Hi everyone!

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This is going to be a bit of a longer post, but we're going to cover a lot, so let's get right into it!

Table of Contents:

    1. Introduction

    2. Setting a Goal

    3. Securing Yourself

    4. Finding Scams

    5. Making the Call (Legally)

    6. Conclusion

    7. Resources

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Scambaiting (the process of intentionally calling scammers pretending to be a victim) is not only a great way to legally fight the scammer epidemic, but the best way to have fun doing it. While most people stick to watching YouTubers do the scambaiting, in this post we’re going to teach you how to get your foot in the door and be able to scambait on your own.

Setting a Goal:

The number one goal of scambaiting is to waste scammers’ time. The more time of theirs that you can waste, then the less time they will have to steal money from victims. Second to this goal, you also want to figure out what you, as an individual, hope to gain from the experience. For example, a YouTuber would want entertaining and comedic content, while our team at We Hack Scammers want to gather actionable intelligence and report it to the proper authorities. Whether you want to make a meaningful impact, practice your accent, or just have fun, it’s important to establish your motive at the beginning as it will dictate other decisions you make moving forward.

Securing Yourself:

The next, and most important, step is to secure yourself online when scambaiting. While it is unlikely that scammers will act upon any personal information they discover about you (aside from continually attempting to scam/annoy you), it is still of the utmost importance to ensure your personal security while scambaiting. To do this, there are three main methods: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and a Virtual Machine (VM) – all of which can be used to varying degrees to protect yourself based upon your individual goals.

    VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol will be an essential tool for every scambaiting individual. This service provides you with a real phone number that you will be able to use to call scammers without it being tied to your identity. Unless you subscribe to an existing VoIP service, our recommended free service (that is very easy to use) is TextNow. To create an account, you will need to either attach an existing phone number or an email address; however, since the whole point of securing yourself is anonymity, the best way to create an anonymous account is to use an email account with ProtonMail. ProtonMail allows you to create an email address without entering any personally identifiable information (unless you choose to add a recovery method). Please Note: Do NOT create an email address associated with you in any way. Refrain from using language that may be deemed as inappropriate as it may prevent you from being able to make accounts or use other services.

With your ProtonMail email address, you will be able to create a TextNow account. In the signup process, you will be prompted to choose the location of your phone number. Again, it is STRONGLY recommended that you do NOT choose a location that can be tied back to you in any way. Keep in mind that many people use this service, so you may need to try several different locations before finding an available phone number. TextNow allows you to call any phone number within the United States for free, as well as send text messages (with some limitations). Additionally, there is a paid version that will allow you to call and text phone numbers internationally (although most scammers will use US phone numbers).

    VPN: A VPN allows a user to appear as if their IP address is located somewhere other than their current location. This method of security is highly recommended for scambaiting as a safeguard, but may or may not be necessary depending on your individual scambaiting goals. There are many different VPN services, most of which require payment; however, a free VPN service comes with your ProtonMail account (ProtonVPN) and is more than sufficient for the usage of scambaiting.

    VM: A virtual machine is essentially a computer within a computer. It allows you to take any computer operating system and run a virtual version of it on your computer. This creates a secure “sandbox” environment that will prevent anything that happens on your virtual machine from affecting your host computer. This level of security is optional depending on your personal scambaiting goals. For example, if you intend to target tech support-based scams you would likely need to download screen sharing features to allow scammers to access your computer. As it is a terrible idea to allow a scammer to gain access to your personal computer, a VM will protect you, as nothing the scammers do will affect you. Additionally, if you intend to visit scam websites, it is a good idea to do so within the safety of a VM as it will protect your main computer from malicious websites. The two primary softwares used for virtual machines are VirtualBox and VMware. Both offer free versions and the choice is up to the user which one they are more comfortable using. Tutorials for installing and setting up both of them are linked below:

Finding Scams:

Now that we have a goal in mind and have secured ourselves, we need to go about finding a scam to scambait. There are many available resources to find scam numbers to call, such as scambaiting YouTuber’s Discords or r/scamnumbers. However, here we will focus on our preferred resource, scammer.info. scammer.info is a web-based forum dedicated entirely to scambaiting. It is a great place to not only find scam numbers, but also find a variety of resources and like-minded individuals to explore in your scambaiting journey. Within scammer.info, the best place to look for scam numbers will be in the “Scams” subforum. The subforum has countless posts that include the numbers of scams along with information gathered by other scambaiters, such as what type of scam is, how the scammers acted during the call, and any recommendations to other scambaiters. There is also the option to sort these posts by the time it was posted or by the type of scam. Keep in mind that it may take several attempts before you find a real, active phone number, as scammers are constantly changing their numbers to avoid having their call centers flooded.

Making the Call (Legally)

Now that we found a scam to target, all that is left is to go about making an actual call. Before going right in, it is a good idea to do some research on how this particular scam works and what information you will be asked to provide so that you are prepared. Majority of the time, this information can be found on the scammer.info post of your target scam. An extremely important thing to keep in mind when scambaiting is that scammers are also protected by the law. Being that you are using a variety of third-party softwares to go about scambaiting, committing any questionable activity on these services will not bode well and may result in you being banned from using them. The safest way to ensure you don't break any laws is to not be mean to the scammers. As much as you may want to use profanity or aggressive language, in some cases, it can be grounds for harassment or even a hate crime, both of which are not something to be taken lightly.

Once you have done your research, make sure that all of your security methods are set up and active, and go ahead and make the call. Don't be discouraged if a large majority of the numbers you try don't work at first, as it often takes several attempts before a legitimate number is found. It will likely take some time before you are able to find your groove in scambaiting, but for some helpful tips, go ahead and check out our other post on how we try to convincingly act as a victim. 

Conclusion:

Hopefully by now you have learned everything you need to know to get started with scambaiting. Keep in mind that there is so much more that can be learned and gained from others about scambaiting. It's always a good idea (regardless of the field or hobby you pursue) to continue on the path of advancing your knowledge and searching for new ways to improve. As you grow, you will find many different services that can be utilized to enhance your skills and simplify the scambaiting process. For example, at the time of his writing, our team has just transitioned to the BobRTC scambaiting web application, which automates many of the steps mentioned in this post into one platform, keeping you secure and expediting the research process. If you enjoy scambaiting, it is definitely worth checking out and you can find more information here.

If you have any questions or would like extra guidance don't hesitate to reach out to us at wehackscammers@protonmail.com.

Happy scambaiting!

s0merset7

Resources

https://protonmail.com

https://textnow.com

https://protonvpn.com

https://www.virtualbox.org/

VirtualBox Setup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RpsupO8aD0

https://vmware.com

VMware Setup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oa2MZVw14c

https://www.reddit.com/r/ScamNumbers/

https://scammer.info

https://wiki.bobrtc.tel