BSides Bristol 2024

So you wanna be a baiter.
2024-08-30 , Track 1

Ever wanted to try scambaiting? Now's the time to learn how to. What are the tools you'll need? Where do you get scammer emails from? How do you call scammers on the phone? What about the ethical side? All that and examples of scammer calls and "trophies" will be in this talk.


Back in 2005 I stumbled onto the world of scambaiting and became instantly hooked. Almost 20 years later, although my priorities switched to helping fight the scammers through education, I still enjoy baiting the scammers from time to time. In this talk I intend sharing my experiences and explaining how to bait scammers both safely and ethically as well as showing examples of my own work, featuring snippets of funny calls made to scammers as well as some of the photos (or "trophies" as we call them) obtained from scammers. The talk is based on my 1st BSides presentation, "The 10 commandments of baiting" but extended to show how to bait as well as the do's and don'ts.

I am the site owner of scamsurvivors.com, which is a volunteer site designed to help those targeted by scams and provide help and advice in both spotting scams and avoiding being scammed. The site was created in 2012, but I have been a member of the antiscam community since 2005. As a representative of the site I have appeared in the media around the world as an "expert" in scams. The site is run by a small group of volunteers who give up their time and knowledge freely.

@ScamSurvivors

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