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If every scammer were slowly inserted feet first into a blender operated by Alfred E Neuman and filled with bullet ants it would be too good for them. But the best we can do is waste their time. Scammers have devised automated scripts designed to separate the naive out for special attention. Why not
do the same for the other side of the coin, and get even more sophisticated about it?
This program would respond to recognized elements in scammer scripts with questions designed to get the scammer off script. When an email is received that isn't in the archives of prepared scripts it would alert a human scambaiter. For example "Please fill in this form to get your million pounds" is obviously sent by a bot or at best copypasted. "I need you to fill out the form which Reverand Pickles sent you earlier" is probably something typed by a human.
As the algorithm gets better it may be possible to automate large parts of scambaiting, allowing one baiter (a master, if you will) to waste the time of a dozen scammers.
Advance_20fee_20fraud_20(419)_20reply-bot
[hippo, May 13 2021]
Jazz Emu: My Brothe
https://www.youtube...watch?v=dmss2dJ__cI An email funk opera. [zen_tom, May 13 2021]
Spying on scammers
https://youtu.be/le71yVPh4uk Jim Browning is a legend. [RayfordSteele, May 13 2021]
AI Powered Bot Makes Scammers Angry
https://www.youtube...watch?v=Hx5R0Vnp6w4 [Voice, Mar 30 2022]
[link]
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I like it but if the AI became good enough to fool
scammers then presumably it would also be good
enough to disrupt many administrative jobs. In this
case I think the best approach might be to define
scammers as "terrorists" and send in the special forces
to shut it down. |
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I stopped answering unknown numbers a long time
ago, but my go-to if I get a telemarketing call is to
explain that their service is not expensive enough.
Quality isn't cheap, so if a business is offering
something for "free" or cheap then it's obvious that the
business doesn't care enough about me or about its
own employees to offer me an expensive service. |
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Interesting to note this could be said to be mankind's
first battle with robots programmed to hurt us. They
aren't self aware, conscious and determined to
destroy all humans, but they are automated systems
designed to hurt us. |
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I'm very into thinking about new ways to attack this
problem. [+] |
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^They are not all robots! I answered one that
continue to call because I was in a mood. I tried
messing around with the guy when he said, which
charge card do you want me to lower the interest
on? after he figured out I was just goofing on him
he actually said, suck my dick in a very heavy
accent! I was absolutely astounded! Take this bun
and put it where the sun never shines on these
people.+ |
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I mentioned this before, my best comeback when a
"human" caller, (using the term
human loosely) told my computer had been hacked was to
ask a bunch of dumb questions then say "Oh, are
computers those things that look like TVs that you can
send mail on and play games and such? Can you help me
buy one of those?" The person paused for a second and
said... "Uhh, yes." then waited patiently while I rambled
on about how excited I was to finally get "One of them
newfangled computy thangs". |
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I try to have fun with these asshole scumbags by wasting
as much of their time as possible. |
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Watch Jim Browning sometime. He hacks into their
scam center's video cameras and totally freaks them
out. |
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//I try to have fun with these asshole scumbags by wasting as much of
their time as possible.// |
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I think everyone should. It's kind of a population's immune system
against scams. |
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I like the idea of making up my own (conceptual) operating system,
full of little technical terms designed for maximum confusion.
Everyone could have their own - you'd need to start off by building a
communal list of terms and phrases the scammers use, then everyone
could go off and roll their own responses. |
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A funny story... my dad was in his late 80s and
having some memory loss. If one of the scammers
happen to talk to him and ask for his insurance
card he told him to hold on while he went to get
it. The funny part is he forgot he was on the phone
and never went back to it! I can imagine they
would only wait for a while but he was certainly
lucky he didnt give them his insurance number. |
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I think I've suggested making a recording of an old person saying "Hold on, let me go get my credit card and social security number..." that's followed by half an hour or so of noises of somebody rustling through boxes, opening and closing drawers, cabinet doors creaking open and shutting all the while the person (in an over the top old person voice) saying "It's here someplace, is that it? No, that's the cat. Hold on, oh here it... no that's a fork. Ah ha my credit card. Wait, that's a baseball card." Then have them read a series of numbers that are presumably the card, "1, 8, 3, 5, 5, 9, 7.... wait, let me start again... 1, 9, 3, 7, oh I'm sorry, that's a 9 not a 7." etc etc etc. but try to keep them on the line with the occasional "You know I've got a ten thousand dollar limit on this card and all I've bought on it is some cat food so this should work." |
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<imagines 9>A slippery portal into a endless SIM module</9> |
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But wouldn't this make the scammers evolve therefore
catching even more people out? Better to keep the
scammers dumb so minimal viability is achieved. |
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Boy, the guy in the link is WAAAAYY overthinking
this as witnessed by his having to step in and take
over the ruse manually. |
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A simple recording of a faux victim would probably
work just
fine. The pauses and gaps that would result in a
person talking to a recording could be explained by
the elderly person character being confused and
the language difference, but none of that would
matter if the recording got right to the point and
said "That sounds good, let me get my credit card."
then proceeded to fumble around with it for as
long as the scammer could be expected to wait as
the character in the recording misread the
numbers,
accidentally read the back of their cat's medicine
bottle, read the barcode from a Christmas card
etc. |
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You could also have it play automatically by setting
up your phone with a fake phone menu. "To speak
with doctorremulac3, press 1 (which would go to
the fake old person recording) to leave a message
press 2, if you've reached this message in error,
press 3 to be disconnected (which would actually
connect the caller who's been previously told to
press 3) |
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