This is a nice hook.
Disagree. Scam baiting is a legitimate hobby. I trust Ynnad knows about 419eater and other forums.
“No way am I going to read that whole post.”
Heh:
I’m curious about a good way to bait pig butchers. Organized crime typically recruits them from foreign countries (eg India) on false pretenses, takes their papers, then sets them up in a compound in eg Cambodia. The frontline workers have training, motivation to earn enough money to pay off their debts to organized crime, and I presume some resentment towards their bosses. And of course I trust some workers are recruited more directly.The John Oliver vid was entertaining, but this Trend Micro report provides greater detail: it’s a multiple step process.
They make heavy use of group chat, which both increases credibility and allows the perps to cast a wider net. They prefer targeting longstanding numbers, avoiding burner phone numbers. That’s understandable as one baiter could potentially reach out to vics with a separate phone number. Vics will sometimes buy crypto at a legitimate crypto brokerage (if you want to call it that) then at some point transfer cryptocurrencies to wallets controlled by the scammers. Pressure of various sorts (eg “friendly reminder”) is applied by a secretary character, an assistant to a character encountered in group chat.
The harm profile has evolved:
BEC is business email compromise. Tech support is high, but Investment is highest. Advanced fee and ransomware are lower than I thought. Lotteries are close to advanced fee. All numbers are underestimates, but the relative values are interesting.
Demographics. The group with the highest losses is 60+, but the other groups combined are substantially larger. In terms of numbers of reported vics, the 30-39 group is highest, but isn’t that different from other middle aged and the elderly group.
The 2 charts link to my Mastodon account, but they are from this 2022 FBI report: