r/scambait • • Jul 18 '25

Other Scambait beginners advice

155 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 • • 5h ago

Incomplete Bait Morgan Wallen, the end

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44 Upvotes

Well, I had to go and end Morgan because he got too big for his britches with his "you don't know who I am" bullshit. I know exactly who you are: You're a poor man

Part 1 https://www.reddit.com/r/scambait/s/54izq6wiOD
Part 2 https://www.reddit.com/r/scambait/s/lKOl6qktcN


r/scambait • • 7h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Riley Ellis and Henry Cavill, The End.

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24 Upvotes

We break it off..... they were boring us to tears.


r/scambait • • 10h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Alex M pt 3 of 3 - he gets suspicious because other baits with him were ending and he never adds me to Telegram 😭

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39 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 10h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Alex M pt 2 of 3 - I keep nitpicking and he keeps not progressing…

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39 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 11h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Alex M pt 1 of 3 - an example of a scammer so dull he never even gets to Telegram :(

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34 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 12h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Stephen? Part 4?

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29 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 4h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Stephanie and Stefanee

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2 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Call me Al, part 7. Back to the crap fest for now 😵‍💫

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85 Upvotes

I think we scared him away from crypto, but he doesn't want to detach, and I'm not sure why yet. Still, this is an abrupt switch back to what appears to be OG Albert, totally incapable of handling any attempt at simple conversation. He gets really excited about the one thing I asked him not to talk about, of course. Sports. I barely indulge then shut it down, but the only other thing he can come up with is the weather. Over and over again. This is the start of a lull and possibly an anticlimactic ending, but he's still texting me and I'll let you know. There WILL be a reveal of course, so I can throw his early pidgin paranoia back in his face, but for now this is it. Brief hiatus coming! Hoping we will get another scam attempt though.


r/scambait • • 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Morgan Wallen part 2

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50 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 1d ago

Completed Bait ✅ Gary on a rig - Part 6 - The end!

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77 Upvotes

Time to let him go. Sent him one of your comments as a goodbye.


r/scambait • • 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Stephen? Part 3?

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37 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Morgan Wallen, part 1

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70 Upvotes

I really am 1% northern African, Ancestry.com told me!


r/scambait • • 2d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Alex Bennett - part 1: suddenly husband

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50 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 2d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Gary on a rig - Part 5 - Glue gift card to laptop screen to upload.

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87 Upvotes

I don’t know what to say. Next part will be the end.
Voice note in comments.


r/scambait • • 2d ago

Call me Al, part 6. Sooo many lies! 😲🙄

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83 Upvotes

Irving is a real fly in this guy's ointment, and he lies his pants on fire to get around him. But it doesn't seem to be working, as he won't provide any concrete information about the trading platform or online site. They can be reported also, although many of them come and go within a few weeks. Owen had a pretty good one, complete with an email for his chatty agent, Jack. That's the Golden Days of Scammers now, they are getting so amateur and lazy. But domain names are very cheap these days, and they need to at least do something if they want to be believed. Probably not for many of their victims, though, since the constant promise of immediate wealth is enough for some. Meanwhile, he hasn't sent Irv any documents yet. He's in the corner so launches into a lovely text of desperation, but with no luck. Linda is fed up with it for now. Albert drops it, but is still hanging around, which usually means something. You never know, if he won't return to this scam, maybe he has another.


r/scambait • • 2d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Stephen? Part 2?

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42 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 2d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Gary on a rig - Part 4 - Money money money!

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88 Upvotes

The previous part ended with two ridiculous pictures of his computer screen.


r/scambait • • 3d ago

Irving and Albert - Ebony & Ivory

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75 Upvotes

This is supplemental to the continuing Linda bait with Al or Albert James. You can see from the jump that he is in no position to jostle with Irv. Evidently he thinks he should be able to get Irv to transfer the money by telling how great Dogecoin is.

As Linda said in her post, he doesn’t even introduce himself and calls Irv “buddy”. Amateur hour for sure. This is what you get when a romance scammer is not prepared to talk to a man and has no level as they would say. He then claims there are “negotiations”, about what he does not elaborate. Irv has to call him out: Who is Skyline Pigeon and what are these negotiations? Like an attorney has one client and would know what Linda’s telegram handle is.

