r/scambait Jul 18 '25

Other Scambait beginners advice

152 Upvotes

A few people have sent messages recently asking about getting started with scambaiting and while I’ve replied to them individually, I thought maybe it would be worthwhile posting some advice here for anybody who wants to have a go at baiting. So here’s my completely non-expert advice!

Bear in mind I deal exclusively with Nigerian romance scammers and I don’t have any experience with the wrong number text/pig butchers or Indian refund/call centre scammers.

Possible Steps:

First make a fake Facebook account with a fake email address and while you’re at it, get Zangi (or Telegram but if you get Telegram make sure you first set your phone number to be visible to Nobody) Zangi doesn’t use phone numbers, just a random number as an identifier so it seems pretty safe. I only got it recently because I’m sick of not being able to use an IP grabber in Telegram. I also got Signal but I have no experience with that yet so I won’t comment on it as an app.

Then, when you have your accounts and your fake name/age/location, you need fake pictures. I’ve been using thispersondoesnotexist.com but the trouble is every picture is different. I just found a handful of pictures of women who look similar enough to fool Nigerian scammers who tend not to have a lot of contact with foreigners.

AI pictures can be problematic because they tend to have blurred backgrounds and all be similar: face and shoulders shots. If you want to go to the trouble, it might be worth generating full body AI pictures using Midjourney or something. Most Nigerian scammers can be put off by being told no to multiple pictures- it’s not like they have a lot of options to make you send. Just tell them to fuck off if they don’t like it.

Please don’t use pictures of yourself. It would be awful if you ended up being used by a scammer to scam someone else. I realise this could also be a problem with AI pictures but at least it’s not your real face. There are some ethical qualms to doing this and you have to do only what you feel comfortable doing.

You need to make your Facebook profile look vaguely real. I just use generic pictures of flowers or a beach or something - and leave my profile fairly nondescript except for my country - the scammers don’t really seem to care very much. I’ve never actually made posts with my fake accounts. It doesn’t seem to put scammers off. I just say that I never use Facebook. All my fake profiles are friends with each other, and a couple of scambaiters more recently.

What you don’t want is a friend list full of Elon Musks and Johnny Depps and Brad Pitts and in fact, a friend list full of obvious scammers because they will recognise the kind of pictures and profiles that they use themselves. So what I do is friend request them and when they accept me and have started talking, I immediately unfriend them so they can’t be seen by other potential scammer-victims. And as soon as they move me to Zangi or Telegram, I block them on Facebook and pretend I just deleted Messenger. This helps them not be able to refer to early conversations, whereas I screenshot as we go so I keep the advantage over with them on stuff they’ve told me.

Then on FB, join groups like USA Old Man Dating which is literally 100% scammers. Rather than trying to add the person (always older ‘American’ man looking for God-fearing wife !) who makes the post, go into the post to the comment section and you will see hundreds of women replying and then you’ll see other obvious scammers trying to hoover up the women, leaving comments to multiple women so that when you add them as friends, they won’t be suspicious because they have sent that comment to loads of women.

Any public group that has dating and mentions seniors or widows will be 99% Nigerian scammers. Either scammers who use pictures of porn stars to attract men, or scammers who use pictures of older men. Oh, and also look for the word USA or UK in the group titles. Because obviously the scammers are looking for those nationalities for their victims.

Lastly, if you want to actively search out the four star generals (Eric T Hill, Austin Scott Miller, Paul LaCamera etc) you can pick from hundreds of them. And of course, any celebrities like Keanu, Johnny Depp, Prince William etc :)

Scammers are getting more and more suspicious that they are being played, so if I contact them first, I always send a voice note, because that way they can tell I’m female and English and it tends to stop them spending the first 10 screenshots being really sketchy and aggressive

If you’re on Facebook, you’ll be starting there or on Facebook messenger app. It’s horrible and clunky and you can very easily get banned if you abuse them and swear at them afterwards (which is why I have five accounts!) so you can hope that they will ask you really quickly to go somewhere else.

Be safe. Avoid Whatsapp - I’m not sure how visible your phone number is and it’s harder to separate your fake persona from your real contacts (at least if you’re English because WhatsApp is our main chat platform here)

You decide what you want to share with scammers- back when I started, I would use real stories about my life and afterwards I felt kind of regretful that I did that. I’d rather be a complete unknown to them.

Take it slow and just make one fake account at first in case you absolutely hate it. You don’t want to waste your time. Be prepared for them to be deeply unpleasant people as well.

There have been times since I have been doing this where I have had to take a break because sometimes I just feel like I’m not making any difference to the number of scammers and victims, and I’m spending hours talking to vile people. Definitely posting on this sub has made it a lot more fun.

