6 ms·

Scam baiter: Why I risk death threats to expose online cons

114 points by uladzislau 9y ago

ggambetta 9y ago
> Wayne May (not his real name) Don't want to use his real name, probably for his safety considering it mentions death threats, but half a page later there's a super clear picture of him?!?
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  Unless he's a celebrity it's much harder to find someone from a picture than it is from a name
  - macintux 9y ago
    That probably won’t be true within the span of time he’ll be active. Surely Facebook or Google will offer some mechanism for face recognition.
    - bro-kaizen 9y ago
      You can probably just use Google's reverse image search and then look at the "related images" pane on the right.
      - dvanduzer 9y ago
        I thought the article title was pretty silly; as a gregarious human, risking death threats is something I do on a daily basis just shopping for milk. Anyway, I tried what you suggested. It was well worth it: https://imgur.com/a/dCFnx https://imgur.com/a/dCFnx
        smnrchrds 9y ago
        In a dystopian future where assassination has been automated and can easily be ordered from the dark web, a contract on Wayne May brings the end for humanity ...
  - ggambetta 9y ago
    Sure, but if I was worried about receiving death threats, I wouldn't want either to be publicised!
- otempomores 9y ago
  Image searched and found to be a convicted conartist?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bArray 9y ago
Checked out their website, looks as if they could really benefit from somebody with some web skills: https://www.scamsurvivors.com/ https://www.scamsurvivors.com/
- savanaly 9y ago
  I agree. It is not his fault that the equilibrium has settled this way, but the fact is that it has settled at a point where ironically the design of his site sets off my "this is a scam site" alarms. Not a confidence scam, per se, but certainly a site I wouldn't be downloading any executables from and would be expecting a popup ad with malware at any moment when visiting. In reality I know he isn't doing any of that but the design unfortunately signals he might be.
  - bArray 9y ago
    Agreed, I would offer myself but I'm not a web dev and could do more harm than good. Firefox gives a yellow padlock for the site, grounds to think there may be some security issues as a modern web dev seems to have not touched it in a long time. Would be awfully nice for a UK based developer to offer them their services for free and add some robustness against DDoS. I would especially want to see some security audit done on their forum, looks as if a security vulnerability could quite literally be life threatening.
- anonymous5133 9y ago
  I nearly went blind looking at that design work!
  - bArray 9y ago
    As @savanaly said above, you almost expect a pop-up scam on the anti-scam website!
- qwtel 9y ago
  ha! that site looks like a scam. on second thought, that's exactly what people who don't run the other direction when they see something like this need. in a similar vein, what could use somebody's web skills is a ICO fraud site that looks as impressive and overengineered as ICO marketing sites (case in point: IOTA https://iota.org/ https://iota.org/. not commenting on the merits of the project, just the site). although these sites probably already exist.
Top19 9y ago
Wow cannot thank these guys enough. Every scam that is serious about making money has SEO-carpet bombed Google to death, making any serious search for the truth impossible (unless you’re one of those people who always knows to go to the 7th page of search results). Also here’s a pro-tip. If you’re searching for something and a bunch of Youtube videos says “Is XYZ a scam??”, the answer is “absolutely yes”. Those videos pretend to be honest reviews that wind up finding out that “surprisingly, it’s not a scam and looks pretty good”, but it’s all a lie. Other scams, usually by virtue of providing a 100% incentive based compensation structure: - Selling mattresses - Real Estate sales or seminars of any kind to someone inexperienced - MLM or Pyramid Schemes - Typically anything that advocates obscene amounts of positive psychology and a scientology like version of a Christianity - Insurance sales - Selling internet services for a company like CBeyond - Any college of any-kind that makes a profit short of coding boot camps (and they’ll probably turn into a scam within a few years which is sad)
- KGIII 9y ago
  Wait, what? Mattresses? I am confused and, I confess, Google is not exactly helpful - like you suggested. I don't think I've ever been scammed when buying a mattress? I don't think anyone has even tried to scam me while buying a mattress. Then again, those two traits would make for a good scam.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    They aren't really a scam as such, the margins are just ridiculously high. And there is stuff like no 2 stores having the same mattress, so you can't comparison shop.
    - KGIII 9y ago
      Ah, thanks. I don't really shop or compare prices, but just get what suits my needs. I've been happy with the results and costs, so I was unsure of where the scam was.
    - joshmn 9y ago
partycoder 9y ago
Problem with scams is that part of it is getting automated. Scammers are now regularly scanning entire area codes looking for people to scam, usually spoofing their caller id. I called my phone company and blocked inbound international calls: problem solved and no more scam calls.
- briandear 9y ago
  So what happens if someone wants to call you internationally?
  - partycoder 9y ago
    In that case I just use voice over ip or a messaging app.
falsedan 9y ago
Terrible short-form BBC reporting: here’s a guy who risks death treats to help scam victims! Sorry, were going to quote experts & give generic avoidance advice instead of sharing the threats or an example of how a victim was helped.
jaclaz 9y ago
I may well be too old-fashioned, but I tend to make some distinctions between different kind of scams (not necessarily online). The victim may well be a poor innocent (possibly elderly or kids) not-the-sharpiest-knife-in-the drawer, as it happens (example) for those scam calls promising they will fix your computer that has a virus or similar, or solicitng for an unpaid (non-existing) invoice but a large part of the scams are based on the victim having some form of "greed" or "lust" or however the will to do something that would not be entirely legal or morally acceptable. So, I personally find difficult to call "victims" someone that thought they could get a zillion dollars "helping" a poor Nigerian Prince (or his widow) to collect the fortune he accumulated offshore or those that are blackmailed because they showed nude (or worse) on a webcam believing that on the other side there was a nice looking girl. This said, the data in the "form" for sextortion/blackmail "victims" here: https://www.scamsurvivors.com/blackmail/form/form.html https://www.scamsurvivors.com/blackmail/form/form.html is IMHO something that noone, including and especially a "victim" of an online scam should even think of filling and sending to anyone (if not - if it is the case - Law enforcement officials). "Wayne May" is asking for exactly the same data that would make a scammer/blackmailer happy: 1) Name 2) Date of birth 3) Location 4) E-mail address ... 5) Link to (eventually uploaded) compromising video Most probably "Wayne May" and his helping volunteers are in good faith and have the best of the intentions, and this data will never leak, but it is a huge, huge risk.
SterlingHero 9y ago
The author has earned such a positive reputation as a baiter, he has achieved the title of “master”.
mattbgates 9y ago
I am fighting the good fight too with creating this website to expose the exact messages of scammer so anyone searching... can find a particular scam. https://scamshare.com https://scamshare.com Feel free to submit your scam emails to the website... the more in the database, the better chance of hopefully protecting people from getting scammed.

