My phone rings about 20+ times a day, either scammers, people calling back who have had numbers hijacked, spoofed numbers, etc. Is it honestly worth it? Just as soon as one number goes away, they call back. It’s not even SSA, IRS, Car Warranty. It’s Credit Card Services, spoofing numbers, and they get worse and worse. It never ends. No matter how much baiting you do.
As of now this is number #9 today before 12 PM noon my time. Spoofed number. I mean, really?
Well every five minutes I spend with one of these jackasses is five minutes they aren’t spending with an elderly pensioner being conned out of his Social Security check.
I feel very good about it.
It's kind of like conserving water around your yard when huge corporations are responsible for 85% of the water waste. Sure, you watering your lawn only once a week for 10 minutes isn't making a dent in the overall waste of water but you should still feel good about it - if it makes you happy.
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@MisterKoolAid#110008 My phone rings about 20+ times a day
When you use a number to call them back or answered a call, they will list you as a "potential" and your number gets circulated along with whatever information they collected about your number. Getting more calls is kind of a good thing in a sense, because you now have another number to add to the list for BobRTC. The more numbers you discover belonging to a scam outfit, the better it can be targeted along with others to shut down a call center, even if it is for a short time.
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@MisterKoolAid#110008 Is it honestly worth it?
Yes, because for each number that is not in operation to take calls of a victim, it is worth every moment you spend to keep them busy for those people who could otherwise be a victim. Its not going to stop them, but it will help prevent someone from being a victim during the time you are wasting the scammer's time.
Standing in a stream with a bucket alone will not change the flow, but if enough people stood together in the stream, you could change the flow enough to slow it down.
I have long felt and expressed that identifying American scammers and those who oversee foreign call centers is a worthwhile cause. They operate within a jurisdiction where enforcement can and does happen. Trying to bring down foreign operations is like pissing in the wind. Find their American and UK backers and you really have something.
@JONATHAND#110027 Yes it i uphill battle but worth fighting for
It depends if you use it to just prank call or actually use it to expose info on how the scam industry works. FTC & BBB say to just hang up and the problem will go away. How has that worked? Scambaiting gained national media attention on CBS news. The anchor said off the cuff that “we need an army of Jims.” He is right. We need scambaiting to be an acceptable and mainstream hobby. There is too much of a stigma from actual prank callers and FTC/BBB advice that scambaiting is looked down upon as a waste and childish.
The FTC, FCC and BBB have all been giving out just terribly bad knee-jerk advice while downplaying the problem they are faced with.
Their bad advice is multiplying because they get prime seats in Congressional hearings about robocalls and scam calls. Congress created a better version of the Truth in Caller ID Act when they had an actual lead generator who was prosecuted sit down in front of them and told them exactly how the world works. The FCC couldn't do that shit, neither did the FTC.
You want an example of this? Look at Prophet Manasseh Jordan. 28 Federal lawsuits now from victims.
Twenty----eight.
Going back more than half a decade now. Everyone in the telecom industry that does automated dialing knows about this joker. The FCC has slapped his wrists twice. He does not fucking care.
It's because the debt collection lobby has a crapton of money to throw at regulators to make sure their dialers are not hampered in anyway by phone switch features that would allow consumers to whitelist calls. We will never kill these scam calls completely until regulation is created that forces Tier 1 carriers to sync white lists at the phone switch and set the barrier for getting around a consumer's whitelist to be high, then set the penalty for diverting around the whitelist to a serious felony that comes with guaranteed time in the Fed Pen.
That's the ONLY way to resolve this. Every other idea that has come up has been ineffective laughable trash.
I dont scambait because I think I’m making a difference I scam bait for the sheer entertainment value!!
@1888TechLineOfficial#110141 That’s the thing. For scambaiting to be more effective we need a lot more scambaiters.
I'm sorry to burst people's bubbles who get excited over dialers, and I'm a total dialer fan I love programming them.... they are not as skillful as people acting in concert.
@kenzo#110138 Preach @kenzo#110173 Preach! Thank you for the insight! Til then, scambaiting should be considered a public service!
I look at like this. Even if it is just one fool on the line, it could be that one fool that I bait that helps an innocent victim from being scammed. I do agree, we need more baiters. The more we have, the more effective we will be. But even with the baiters here and everywhere around the world, we are making a bit of difference with these fools. Also, just to say, I do appreciate each and everyone that takes the time out of their busy schedules to bait. It is not always easy and even the ones that do not post videos and bait or even support scambaiting are always commended! So, it might seem like it is not making a dent, but at least WE ARE DOING SOMETHING. Just my two cents.
I think that is cool, because its a way to Practice English speaking for free for non-native speakers,
I never seen this mentioned as an advantage, I read and write a lot, but not much speaking,
theres even pay Meetups of people that connect just to chat using English.
