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I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

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Re: I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

#141

Post by netsharc »

hateful wrote: post #80
rossdavidh wrote: post #54

Can these people actually be this stupid? I am having a hard time believing it. I would expect scammers to be more aware of the possibility of deceitful behavior by others. Incredible if true, but hard to believe...

The further I get into the video (I'm not quite done yet), the more I'm convinced that most of the people calling aren't actually scammers, but are people that have been scammed by the scammer to call to get their bitcoin. As if they've hijacked the wrong side of scam.

I saw your comment while watching the video, you make me I wonder the same thing. Especially if the accent sounds Eastern European or British and not the typical accent of these scammers...

Re: I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

#142

Post by alpaca128 »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #48

You are all laughing, but I was just presented with an impossible captcha trying to login into my OpenAI account, that I pay $20/month for. To solve the captcha, I need to click the puzzle 80 (!) times, and if I make a mistake, I should start everything anew. That's totally not funny. Had to cancel the subscription. Anyway, Phind is faster and better quality.

They didn't even give me the chance to really try it. Less than 10 prompts over half a week and every response is "we have detected suspicious activity on your system, try again later". Doesn't seem to be a rare problem, subscription or not.

Re: I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

#143

Post by DonHopkins »

Whenever I get a scam call, the first thing I do is say "Oh, this sounds VERY important, thank you for calling me. Please give me your phone number so I can call you back in case we get cut off."

Most of the time they hang up immediately, because the last thing they want is for me to call them back, but recently one scammer took the bait and tried to give me a fake phone number: 123456789.

So I pretended to believe them and earnestly write it down, but I kept getting the digits wrong and reading them back incorrectly, and asking them to repeat it, talking over them by reading the digits back while they were reading the next digits, repeating and swapping and missing digits, pretending not to get that it was an obviously fake phone number, until it drove them crazy that I could not understand something as simple as 123456789.

Then I asked for their company name ("Bitcoin Company"), and web site ("bitcoin.com"), and then tried to have them guide me through logging in, reading them what I saw on the page and clicked on to log in, and asking them where to click and what to enter and what to do next.

They finally got really angry frustrated and yelled at me and hung up, but not before I berated them for being a scammer!

Re: I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

#144

Post by netsharc »

bertil wrote: post #108

This is product thinking. Let’s get deep: Story time! I initially liked the guy but grew a bit tired of him using what could be veiled racism for views — I’m not accusing him of anything; it just felt cringy-er than I like my YouTube. The ethics are more complicated than that, but something bothered me, especially since that special episode where they sent someone physically there, let pests in the building, etc. I c…

FWIW, after a few videos I found Mark Rober insufferable, he seems too full of himself. I did enjoy his first glitter vs anti-package-thieves video, but not his later videos

Re: I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

#145

Post by johnyzee »

Anyone remember the anti-scammer phone bot that pretended to be a senile old man ('Lemmy' or something)? It waited for the scammer to stop talking, and then said some statement (either a question or some really long rambling story), simultaneously hilarious and expertly crafted to keep the conversation going, often for hours, until it would start repeating itself and the scammer would blow up.

It was a bit smarter than this (otherwise beautiful) scam, because the conversation flowed very naturally (exploiting the fact that scammers love to talk, given the opportunity). Idea for your next version!

There used to be a bunch of examples on youtube, but I couldn't find them just now.

Re: I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

#148

Post by operatingthetan »

KingGeedorah wrote: post #117
rpmisms wrote: post #96

I know Kit through a friend. Played magic the gathering with him once. No difference between his persona and personality, one of those people made for the job. Absolutely great guy, too, nice wife and kids. He also started off as a Web Dev. The fake banking websites are all his own work. Really clever stuff, ironically using phishing tactics to catch phishers.

Really, never would have thought he was a programmer.

He shows code in the streams all the time.

Re: I trapped scammers in an impossible maze [video]

#150

Post by JaDogg »

jackmott42 wrote: post #136
KingGeedorah wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, never would have thought he was a programmer.

Web Dev sometimes isn't. Sometimes it is CSS and HTML and art/design specialty. I don't say that to be a gatekeeper, I think CSS expertise is harder! heh

CSS is harder indeed.
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