Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

bentasker.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 172 posts

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#71

Post by brohee »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #5
brohee wrote: post #2

A bit of a missed opportunity with the war in Ukraine. He could have expressed pro-Ukraine sentiment and the (most likely Russian) scammer could have echoed them back and possibly be caught in a FSB dragnet.

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.

The fact that the scammer was in Russia was pretty credible. It'd be pretty odd for a scammer in Myanmar to alter the metadata to appear as to be from Russia and not from Kazakhstan as the "woman" claimed to be.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#72

Post by psadauskas »

pocketarc wrote: post #68
pavel_lishin wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be somewhat mean to telemarketers, until I learned that some of them are prison laborers - getting paid pennies per hour to work in a prison call center. That already feels morally un-great, and messing with them further no longer felt like something I could justify.

I agree, and I feel like that goes for everything in general. It's like people who get mad at customer service people - the customer service person has absolutely nothing to do with the product that's giving you grief. Even the telemarketer, as you point out, doesn't want to be there (or even if they do, they may just be there because they have no better options and need to put food on the table). In life, there are…

One thing that really stuck with me from the show The Good Place. The premise is that getting into heaven is a points-based system. You get points for doing good things, loose them for doing bad things, and when you die, if you have enough points, you go to heaven.

Spoilers for season 3 ahead

Used to be, for hundreds of years, you'd go visit your mom for her birthday. You'd be walking down the lane and see some wildflowers, so you pick them and bring them to her. +10 points.

In modern society, to do the same you'd drive to the florist and buy some flowers, then drive to your mom's. +10 points. But the PE firm that bought the florist laid of 100s of workers, and -10 points for supporting them. And the flowers were picked by underpaid exploited immigrants, -10 points. And you dumped a bunch of CO2 in the air from your drive and gave a newborn asthma, -10 points.

The show was saying that because of the choices that modern society and late-stage capitalism force upon us, nobody has gone to heaven for decades.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#74

Post by tdpvb »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #60
fmajid wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What if everyone started responding with aggressive encouragements, "Escape!" "Run from that place," "Murder your overlords, you outnumber them!"

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#75

Post by pavel_lishin »

psadauskas wrote: post #72
pocketarc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, and I feel like that goes for everything in general. It's like people who get mad at customer service people - the customer service person has absolutely nothing to do with the product that's giving you grief. Even the telemarketer, as you point out, doesn't want to be there (or even if they do, they may just be there because they have no better options and need to put food on the table). In life, there are…

One thing that really stuck with me from the show The Good Place . The premise is that getting into heaven is a points-based system. You get points for doing good things, loose them for doing bad things, and when you die, if you have enough points, you go to heaven. Spoilers for season 3 ahead Used to be, for hundreds of years, you'd go visit your mom for her birthday. You'd be walking down the lane and see some wild…

I guess that show has been over for nearly 5 years, but it might still be a good idea to spoiler this reveal for folks who haven't gotten around to it so you don't lose 3 points.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#76

Post by Henchman21 »

asah wrote: post #65
fmajid wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 suppose it's good news that AI will displace these humans ?

Removed as my context was incorrect

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#77

Post by psadauskas »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #75
psadauskas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that really stuck with me from the show The Good Place . The premise is that getting into heaven is a points-based system. You get points for doing good things, loose them for doing bad things, and when you die, if you have enough points, you go to heaven. Spoilers for season 3 ahead Used to be, for hundreds of years, you'd go visit your mom for her birthday. You'd be walking down the lane and see some wild…

I guess that show has been over for nearly 5 years, but it might still be a good idea to spoiler this reveal for folks who haven't gotten around to it so you don't lose 3 points.

Good idea. HN doesn't have a spoiler tag, but I added a warning.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#78

Post by inetknght »

Scoundreller wrote: post #62
EvanAnderson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There are downsides to engaging and not engaging, but I’m still on team engage and waste time. Once they can’t find any true victims in a reasonable amount of time, the industry will disappear (or automate and remove the torture and amplify the attempts 1000x)

> Once they can’t find any true victims in a reasonable amount of time, the industry will disappear

You're wasting more of your time than theirs. Think of it, you've already got your own answer. This is a whole industry and that implies people that work full time. How much time do you spend on this? Have you spent your whole day optimizing your workflow and answers to get an optimal response? Because they most certainly have.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#79

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

brohee wrote: post #71
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #5

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.

The fact that the scammer was in Russia was pretty credible. It'd be pretty odd for a scammer in Myanmar to alter the metadata to appear as to be from Russia and not from Kazakhstan as the "woman" claimed to be.

Good point.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#80

Post by Scoundreller »

inetknght wrote: post #78
Scoundreller wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are downsides to engaging and not engaging, but I’m still on team engage and waste time. Once they can’t find any true victims in a reasonable amount of time, the industry will disappear (or automate and remove the torture and amplify the attempts 1000x)

> Once they can’t find any true victims in a reasonable amount of time, the industry will disappear You're wasting more of your time than theirs. Think of it, you've already got your own answer. This is a whole industry and that implies people that work full time. How much time do you spend on this? Have you spent your whole day optimizing your workflow and answers to get an optimal response? Because they most certai…

Finding out how to keep them on the line longer is part of the fun.
Post reply on HN