I feel that at this point, no matter how young or old you are, you’ve dealt with a scammer at least once. We’ve all heard of the whole foreign prince who needs you to wire them $200 so they can give you an inheritance of several hundred thousand, right?
Well, if you weren’t aware, there are people actually fighting these scammers. Yep, you read that right – there are people batting for you. Whether these are large operations or individuals, scambaiters are fighting the right fight and we’ll be talking about one of them today.
More info: Reddit
Sometimes scammers just won't give up, but it's not often that you see them engaging in arguments with their potential victims
Image credits: RDNE Stock project (not the actual photo)
A dad took it to petty revenge to share how he managed to accidentally defeat a scammer or at least scare them away for good
Image credits: DisregulatedDad
Image credits: Magnus D (not the actual photo)
The guy first attempted to appeal to the scammer's empathy, but there was little success to be found there
Image credits: DisregulatedDad
The scammer then started ranting about how American imperialism was the cause of the victim's and everyone else's problems
The poster batted back with some words that are banned by the Chinese internet firewall, leading to the scammer suddenly disappearing, potentially banned
The original poster (OP) of the story attempted the good old pathos approach for a start. Elaborating that he is a parent of a child who had a life-threatening illness and has spent an incredible amount of money so the little one would be okay, OP likely hopes that he’ll step on the scammer’s tail hard enough for him to withdraw with it between his legs.
But being amoral isn’t something that could deter a scammer!
The story takes on an interesting twist after that, though. Instead of trying to ply the same scheme again, the scammer came back with turning OP’s situation against him, saying that the USA and their imperialism is at fault for his own and the rest of the world’s problems.
Now, everyone reading this is probably very well aware of the flaws of the States’ healthcare system. Certain examples of American imperialism are also very real and nothing to sneeze at.
But that doesn’t really work as an argument to persuade (?) your attempted scamming victim, even if they have spent huge amounts of money on healthcare. Plus, they correctly point to similarly egregious examples of the Chinese government’s blunders.
Just in case there’s no misunderstanding, although the evidence points to the scammer being from China, it is uncertain. OP mentions he discerned that he may be from PRC by his name - Luan - but apparently it’s a rare name in Portugal and Albania. Not very credible.
The fact that he was using Chinese-English phraseology and repeating arguments frequently propagated by PRC propaganda is a better indication.
Bored Panda also managed to get in touch with the poster of the story for a couple of comments. Since then, it seems that OP's comments have gotten him on the do-not-call list, so that's one less scammer to deal with. Unfortunately, he added that he does encounter scams regularly - maybe one a week. There are certain lull and surge periods, though.
Disregulated Dad's final word is a piece of advice for people encountering scams: "It’s usually just a matter of setting as many things as possible to ignore because if you’re not responding then eventually, they may assume that the number has become inactive."
Image credits: Kindel Media (not the actual photo)
Then came the coup de grâce. OP partially explained it, but if you don’t yet know, there’s such a thing as the Great Firewall implemented in China. It doesn’t refer to a huge wall of fire (unfortunately) or some one specific measure, but rather legislation and technology employed in the PRC intended to censor many things on the internet.
There’s even a copypasta with a whole bunch of keywords in Chinese and English which, according to reports, trigger the Great Firewall and lead to a website getting banned. People in the comments even mentioned the copypasta working in the middle of online games, getting people removed on the fly.
So the poster pretty much unwittingly used only a couple of these words and the scammer seemed to have disappeared for good.
Now, this may get scammers off your back in some cases, but what about others?
Scamwatch Australia has some good tips. For a start, you should never give away your personal or financial info to anyone, unless you actually know that person or place well. Don’t give it away in text messages, emails, random websites, people on the street – trust no one.
But there are some more insidious things that scammers do. They’ll imply that whatever they’re offering is a great way to save money or that you’re gonna hit payday if you just help them. Another thing is that these people will try to get you to act urgently, whether pretending that whatever’s happening is an emergency or that the offer is only available for a very short time.
This does two things - it pressures you to act fast, increasing the turnover of people that get hooked on their scams and make you panicked, reducing your resistance to these scams.
And lastly - never click any random link you get, no matter where you get it. A better idea is to punch it into VirusTotal or another website that checks the safety of links. Don’t trust it blindly, though! If a link has a strange domain or typos in it or the message along with it, it’s a good sign that you’re better off avoiding it.
Image credits: Mateusz Dach (not the actual photo)
To get some actually field-tested advice on dealing with scammers, Bored Panda reached out to the wonderful YouTuber and Twitch streamer Rinoa Poison! She uses her skills and know-how to make fools out scammers who wouldn’t blink at taking a struggling person’s wage or savings, turning it into entertaining content.
For a start, we asked her whether scams really are a prominent problem currently. Rinoa had this to say:
"There has been a huge uptick in scams in recent years. Only last year, the FTC reported an increase in consumer losses of more than 30 percent compared to 2021. Scams are becoming more sophisticated with the use of technology and even artificial intelligence. People need to be more vigilant than ever in protecting themselves from fraud."
Here are some rules of thumb from Rinoa if you come across someone trying to poach your or your family’s hard-earned savings:
"Never open suspicious links on your computer from emails, instant messages or suspicious websites. If anyone calls you claiming to be from your bank or a service provider and asks for your information or to download remote assistance software, hang up immediately. Reputable companies will never ask you to pay using gift cards or bitcoin, so never fall for these common scam tactics."
Finally, the YouTuber gave us a little bit of insight on how she stays safe in her own profession:
"I use a virtual machine to do what I do when calling scammers to waste their time, and have numerous safety measures in place to protect myself. Being able to educate others on scams and create entertaining content while doing so is a dream come true!"
If you’d like to check out Rinoa Poison’s fun content and learn more about these scams, make sure to check out her channel! I can attest that they’re great to watch and listen to while you work - you can probably guess how I found that out.
The poster’s story got a nice 11k upvotes in a mere 3 days! It collected over 600 comments, where many people shared their own stories of combating scammers. Expose scams you’ve experienced and how you stay safe in the comments!
The commenters shared their own stories of trolling and dealing with scammers