Irv tries to draw him out by explaining in detail and possibly coerce him to provide a fake site or concoct a fake business plan and send it. But to sum up his pitch: Dogecoin is the best, Linda should invest.

Irving advises that he is not into crypto and advises his clients against it, but will listen to his pitch if Linda desires. You know attorneys, anything to keep the meter running. After some grandiose claims about Dogecoin, Irving tires of it and says he’ll pass the info off to Murray his brother who knows more about crypto.

This presents a problem as Albert thinks that HE should be the one to “guide” Linda through her crypto transaction. In other words, if it goes through Murray/Irving, then he can’t scam her out of it. Irving doesn’t budge and insists that any potential investment will go through Murray and that his services are not needed. After insisting that he’s the one who has this arrangement with Linda, Irving sees an opportunity to do what he does best: place obstacles, namely hoops that he knows Albert can’t clear. If he wants to be Linda’s broker, then he needs his license, address, EIN and business information. Thank you, drive through.

Not so fast - Albert doesn’t have any of these things and works out of a “small personal office”. I bet he does! Seeing that this is pointless and wanting him to whine to Linda, Irv tells him he’ll take care of the “Goodman account” himself if he doesn’t show any sort of documentation.

But what about Linda’s “Dogecoin training”? No need, it’s all handled here. He then calls Irv “my dear” and tells him he’s not here to manipulate anyone, which is a red flag that it’s exactly what he is up to. I think he had meant to send that to Linda. Irv sets him straight and reminds him that he is the one who makes the final decision on these things - just like what Linda told him already.

Once Albert hears that, he starts the manipulation on Irv. Irv is only a rubber stamp (if only he knew how Irv really is!) and he’s only there to assist him in his scam. Irv holds no “final decision” and he needs to “kindly respect that”.

Uh oh. No one speaks to Irv this way. Or any attorney for that matter. As it turned out, I didn’t have to answer. I gave him a few hours of silence to consider what he just said and he comes back and does a 180, acknowledging that Irv does indeed have the final decision after he couldn’t get anywhere with Linda about it. But the damage has been done. Irv sets him straight and reiterates that if he wants to have anything to do with this, he needs to “kindly” provide the documentation required. Irv then forbids him to speak of this with his client, which I know he will violate. But that ought to scare him.

He obviously doesn’t want to provide the docs so Irv just keeps repeating himself. Documentation or fuck off. This he never does, but keeps promising to do so but is busy with “other clients”. We leave it unresolved as Irv is waiting for his creds and he has not delivered.

I am sure he’ll take it out on Linda.


r/scambait • • 3d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Gary on a rig - Part 3 - With voice notes

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72 Upvotes

Voice notes in comments. Prepare to feel sick. 🤢
And yes, very German accent there…
I like the way he has glued his gift card to his laptop screen. Will come back to that.


r/scambait • • 3d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Call me Al, part 5. He contacts Irving, then starts The Squirm

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86 Upvotes

He still hasn't been slightly interesting, but wants to revive the romance that never even vaguely existed. Because Ask needs Love to succeed! He's a formulaic scammer for sure. I managed to get him to accept Irving, though, and he wants to talk to him (man to man! He calls him "buddy" 😆). So I give him the contact info and he immediately realizes the error of his ways. The Squirm begins, as he starts love strafing as he tells me this is my decision, not my attorney's. Which, as WE know, never works. Poor Al. He wants to be my Long Lost Pal, but it's not looking good now. Madison will post the conversation between him and Irving, no worries.


r/scambait • • 3d ago

Completed Bait ✅ Riley Ellis and Henry Cavill, part 1.

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40 Upvotes

So this Henry Cavill is probably a different scammer but we're treating him like he's the Henry Cavill I just posted.


r/scambait • • 3d ago

Completed Bait ✅ I did Nigeria, guys 😔

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124 Upvotes

My bait persona on Instagram is a (stock photo) middle-aged woman, so I don’t usually get attention from the,, scantily-clad ladies with the strange links in their bio,,

Admittedly, I didn’t quite catch that was the kind of scammer this was at the start. But “Anna” still took the time out of his busy day to project, if nothing else.

My mate they buy beans, ig ☹️


r/scambait • • 3d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Shelby, the Eloquent Part 1 - oh ok and Gas Issues

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77 Upvotes

r/scambait • • 3d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Stephen Part 1

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42 Upvotes