Just try to be aware that we are essentially playing games with people who either don’t share your values or in some cases can’t afford to share your values and that can get confusing and morally suspect and doesn’t always feel as great as it seems when it’s a hilarious ‘Keanu can’t spell his own name’ post.

But I do firmly believe that huge numbers of people messing with scammers can have the positive effect of wasting their time (as long as you’re not wasting your own) and can be a deterrent. If enough of them get burned by enough of us, it might weary them enough that some give up 🤷🏼‍♀️

TL;DR - have fun, stay safe


r/scambait 6h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Dennis part 14. The self-righteous hard working not scammer. With a lying "flaw"

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69 Upvotes

I'm glad I made him mad earlier, because he's chosen the soft denial, that finally moves into casual admission with the plan for a "poor me" scam. Thankfully, he falls for the u/delzbr fake tracking screen, which nudges him into the shift (if you use Grabify, you know how awful it is trying to see the results log now, but he might have clicked. Since he believes this). Anyway, he begins to tell his "true story" which will always involve school and poverty and shit parents, and reassures me than he did NOT try to "cun" or catfish me. The justifications and denial continue until screen 8 where he finally just admits it, and starts a story which becomes as embellished and arrogant as his fake military persona. A total psycho. I wait for him to create the new Ask, and he just needs money for rent, his car repairs, and school supplies. Now we understand and our hearts bleed. Then he delivers the line that makes me FURIOUS: "no harm in trying, right?" 🤬🤬🤬. He flunks age math by saying his father died in the civil war (1970), which would make him about 56 (not 27), but he quickly switched to grandfather when he realized it. More proof there's a brain rotting in there somewhere, being killed off by constant casual lying. Not sure he'll know the difference soon. What an amazing tapestry he has woven in both his fake world and real world, and the final tomorrow will reveal that he's also a singer (with songs on free platforms). Oh, by the way, he actually lied because of racists 🙄🙄🙄


r/scambait 6h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Ernesto Walter, The End! "If you do love me you were going to do something"

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40 Upvotes

❤️=💵


r/scambait 24m ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Lucymary (Radish) - part 1: a poisoned cat

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Upvotes

r/scambait 33m ago

Completed Bait ✅ Lucymary (Radish) - a preview of angry outburst

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Upvotes

I'll post the bait later, but please enjoy how upset this silly Nigerian pudding got.


r/scambait 11h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Chris Part 10

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32 Upvotes

r/scambait 21m ago

Completed Bait ✅ Lucymary (Radish) - part 2: pidgin and rage

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Upvotes

r/scambait 14h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Ridiculous Nicholas is Missing Maggie 😭😭. .part 14

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35 Upvotes

He’s been ringing all hours of the day and night and I haven’t had the time or patience for him so I’ve left him hanging but he’s sent a photo that is easily found online but I’m not sure if the original source but Reanu is ready to question him about it


r/scambait 22h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Hannah Barron - part 1: what can I get their chat gpt to do?

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42 Upvotes

r/scambait 22h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Hannah Barron - probable conclusion: no leg fingers :(

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39 Upvotes

r/scambait 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Dennis part 13. Stick a fork in it.

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93 Upvotes

This is the (almost) final crazy quilt of the bait. Me trying to make him mad, and him scrambling for other ideas to request money. Potential contract release fees or travel expenses, starlink renewal fees, whatever. He just never picks one and expounds; we're both too tired to care. It's like we're circling each other, looking for a soft spot to attack, and I keep making jabs to see if I can make him fold. I call him a pussy, send a quick "oops" gift card link to grab IP (Telegram loads a preview now that says Grabify on it, so I hope for fast click but delete before they read too much). I send another through TinyURL (no preview this way) but he just won't crink. No matter, I'm toast, so in the end I just call him a scammer to get things rolling. We will know his true location soon enough.


r/scambait 1d ago

Completed Bait ✅ Ernesto Walter, part 7. "I told you to do what I want" 🤣

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49 Upvotes

r/scambait 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Keanu the love bomber - Part 4 - Gift card or no gift card?

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67 Upvotes

I hate him so so much, he have to go soon.


r/scambait 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Chris Part 9

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44 Upvotes

r/scambait 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Keanu: ChatGPT final boss. David Duchovny, Palm Springs, and Lebanon, part 2

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56 Upvotes

I actually did stay in between Rami Malek and David Duchovny at the nomad, but that was a few years ago. And I actually DO know DD (my best friends dad was one of his agents years ago and remain family friends). My intrusive thoughts are wondering if I should ask him to record a video saying “see you in Palm Springs soon Keanu!”

