not good people but they have their human rights"?
- i realize i can get a lot of the information on the webpage, but want to put some quotes on it to make the story more reliable

If it is possible i would like to hear some examples fraudsters who were scambaited. What exactly happened etc...


best wishes

gregers lohse
journalist

Welcome Gregers. An excellent (and perhaps best) source of scambaiting information can be found at http://www.419eater.com. You will find loads of people to speak with and many, many examples of the good work scambaiters perform.

Hello gregers

As ColinWarrins mentions above, at www.419eater.com you would have more & better contact with individuals actively involved in scam-baiting. In addition, I expect that there are members there that are familar with or use your native language which might make communication somewhat more easier for you (and even possibly they might be located in your country). Also, they do have several members that seem to love to talk. and many other resources available.

I think this site here ( www.scamwarners.com ) is more targeted at helping victims understand the hows and whys of the scams and to provide some emotional help/support rather than doing any scam-baiting. Although some of the members work within both areas.

I'm glad to see that you are seeking input in this manner, rather than just re-using other published comments.

Again, Hello and welcome to (some) different points of view.
justjay

Gregers, welcome to the site. Justjay and Colin have given you exactly the answer I would have done had I seen your post first. Please direct your request to one of the administrators or moderators at http://forum.419Eater.com/forum - they will be the ones sporting red or green names on the list of people online at the bottom of the page, and they will be best placed to give you the information you need.

We are primarily a victim information site, and nobody baits from here, although, since we are Eater's sister site, there is a large crossover in membership. We would be happy to discuss victim support if you wish, of course. If you are interested in that aspect, please email me at [email protected] and I shall be happy to assist.

From a personal point of view scambaiting started off for me as a fun hobby.

Very shortly after starting I saw the enormous extent of scamming and the ease with which victims were caught up in the web of lies and deceit. I read stories of the devastation it caused in some peoples lives and so scambaiting turned from being a fun thing to do into being a far more serious attempt at trying to help fight internet crime.

Scambaiting should not be seen as just trying to get the scammers to do silly things with fishes and loaves of bread. Many of us now only scambait to get the scammers to give us their fake websites and bank details so that we can get those closed. For a more detailed view of these activities take a look at www.aa419.org.

I also think it is important to know that scambaiters are not just computer geeks with nothing better to do. You will find that we are lawyers, accountants (here I must put up my hand), law enforcement officers and many other professionals.

Sure, we have fun but we also do some very hard work in trying to keep the internet a little safer for those less informed.

Welcome gregers.
As others who replied, your best sources for information will be found at http://www.419eater.com and http://www.aa419.org

My response on why to scambait - anything that hinders the criminal(scammer) efforts from actually communicating with a real victim is a from of success. Scambaiting is done in an anonymous way - for a real example - here you do not see me using my real name, location and so forth. A search on my userID of "Blue tiger" will reveal nothing except for on the above mentioned sites. I do not use this name anywhere else. With scambaiting I do something similar; use a realistic appearing persons name from a dedicate email address which is NOT my own personal one that I use for communicating with family and friends.

Hope that helps your understanding a little bit from one persons perspective.

You can add electricians, plumbers, postmen, retired or disabled people and just about every other trade and profession imaginable to the list of real-life jobs scambaiters have.

Welcome.