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My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

bentasker.co.uk

41–50 of 172 posts

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#41

I thought gmail doesn't disclose sender's IP address? Or I was wrong? This is not good for privacy. Also, for fingerprinting you can obtain a GPU model via WebGL (helps in detecting a VM), and probably can scan for known browser extensions by trying to fetch extension-specific URLs. Some sites also scan ports on the localhost by trying to connect to them to find out which software is run.

>I thought gmail doesn't disclose sender's IP address? Or I was wrong? This is not good for privacy.

The IP address is the smtp server of course, not the individual user.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#42

One warning, this scam, with it's fast timeline and request for funds to be sent to the girlfriend is a classic, but modern scams can be quite different than this. "pig butchering" scams can run for months of contact with no requests for money, and then instead of asking for money, the user "invests" into what appear initialy to be profitable investments alongside the scammer.

The people doing the pig butchering are themselves trafficked and working in horrendous slavery conditions in Cambodia:

https://theconversation.com/pig-butchering-fraud-the-link-be...

https://restofworld.org/2022/cambodias-scam-mills/

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#43
post #8

I've never quite understood this sort of anti-scammer content and what its appeal is to readers. There are a million YouTube videos and other articles out there that explain, analyze, as well as mock[1] and denigrate scammers - who are essentially modern day slaves [2]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzz3NeDz3E [2]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/human-trafficking-vie...

I posted it because I find awareness of these scams is useful. If you have older relatives or friends you might want to be ready if they report a new online relationship.

I also don’t spend much time on YouTube so a blog post is good for people who don’t want to take the time warning a video.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#44
post #41

I thought gmail doesn't disclose sender's IP address? Or I was wrong? This is not good for privacy. Also, for fingerprinting you can obtain a GPU model via WebGL (helps in detecting a VM), and probably can scan for known browser extensions by trying to fetch extension-specific URLs. Some sites also scan ports on the localhost by trying to connect to them to find out which software is run.

>I thought gmail doesn't disclose sender's IP address? Or I was wrong? This is not good for privacy. The IP address is the smtp server of course, not the individual user.

I learned that most email services do attach the IP address of the MUA (that is, the user's computer) if you send through SMTP. I set up an SMTP relay for myself to hide that.

The user's IP address is not attached if you use webmail.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#45
post #35
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I find it strange that you seem to think he called them nasty because they are Asian an not because of the slavery and scams.

Americans seem more comfortable with slavery and scams

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#46

I thought gmail doesn't disclose sender's IP address? Or I was wrong? This is not good for privacy. Also, for fingerprinting you can obtain a GPU model via WebGL (helps in detecting a VM), and probably can scan for known browser extensions by trying to fetch extension-specific URLs. Some sites also scan ports on the localhost by trying to connect to them to find out which software is run.

Now i think it doesn't but it did as recent as in 2014, in a Received header like the one in the article.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#47
post #42

One warning, this scam, with it's fast timeline and request for funds to be sent to the girlfriend is a classic, but modern scams can be quite different than this. "pig butchering" scams can run for months of contact with no requests for money, and then instead of asking for money, the user "invests" into what appear initialy to be profitable investments alongside the scammer.

The people doing the pig butchering are themselves trafficked and working in horrendous slavery conditions in Cambodia: https://theconversation.com/pig-butchering-fraud-the-link-be... https://restofworld.org/2022/cambodias-scam-mills/

I can confirm. Someone I know went there for "job abroad" via an "agent" and then came back after knowing what it truly was. It's common in India

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#48

One warning, this scam, with it's fast timeline and request for funds to be sent to the girlfriend is a classic, but modern scams can be quite different than this. "pig butchering" scams can run for months of contact with no requests for money, and then instead of asking for money, the user "invests" into what appear initialy to be profitable investments alongside the scammer.

I ask them to invest in an alt coin I'm launching and then they stop talking to me.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#50

I thought gmail doesn't disclose sender's IP address? Or I was wrong? This is not good for privacy. Also, for fingerprinting you can obtain a GPU model via WebGL (helps in detecting a VM), and probably can scan for known browser extensions by trying to fetch extension-specific URLs. Some sites also scan ports on the localhost by trying to connect to them to find out which software is run.

Now i think it doesn't but it did as recent as in 2014, in a Received header like the one in the article.

It still does, just tested it.
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