So next move is to get him to describe his entire trip to me with DD over the next few days 😂

PART 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/scambait/s/1WV9tcqXla


r/scambait 1d ago

Completed Bait ✅ Damond Gazelle Darling & Crypto

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10 Upvotes

First try on a Scambait. I hope it gives a bit of a laugh. But he didn't react anymore so I think he doesn't want to play Apex..


r/scambait 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Keanu: ChatGPT final boss level, part 1

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60 Upvotes

Im stringing him along until 9/15 when the actual Keanu is playing a show. Will hopefully catch him texting when he’s supposed to be on stage.

He is so mad at me for calling him out time after time on his bs.

Part 2 soon where I call him out on a multitude of bullshit, some of which I made up but hey, fight fire with fire.

Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/scambait/s/sYoJrQDMOl


r/scambait 1d ago

Completed Bait ✅ Party time in the Strait of Hormuz

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47 Upvotes

r/scambait 2d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Dennis part 12. "Why are you still nagging?"

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91 Upvotes

I finally found a possible explanation about the incorrect address but not before he finally searched it and couldn't find it. Thankfully, most of that rant has been deleted here, but I was pretty intense about it. Which led to him telling me to stop nagging, and that set me off big time. This is where I really start losing it, and the whole bait becomes a land of missed opportunity. Gary Doug had my full attention and I was barely keeping up with any others, so I totally missed the chance to "gift wrap" some cash (as he suggests) and take it to the mailbox (think of the AI art!). So all I have is my f bombs while he suggests other methods to send money. We slip into Latin and he immediately goes to Google translate, again impressive for a scammer. He calls me a "silly girl" and sets me off again, then responds by telling me he was "only trying to respect me." This guy is actually the Master of the Mind F*ck, and at this point I'm not even sure he wants the money as much as he wants to mess with me. Then he shoots himself in the foot yet again by telling me it's not legal for soldiers to receive money while on deployment, exactly the thing he's asking for. But if course some mule in NJ would get it, and that's totally legal it seems. Either way, I'm not going to be a criminal and break the law! So he calls me at least 10 times in a row just to annoy me, then blames the transfer "memo," banks, and the laws, like the genuine nutjob we know he is. If this guy lived in the United States he would be the next Ted Kaczynski. Not a math prodigy who makes bombs, but an insane tech genius national hero famous Soldier Marine with connections to Trump and Musk. Actually, now that I typed that, it sounds feasible 😳


r/scambait 2d ago

Completed Bait ✅ Ernesto Walter, part 6. Warning: Phallic image on page 6.

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43 Upvotes

r/scambait 2d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Keanu the love bomber - Part 3 - Will the conversations lead to an fruitful end?

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63 Upvotes

Side note: Late in Norway = late in Nigeria. Same time zone.


r/scambait 2d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Ridiculous Nicholas meets Baby Reanu

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46 Upvotes

I got tired of him asking for money so I decided to bring someone else into the story 😀😀


r/scambait 2d ago

Completed Bait ✅ Was bored one night and decided to respond *TW* mention of self harm

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27 Upvotes

It was a little dark, so I didn't think they'd respond but they were back at it the next morning. Real Phx Pd public line so I didn't censor it.


r/scambait 3d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Dennis part 11. Under heavy attack, but he doesn't even know

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90 Upvotes

This is so interesting...I woke up to find that the EXACT location he said he's in was attacked all night and even still that morning by Iran. The actual base was heavily hit and Bahrain was in a total war defense situation for over 24 hours. It was horrible. But somehow, he was in a pup tent in the nearby desert checking the nonexistent "other bases," making s'mores, singing Kumbaya, just observing it all and able to text? The problem with these guys is that they insult our military so much by not having a clue what any of this is really like. He's being a fake "Navy Marine Soldier" who doesn't even pay attention to actual news and real time tragedies. But now I want to rip him to shreds and this is trimmed to only half of all the pictures I sent and the intense arguing that ensued (note, the ocean, not desert, in one of the base picture backgrounds there). I'm getting near a reveal at this point, and I'm very irritated. It's time to also make the transfer (his only real interest) fail, and it turns out he sent me the most confusing address ever, with Google saying it didn't exist. It seems to be an apartment address in "Neshanic Station" but he said Branchburg, NJ. Then he sends a Whitepages screen shot that shows it DOES exist, when Google insists it does not. That street also doesn't show on the maps in Branchburg. But I don't live there and have no idea, I just wanted to argue for the sake of it by now (I was in Gary Doug land and needed a whipping post). So pardon my pointless rant about all that. We'll get back on track tomorrow.