Whether it’s an email from a Nigerian prince or a fake email about anti-virus software, almost everyone has had a run-in with a scammer. Yet most of us just grumble to ourselves and ignore it. Only the brave few engage with the con artist, a practice called “scambaiting,” where they give the grifter a taste of their own medicine, leading them on and wasting their time.
One such brave soul recently captivated Reddit with a two-week saga where he let the scammer believe he was falling for their catfishing routine, pretending to form an intimate relationship and making the grifter believe they were on the cusp of gaining access to a $4 million fortune he didn’t really have. Truly a work of art.
A Reddit user posted screenshots of their two-week-long "scambait" of an online grifter, where they pretended to fall for the scam
Image credits: Pexels/SoumilKumar
It all started when Reddit user u/Zerilos1 started a chat with u/Embarassed_Sky3455. The latter encouraged the former to download WhatsApp to continue “supporting each other” in their investment goals. Showing the conversation to r/scambait, the subreddit assured u/Zerilos1 the friendly financial advisor was indeed a scammer, one that seemed undeterred by his hilarious backstory of being a circus clown turned party planner who had lost an arm to a police attack dog.
The scambaiter's increasingly absurd stories, which included having been a circus clown and divorcing his wife because she "lost" their kids, didn't seem to deter the con artist
Image credits: Pexels/ Lusina
Ultimately, u/Zerilos1 continued the “scambait” on Telegram, elaborating on his backstory with an even funnier tale of his ex-wife “losing” their kids and then divorcing him over his constant questions about where they were. Reddit cracked up over his blasé attitude at (and the scammer’s acceptance of) the loss of his children as well as the fake photo of a muscular man that he sent the scammer in return for her equally fake photo of a young, attractive East Asian woman.
In the second installment, our hero introduces a theme that will prevail throughout the saga: he’s a raging alcoholic who does absurd things while drunk that get him into trouble—but he’s trying to quit. This time, he got himself “banned from ever entering the Panda Express again.” He goes on to say, “It will take a week to decontaminate their deep fryer.” He predicts he “took things too far” and that the woman has figured out she’s the one being scammed.
The scambaiter convinced the grifter that he was a wealthy but emotionally unstable—and highly gullible—alcoholic
Far to the contrary, things only got more serious as the 14-part story continued. In part three, u/Zerilos1 begins telling his “future,” as he has her saved in his phone, that he loves her. Meanwhile, she invites him to come work for her in New York. Of course, he would need practice first, and she could teach him how to “make money easily through [his] mobile phone.” She also encourages him not to drink.
The scambaiter adds another layer of hilarity to the conversations by regularly consulting the con artist, who is now known as “Lorraine,” about other scams he seems to be a victim of. He also continuously makes himself out as even more of an abusive alcoholic, though the grifter remains understanding and committed to their online relationship. Meanwhile, u/Zerilos1 shows his commitment by claiming to have bought her an engagement ring.
By part seven, Lorraine attempts to move her scam forward by getting u/Zerilos1 to download “money-making” apps Strike and Defi. He leads the scammer on a run-around by acting technically inept and drunk.
The scammer tried to get the scambaiter's usernames and passwords for financial apps, but he would always forget them or have a last-minute crisis
After several stories of his drunk shenanigans, Lorraine gets fed up. She leaves him an angry voicemail asking our protagonist, “Where’s your brain?” Nevertheless, she continues her scam and u/Zerilos1 continues his bait, assuring his target that she’s the inspiration that will get him to quit drinking.
However, things take a rocky turn in part nine when our hero reveals he’s been talking to another woman, Sue. Cue the gasps. In peak hilarity, we see that Sue is, in fact, another scam artist following the exact same MO as Lorraine. Naturally, she can’t point this out without giving herself away and instead merely acts romantically jealous.
The scambaiter even introduced a second love interest who was clearly another grifter with the same MO
In part 10, u/Zerilos1 is once again sure he’s blown it. Lorraine seems detached — though she does keep reminding him to find his usernames and passwords for the apps. Yet in a move that will go down in scambaiting history, he keeps things alive by saying, “Password is the only thing you seem to care about. … Before we work on the crypto thing, we need to work on us.”
With newfound bravado, our champion goes into part 11 by doubling down on the absurdity. He claims to have woken up with a baby raccoon snuggling him and even sends a photo, followed by another of a family of raccoons invading his house.
Seemingly a misstep, the grifter reverse image searches the photos and discovers they’re from the Internet. Still, u/Zerilos1’s supposed fortune is just too tempting, and Lorraine “forgives” him and tells him he can “earn huge profits” with her.
Despite catching him sending fake photos, the con artist continued her ploy while the scambaiter continued to feign gullible love
Somehow, the drama manages to continue through to part 12, as the Reddit user ties the whole thing together by telling Lorraine his long-lost daughter has just turned up right as he was about to give her his usernames and passwords for the apps.
At the end of our tale, Lorraine has had enough. She really wants u/Zerilos1’s Coinbase password. Problem is, he doesn’t remember it. It was Sue who helped set it up, remember her? It’s been two weeks, and the grifter can’t take it anymore. She tells our hero that Sue was scamming him, and he snaps back, asking why she didn’t tell him sooner if she knew.
After two weeks and 14 Reddit posts, the scammer finally gave up and blocked the scambaiter—only to contact him the next day pretending to be someone else
The saga comes to a close with Lorraine blocking u/Zerilos1 after 14 episodes, not a dime richer for it. It seems the road has come to an end for our brave scambaiter.
Or has it? The very next day, u/Zerilos1 posted again on r/scambait: “She contacted me again. She wants that money.” Apparently, the same “scam center” reached out again, this time pretending to send a text to the wrong person. It seems that the Reddit user created the perfect backstory to get professional con artists to waste weeks of their lives.