Scam baiting

Scam baiting is when a person online, called a scambaiter, pretends to be a person who is vulnerable to a specific scam and wastes a scammer's time and resources.

Method

Internet scams come in many forms, and so scam baiting comes in many forms too. For written scams (scam emails), the scambaiter usually answers the scam email using a temporary ("throwaway") email account, pretending to fall for the scam. This makes the scammer vulnerable to be tricked, since the scammer may do lots of things in order to scam the scambaiter. The scammer may be tricked into answering a very long survey, taking a very long trip, or even downloading a computer virus. Such a virus is often used to take control of the scammer's computer and play pranks on them and expose them.

For scams that are performed over a phone call, Scambaiters may pretend to not be able to hear the scammer. This makes the scammer talk slowly and loudly, wasting their time and making the scammer look silly to anyone in the room. The scambaiter may also put the scammer on hold for a long time (possibly for hours) while pretending to take another call.