Hi I am a scambaiter :)

**shamfien** · 03-30-2010, 11:07 AM

I can almost hear people scratching their heads wondering what a scam baiter is!

Basically, I "bait" scammers. I am part of a group of volunteers that collects information that is is often given to contacts in Law enforcement ( I hasten to add that I am not in Law Enforcement myself)

Currently, I am looking at a particular scam which targets Real Estate brokers etc .

The scam is a variation of a "fake check" scam where an individual will contact a realtor (is that the right word?) to buy a property.
The scammer will send a fake check to pay for a deposit (often a fake bank draft )
The scammer will then cancel the purchase and demand a part refund.
As many of these fake checks would be upwards of $100,000 the scammer stands to gain a lot from the returned deposit.
I am sure that many of you would think "I would not fall for that" and maybe you are right, but the scammers still make millions of dollars a year from this scam.
You might understand Real estate... but they understand scams!

I am currently building a Real Estate website. This is to give me the appearance of being a New York estate agent so that the scammers can "scam" me

I would appreciate any help especially from anyone that has received these emails or have been scammed by these emails.

I have not posted a link to the anti fraud forums I frequent as I do not want to be seen as spamming but if anyone would like.. I can post them.

Yours,
Shamfien

**allansmithy** · 03-31-2010, 10:56 AM

You cool sham. Hope to hear from you more in the days ahead. Count me in the list. I patronized your advocacy.

**maui** · 03-31-2010, 05:24 PM

Sham, welcome to the forum. I am sure many members will give you great feedback on your efforts. After the required amount of posts, you are more than welcome to post the link to your site. Thanks.

**rushdelivery** · 03-31-2010, 10:59 PM

cool name Scambaiter.! You're very much welcome here.. Hope you track down those scammers.. Looking forward to your posts here in our forums.. Have a nice day..

**shamfien** · 04-01-2010, 11:43 AM

Wow.. I thought I was getting email notifications from this thread but Im not... Ill have to check my settings!

Thanks for your replies and thank you Admin for allowing the links (after the required amount of posts

)

My name... yes.. I know it starts with "Sham" but where I am from "shamfien" actually means the opposite.

Once I have set up my front website, I will email several of these scammers. Eventually, they agree to buy the property I offer with a counterfeit check.
If they are freshly stolen these checks get past the banks security .The sooner they are reported, the less chance people will get scammed.

If the checks sent by UPS or Fedex, the account used to send will also quickly get flagged and shut down.

If I chose to "receive" the check, of course I can tell the scammer that I will wire him the money.... as soon as he gives me the bank account he is using for laundering.
That bank account can also get shut down.

So, there is a lot of information that can be gathered. Sure, with the promise of a big fat payday I could convince a scammer to take a photo of himself wearing a tutu and writing "Im a sugarplum fairy" on his chest... but this is a "straight" bait... I am after the information to stop them from being able to scam.

I will have my website ready to go over the weekend, so if any of you have received scam emails targeting realtors then post them up here and we'll go from there!

Thanks,
Shamfien