Scammer Hotline

Information Tutorials
62

MANY thanks.

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63

Thank the lord! :+1:

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64

Thanks so much, Midnight !! I loved using it before it went away !!!
Are we, the users of your product, able to send you $$ to offset your expenses?
ScammerStopperZ

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65

Number working but no scammers yet. Perhaps will hear scammers scamming Australians after 7 PM EST or scammers scamming Germans after past midnight.

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66

Australia moved there clocks this week, so may potentially start to see scammers around 6 PM EST rather than 7.

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67

Thanks. Good to know.

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68

Though none are on today, it is back up and working! Thank you @MidnightSB & @ReconScammers – Much appreciate the work :clap:

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69

I get a chance to freshen up my German language … 8 AM EST when Kolkata scammers scam Germans

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70

You know Doc, I had 3 or 4 of them the other day speaking German to me about Windows repair. I am fluent in it as I worked over there for a number of years and my AF fighter wing was stationed in Spangdahlem.

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71

Havent had any australian ones all week :frowning:

72

Because we all want more call centres stealing from innocent people.

It sort of defeats the purpose and defies all logic

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73

Just because they arent on the hotline doesnt mean they arent doing it. I’ve been going onto reverseAU and there is an abundance of scam numbers in Aus…just like US, UK obviously… its just good having them on the scammer hotline because the calls are being intecepted so they talk to me thinking i’m the intented recipient, instead of their potential victim… but i cant do that when im just calling their numbers directly.

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74

Also Germany. Last week I talked to Indian scammers targeting Germans.

75

Press 1 speak to a scammer: beep swoosh beep swoosh. As of 6pm. However earlier me and doc trolled amazon got phone number of victim and scammer direct line and they spoofed sheriff # from Louisana. I called it gave sheriff thier direct line #. The victim from Canada.

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76

Did this get abused again to the point where it’s just permanently down? Not asking to be rude. I just noticed that it’s down a couple days ago and still seems to be down.

77

I would like to financially support this. Please provide details BTC wallet address or other form I can use to support. I really enjoy this service.

78

I’m going to try and give everyone a bit of clarity here because Midnight probably won’t. I’m not speaking on behalf of Midnight, the creator and sole operator of the hotline, but rather sharing insights from our conversations and my own opinions.

Running the hotline requires an enormous amount of effort on Midnight’s part. Although I won’t delve into the specifics, the convenience you all appreciate comes at the cost of increased workload for Midnight. Essentially, he is managing a complex and high-capacity PBX system, searching for numbers, dealing with bad actors, reviewing logs, and shutting down problematic lines. He is doing all your work and a whole lot more to make your lives easier, for free.

Due to the nature of the hotline, the baits are more entertaining than they are productive. From my personal analysis, the concentration of baiters using the hotline, instead of organic numbers, has negative consequences on our efficiency as a community. Unfortunately, there are many aspects I can’t disclose here so I can’t give you the full picture, but it is my belief that more victims would be saved hunting organically or just using the numbers posted than using the hotline.

Fortunately, there was less abuse with this iteration of the hotline, and I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone for that. However, the bottom line is this: the hotline is enjoyable for everyone except Midnight. He is overwhelmed with work that amuses us but could potentially contribute to more people falling victim to scams because we are letting more scammers get away by using the hotline instead hunting for numbers. Furthermore, Midnight and our team prioritize victim advocacy, so this project is not our main focus. Every second we spend fixing this for everyone’s entertainment is a second we aren’t spending helping someone’s grandmother.

I did propose the idea of turning the hotline into a subscription or freemium service, as I saw some of you say that you are willing to pay, but Midnight wasn’t interested. This decision doesn’t revolve around cost. While Midnight might occasionally activate the hotline for a few days, operating it continuously requires us to put in a prohibitive amount of energy. When we were operating it for SP’s streams, it wasn’t being operated for multiple days at a time and it was easier to operate as there was generally just one or two people using it. We can still turn it on but I think at this point Midnight is burned out and sick of it, but I’ll see if we can turn it on in bursts, maybe it can be a weekly or semi weekly thing where everyone jumps in on the hotline for a few hours on Fridays or something. The true power in the hotline is really just entertainment in my mind, so it is still worth turning it on for SP or whichever streamer to get more people interested in scambaiting, but if you guys want to make the biggest impact you can, the hotline just isn’t that. Before you offer, we are not looking for help operating the hotline :).

I hope this helps answer some of the questions you guys have. I will do my best to respond if you guys still have more. You can support midnight by checking out his youtube.

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79

I appreciate your clarity here. :slight_smile: I recognize the time, energy, cost, etc in running something like this. When it’s available, I’ll use it for sure. However, we have the forum here, and people who are great at hunting numbers, for a reason. I consider the hotline a great resource, and I’ll use it when I can, but even though I was sad to see it shut down, come back, shut down again, etc, I’m going to keep fighting the good fight where and when I can.

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