Mac loves to bait those evil scammers – playing them at their own game. You can read about Mac’s exploits at http://macsbaitstore.com/tips.html

Here are his tips:-

• Make a fake persona for yourself before you start scam baiting (name, address, phone, etc.) – this will prevent you from making mistakes that will give you away later to the scammer.
• Use a free email account for your scambaiting – Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Live.com, etc.
• Don’t give scammer any real information – for obvious reasons…
• Consider using a Virtual private Network to disguise your IP address. If you have a floating IP address from your broadband supplier then this is not an issue as floating IP addresses only resolve back to your supplier – not to you
• Do not give them your home phone number – try a service such as k7.net for messages or a mobile – I use a number that always rings, then make some excuse why I never answer (at work, store, etc.).
• You can set-up a “catcher” account to receive scam emails, and a “baiter” account to carry on the bait. This is sound advice, but not always necessary – you can actually copy a scam email you find on the web or bulletin board and paste it to a new email to “reply” to a scammer. They send out so many emails, they will never know that they never actually sent an email to you.
• Scambait with your eyes wide open – remember, these are criminals you are dealing with and everything that comes from their mouth is most likely a lie. In the course of the scambait, you will be sworn out, insulted and even threatened.

Treat the Scammers the Mac Way

• Make their lives difficult! Remember, they will have certain documents already prepared, so ask for other documents as proof. They will send you a “Certificate of Deposit” for a bank account – ask for a current Account Statement instead. Explain that a Certificate of Deposit only shows what was deposited in the account years ago, but not what is in the account now. They will waste valuable computer time making a fake document…
• If they send you a Passport ID, ask for a Driver’s License and vice versa. Notice that the picture on both is usually the same…
• Ask many stupid questions and make sure they answer every question you have. They will try to stick to their script – get them off it.
• Poke holes in all of their ideas, theories, and routines. The typical scammer knows nothing about business or banking, so correct them, question them, suggest other methods, etc.
• Question every spelling error – even if you do understand what they meant. This will also waste their valuable time.
• Point out all of their mistakes in documents – scammers don’t bother about details so pick them out and demand explanations.
• Scammers are constantly getting their free email accounts shut down. Don’t let them get away with this without a fight! I like to tell them ‘that I contacted Yahoo when the mail came back undelivered, and Yahoo said the account was shut down for fraudulent activities’ – make them explain that one!
• When a bait starts to peter out or if you haven’t heard from the scammer in a while – send them a message ‘that you sent the money via MoneyGram, did you get it yet’. Nothing revives a dead bait like the promise of money!
• Never, ever let them get in the last word! Remember, one of the main goals is to keep them busy – if they keep replying to your insults, they are not scamming someone else!

For more information, have a look at http://macsbaitstore.com/tips.html

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.