114 points by uladzislau 9y ago

> Wayne May (not his real name) Don't want to use his real name, probably for his safety considering it mentions death threats, but half a page later there's a super clear picture of him?!?

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
Unless he's a celebrity it's much harder to find someone from a picture than it is from a name
- macintux 9y ago
  That probably won’t be true within the span of time he’ll be active. Surely Facebook or Google will offer some mechanism for face recognition.
  - bro-kaizen 9y ago
    You can probably just use Google's reverse image search and then look at the "related images" pane on the right.
    - dvanduzer 9y ago
      I thought the article title was pretty silly; as a gregarious human, risking death threats is something I do on a daily basis just shopping for milk. Anyway, I tried what you suggested. It was well worth it: https://imgur.com/a/dCFnx https://imgur.com/a/dCFnx
      - smnrchrds 9y ago
        In a dystopian future where assassination has been automated and can easily be ordered from the dark web, a contract on Wayne May brings the end for humanity ...
- ggambetta 9y ago
  Sure, but if I was worried about receiving death threats, I wouldn't want either to be publicised!
otempomores 9y ago
Image searched and found to be a convicted conartist?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

bArray 9y ago

Checked out their website, looks as if they could really benefit from somebody with some web skills: https://www.scamsurvivors.com/ https://www.scamsurvivors.com/

savanaly 9y ago
I agree. It is not his fault that the equilibrium has settled this way, but the fact is that it has settled at a point where ironically the design of his site sets off my "this is a scam site" alarms. Not a confidence scam, per se, but certainly a site I wouldn't be downloading any executables from and would be expecting a popup ad with malware at any moment when visiting. In reality I know he isn't doing any of that but the design unfortunately signals he might be.
- bArray 9y ago
  Agreed, I would offer myself but I'm not a web dev and could do more harm than good. Firefox gives a yellow padlock for the site, grounds to think there may be some security issues as a modern web dev seems to have not touched it in a long time. Would be awfully nice for a UK based developer to offer them their services for free and add some robustness against DDoS. I would especially want to see some security audit done on their forum, looks as if a security vulnerability could quite literally be life threatening.
anonymous5133 9y ago
I nearly went blind looking at that design work!
- bArray 9y ago
  As @savanaly said above, you almost expect a pop-up scam on the anti-scam website!
qwtel 9y ago
ha! that site looks like a scam. on second thought, that's exactly what people who don't run the other direction when they see something like this need. in a similar vein, what could use somebody's web skills is a ICO fraud site that looks as impressive and overengineered as ICO marketing sites (case in point: IOTA https://iota.org/ https://iota.org/. not commenting on the merits of the project, just the site). although these sites probably already exist.

