I think all of us have heard of or even experienced an online scam before, whether it was the sketchy email offering large sums of money or questionable phone call regarding Microsoft support. Being a young generation with acute awareness of online customs, it is comparatively unlikely that any of us young folk will fall victim to such traps. In fact, those of us who have been gifted with a scam letter in our inbox have most likely all deleted, blocked, or simply ignored such attempts, quickly moving on with life.

 

But what if society demanded a better way to approach the situation?

See, while we members of Generation Z aren’t exactly the best demographic for your typical scammer, our experience is not universal. There are a lot of people out there, even some of us, who fall victim to scams. Victims lost over $1.4 billion in online fraud in 2017, and cybercrime costs the global economy as much as $600 billion. Scamming needs to be fought back against. If we, the scam-aware, engage with scammers, they have less time to deceive innocent people.  In other words: let’s waste their time.

 

This is what scambaiting is, and it is glorious. I first tuned into the practice during my sophomore year upon watching James Veitch’s Ted Talk ‘This is What Happens when you reply to spam email’. I was hooked, and I even created a program using some knowledge from Computer Programming 1 to create a python program that made it easier to email scammers and waste their time. While email scambaiting was interesting and fun for me, it is not however as entertaining as the scambaiting that can be achieved by calling an actual scammer.  Which brings me to this year. A couple weeks ago I came across Kitboga, a YouTuber whose real name is unknown, whose channel is entirely based on scambaiting.

 

Kitboga began scambaiting in 2017 after he finding out that his grandmother fell victim to many types of scams designed to prey on the elderly, both online and in person. During his calls with the scammers, which are uploaded and streamed for viewer’s pleasure. Kitboga fools scammers through acting out various personas- including an 80-year-old grandmother named Edna, a Russian man named Vicktor Viktoor, or a valley girl named Neveah, to name a few. The YouTube star, who has nearly one million subscribers, uses audio software to modify his voice to make his characters more convincing.

Throughout his interactions, Kitboga feigns an inability to use technology, and deliberately fails to comprehend the meaning of the scammers, taking up as much time on his calls as possible. His record call clocks in at over 42 hours, with over 1,500 callbacks, with scammers “Adam Smith” and “Alex”.  Kitboga’s videos are not only beneficial to society, but they are highly entertaining. His videos begin with a remixed phrase “Just wait a moment” which features an unlucky scammer instructing a gleeful Kitboga to ‘wait a minute’ as his “technical support” is processing. Additionally, Kitboga makes numerous references to American pop culture such as the phrase “Cash me outside, how bout dat” to the scammer, who is oblivious to the meaning behind the words. When boredom calls, consider giving his channel a watch.

 

If you’re up for it, consider scambaiting yourself. The website https://www.419eater.com/ has email addresses of scammers (don’t use your real address), and phone numbers can be found through searching the google. Instagram also has opportunities for scambaiting. I personally have been contacting the user @brasch123, but still haven’t received my bitcoin. Perhaps shipping takes a while.

 

Sources:

https://www.usa.gov/online-safety

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/02/08/internet-scammers-are-terrible-this-troll-is-their-nightmare/