What Is Scambaiting? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
Reading Time: 4 minutesNot all scammers are bad. No, really. Some are here to educate, inform, and entertain. That’s where scambaiting comes in.
The World Wide Web is rife with fraud and different types of scams, which are usually aimed at people who are not great with technology, primarily the elderly.
While malware and other similar cyber threats can be fought with antivirus software and similar tools, scams are a bit more difficult to deal with. This is where scambaiting comes in.
How Scambaiting Works
Scambaiting is a form of cybersecurity vigilantism that revolves around disrupting scammers’ activities with the goal of saving potential victims.
Scammers prey on the vulnerable. They usually contact their targets via email or phone, impersonating a legitimate entity. A scammer might pretend to be with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and law enforcement, or claim to be a technical support agent in what are known as tech support scams.
In a typical tech support scam, for instance, the scammer contacts their target claiming there is something wrong with their computer, and offers to help. The scammer then asks the victim to install remote access software, and takes control of their device. The next step usually involves asking for money, for example subscribing to an overpriced service, submitting a payment, or purchasing gift cards.
What scambaiters do is essentially flip the script on scammers. They pretend to be an unsuspecting victim, but actually use their knowledge to obstruct the scammers’ work in some way. This can range from simply wasting a scammer’s time or over infecting their computers with malware, to destroying their entire operation and reporting them to law enforcement.
The end goal of most scams is to defraud victims of their money. Scambaiters, on the other hand, are animated by various concerns: some engage in scambaiting for entertainment purposes or for their own amusement; some do it as a hobby; others out of a sense of civic duty; and few in order to make money.
Scambaiting on YouTube and Twitch
Just as scams have evolved over time, so has scambaiting. In recent years, scambaiting has become something of a YouTube and Twitch phenomenon, with dozens of channels popping up.
Scambaiters typically live stream their interactions with scammers, and then upload clips to YouTube. Most of these videos feature hilarious and entertaining scammer encounters, with streamers wasting their time and humiliating them publicly. Other videos show scambaiters flooding scammers’ call centers with automated calls, deploying malware to their computers, alerting law enforcement of their activities, and so on.
Though many of these videos are obviously done for entertainment, they can also be very educational. At minimum, they’re a great way to learn how scambaiting works. Here are three popular scambait YouTube channels you can follow if you want to learn more about scambaiting.
1. Kitboga
Kitboga is the internet alias of a Twitch streamer whose YouTube channel has exploded in popularity.
To mess with scammers, Kitboga uses a voice changer and pretends to be an elderly person. His interactions with scammers last for hours, sometimes even days, and usually culminate when the scammer asks him to purchase a gift card.
But of course, Kitboga does not actually purchase a gift card; he pretends to—and then he pretends to redeem it. Obviously, this frustrates the scammer no end, causing them to lash out as their scam falls apart. By doing this, Kitboga wastes a scammer’s time, potentially saving dozens of victims.
2. Jim Browning
A software engineer from Northern Ireland using the pseudonym Jim Browning has carried out some of the most sophisticated attacks on scam call centers, and uploaded footage to YouTube.
Unlike Kitboga and a number of other streamers, Browning is not focused on entertainment per se, and he does not joke around with scammers or simply waste their time. Instead, he hacks scam call centers and weaponizes scammers’ tools against them. As Browning’s videos show, his efforts have led to scammers being arrested.
In one of his most popular videos, Browning demonstrated how he hacked a scam call center’s CCTV camera, spied on the scammers, and watched them get apprehended by law enforcement.
3. ScammerRevlots
The ScammerRevolts YouTube channel is, in a sense, a combination of Kitboga and Browning’s channels.
The person behind ScammerRevolts is evidently a capable hacker, but they also troll scammers and mess with them, which sometimes results in hilarious meltdowns. Many videos on this channel show the individual who runs the channel hacking into scammers’ computers, deleting their files, turning on their webcam, and such.
One popular video shows ScammerRevolts baiting a scammer, taking control of their computer, deleting virtually all files on it, and then locking them out permanently.
Is Scambaiting Safe?
If somebody you know got scammed, or if you feel inspired by the scambaiting YouTube community, you might feel tempted to engage in scambaiting yourself. This is a very bad idea.
People who scambait professional scammers for a living, including popular YouTubers, have a background in programing and white hat hacking, so know what they are doing. They take extra precautions, use virtual machines, and likely receive help from people with expertise in cybersecurity.
You should not bait scammers unless you are 100 percent confident in your skills, prepared to spend countless hours chatting with them, and know exactly how to protect yourself. As tempting as it may be to get back at a cybercriminal, you would just expose yourself to unnecessary danger and potentially compromise your online security if you were to bait one.
Plus, you would most likely not be dealing with a random scammer working on his own—many scams, especially those centered around tech support, are run by massive, well-funded call centers that have dozens of employees.
What you can do, however, is educate others about common scams, and contact the appropriate authorities if you or somebody you know receives a scam call or email.
Stay on the Lookout for Scams
Cyber threats lurk around every corner of the internet. This is not limited to malicious programs, but also includes financial fraud and all kinds of scams.
The truth is: as long as there are vulnerable people, there will be scammers. Arguably the best you can do for yourself and others is stay informed and vigilant.