Top19 9y ago

Wow cannot thank these guys enough. Every scam that is serious about making money has SEO-carpet bombed Google to death, making any serious search for the truth impossible (unless you’re one of those people who always knows to go to the 7th page of search results). Also here’s a pro-tip. If you’re searching for something and a bunch of Youtube videos says “Is XYZ a scam??”, the answer is “absolutely yes”. Those videos pretend to be honest reviews that wind up finding out that “surprisingly, it’s not a scam and looks pretty good”, but it’s all a lie. Other scams, usually by virtue of providing a 100% incentive based compensation structure: - Selling mattresses - Real Estate sales or seminars of any kind to someone inexperienced - MLM or Pyramid Schemes - Typically anything that advocates obscene amounts of positive psychology and a scientology like version of a Christianity - Insurance sales - Selling internet services for a company like CBeyond - Any college of any-kind that makes a profit short of coding boot camps (and they’ll probably turn into a scam within a few years which is sad)

KGIII 9y ago
Wait, what? Mattresses? I am confused and, I confess, Google is not exactly helpful - like you suggested. I don't think I've ever been scammed when buying a mattress? I don't think anyone has even tried to scam me while buying a mattress. Then again, those two traits would make for a good scam.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  They aren't really a scam as such, the margins are just ridiculously high. And there is stuff like no 2 stores having the same mattress, so you can't comparison shop.
  - KGIII 9y ago
    Ah, thanks. I don't really shop or compare prices, but just get what suits my needs. I've been happy with the results and costs, so I was unsure of where the scam was.
  - joshmn 9y ago

partycoder 9y ago

Problem with scams is that part of it is getting automated. Scammers are now regularly scanning entire area codes looking for people to scam, usually spoofing their caller id. I called my phone company and blocked inbound international calls: problem solved and no more scam calls.

briandear 9y ago
So what happens if someone wants to call you internationally?
- partycoder 9y ago
  In that case I just use voice over ip or a messaging app.

falsedan 9y ago

Terrible short-form BBC reporting: here’s a guy who risks death treats to help scam victims! Sorry, were going to quote experts & give generic avoidance advice instead of sharing the threats or an example of how a victim was helped.

jaclaz 9y ago

I may well be too old-fashioned, but I tend to make some distinctions between different kind of scams (not necessarily online). The victim may well be a poor innocent (possibly elderly or kids) not-the-sharpiest-knife-in-the drawer, as it happens (example) for those scam calls promising they will fix your computer that has a virus or similar, or solicitng for an unpaid (non-existing) invoice but a large part of the scams are based on the victim having some form of "greed" or "lust" or however the will to do something that would not be entirely legal or morally acceptable. So, I personally find difficult to call "victims" someone that thought they could get a zillion dollars "helping" a poor Nigerian Prince (or his widow) to collect the fortune he accumulated offshore or those that are blackmailed because they showed nude (or worse) on a webcam believing that on the other side there was a nice looking girl. This said, the data in the "form" for sextortion/blackmail "victims" here: https://www.scamsurvivors.com/blackmail/form/form.html https://www.scamsurvivors.com/blackmail/form/form.html is IMHO something that noone, including and especially a "victim" of an online scam should even think of filling and sending to anyone (if not - if it is the case - Law enforcement officials). "Wayne May" is asking for exactly the same data that would make a scammer/blackmailer happy: 1) Name 2) Date of birth 3) Location 4) E-mail address ... 5) Link to (eventually uploaded) compromising video Most probably "Wayne May" and his helping volunteers are in good faith and have the best of the intentions, and this data will never leak, but it is a huge, huge risk.

SterlingHero 9y ago

The author has earned such a positive reputation as a baiter, he has achieved the title of “master”.

mattbgates 9y ago

I am fighting the good fight too with creating this website to expose the exact messages of scammer so anyone searching... can find a particular scam. https://scamshare.com https://scamshare.com Feel free to submit your scam emails to the website... the more in the database, the better chance of hopefully protecting people from getting scammed.