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My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

bentasker.co.uk

51–60 of 172 posts

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#51

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.

This is not necessarily a Gmail thing, but just how SMTP works. It's not as bad as you'd think though.

SMTP services log the IP address and/or hostname of the remote host, and the address used by the host to identity itself (known as the HELO address). This is the address of the remote SMTP service (known as the MTA), which isn't typically the IP address of the users computer where the email client runs on (known as the MUA).

Under normal circumstances your email client (MUA) connects to your email service provider (MTA), which then sends the email to the MTA of the recipient. So the IP of your MTA (email hosting service), not your MUA (your computer) is exposed.

For example: if you send an email to a Gmail inbox using MS365, the receiver (the Gmail user) would see only the IP-address from Microsoft's outbound SMTP services.

So unless you run your own SMTP service at home, or attempt to directly connect with the receiving MTA using SMTP, your IP address won't be exposed.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#52
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site linked by the article.

It does not. If you believe otherwise, elaborate on your claim.

My antivirus blocked loading the site, identifying a trojan payload, using Russian text. That's as far as I went.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know they are not done by slaves?

Scammer Payback's videos always include footage from the surveillance cameras. At least the scammers he and his crew target don't use slavery - that's more of a problem in Burma/Myanmar, not in India where many tech scammers are.

Didn't know, are they individuals working independently with some 'services' to provide targets/money laundering or are they part of organized crime or payroll? I am curious in the support structures they are embedded in.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#54
"Although I was invested in this project, I definitely wasn't "flirty sex chat with some random scammer" levels of invested. The thought also dawned on me that part of their playbook could even involve "Aidana" calling for phone sex.

Either would be crossing lines that I didn't want to cross, meaning that I'd stumbled upon an unexpected 4th rule of engagement: don't talk dirty with scammers."

Rules of life to live by.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting scammed on Runescape should be part of the school curriculum.

I was scammed out of about $4 when I was kid playing Ragnarök Online. Taught me zero trust. In hindsight, it's a cheap but effective learning experience... well, until I met my now ex-wife.

At least know that I have trust in your humor and sense of smiling in the face of adversity.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#56
post #51

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. This is not necessarily a Gmail thing, but just how SMTP works. It's not as bad as you'd think though. SMTP services log the IP address and/or hostname of the remote host, and the address used by the host to identity itself (known as the HELO address). This is the address of the remote SMTP service (known as the MTA)…

If you send through a MUA (like Thunderbird) that uses Gmail's SMTP then Gmail do expose your IP address. Most other email providers do the same.

> Under normal circumstances your email client (MUA) connects to your email service provider (MTA), which then sends the email to the MTA of the recipient. So the IP of your MTA (email hosting service), not your MUA (your computer) is exposed.

This is incorrect, most email providers' MTA includes the MUA's IP address in the headers.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#57
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...

Unrestrained empathy is self-destruction. Being a victim is not a blanket excuse for the act of victimizing others. There is no easy, feel-good solution to this problem.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#58
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was probably a Chinese slave in a Myanmar boiler room. Romance scammers and “pig butchering” scams are usually run by Asian gangs. Nasty folks. The “good” news, however, is that AI is likely to make a big impact, here, and reduce the need to kidnap poor folks.

[flagged]

Yes, let us focus on virtue signalling instead of the scammers stealing people's hard-earned money.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#59
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not. If you believe otherwise, elaborate on your claim.

My antivirus blocked loading the site, identifying a trojan payload, using Russian text. That's as far as I went.

There's a message encouraging Russian visitors to not support the war in Ukraine. If your antivirus is flagging any Cyrillic text, that's a bit overzealous IMO.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#60
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 stopped trying to mess with them and string them along after I heard about this.
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