r/scambait Jul 18 '25

Other Scambait beginners advice

95 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 1h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Fronk 11 - Tampons are for loose and unsavory women!

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Upvotes

Ah, yes, I've been waiting for this - the introduction of the Fronk names!

After a quick lesson on how often snakes feed, Fronk starts back up with his love-bombing verbal diarrhea. Help me understand this...they make shock collars for dogs, right? Why isn’t there something like that for humans? My world would be a much more peaceful place if I could just shock the shit out of people.

Looks like I’ve picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. Fronk has never seen a grown man naked and I’m sorry, but I find it very hard to believe, that in a county where indoor plumbing is probably relatively new, he’s never seen a wang or two. Or fifty.

I'm a little disappointed he didn’t say anything about my Nigerian housekeeper named Ayofemi. I specifically Googled "popular Nigerian girl names" just for him! What an ingrate!

He tries to get cheeky, but I shut that shit the fuck down. As my grandmother, Livia, always says, "I don’t like that kind of talk. Now just stop it. It upsets me." And there he goes making promises he knows he can’t keep, by offering to die for me.

I wish the Lord would take him now.


r/scambait 5h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Reunited, part 14. A text from Jimmah, fresh starts/new focus, history revision. Same old 😴😴😴

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34 Upvotes

Now that I have my old phone back my memory will improve, and I'm getting stronger every day. Plus, Jimmy sends an apology from his new account with a picture of a 8 or 9 year old on it. No wonder he calls himself a little boy! Stevie feels that this necessitates a return to love bombing and backs away from any new ask. The boots are a dead issue. I can't tolerate that, so now I'll have to bait my hook and get my cash back from clearance and Diane, who also has the Ashleigh boob stash. Possibly I'll try to get a refund on that Rolex. Mention of James never makes him jelly, which sucks because I wanted to fit him in somehow, but I'm still thinking. We're in another lull, so I build the wealthy lady images a little more. A total yawn right now.


r/scambait 8h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Alan Jackson - failed bait but worth it for the voice notes 🤪

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37 Upvotes

r/scambait 2h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Harris - Part G

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12 Upvotes

Since I know next to nothing about sea life, or cargo ships or delivery of goods , I decided to have ChatGPT help me. Harris should have used it also cause his story is getting more and more ridiculous. Also I looked up the photos of the pipes and cables and he took them directly off of a few different websites. I'll save that for my reveal.

enjoy ! 🥳🥳🥳


r/scambait 10h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Staven part...4? 5? Im so bad at this. THE END? dun dun duuuun

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35 Upvotes

So im back on wwf. Went on this person does not exist and found 3 photos that look VAGUELY like the same person ill just do the one view thing if I send them. Wish me luck 😂 also I thought staven had ended...but I got bored yesterday and messaged dramatically. And he responded so...there will be bonus for my amusement...he deserves his time wasted. If anyone wants his zangi lemme know.


r/scambait 3h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Franck Part 23 The End

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10 Upvotes

He did try another time to talk to me again and I blocked him! I just couldn’t do it, he wouldn’t accept anything and just thought he should be forgiven. I do not believe “my world” is his mom, I think it was his girlfriend 🤷🏻‍♀️


r/scambait 1d ago

Funny 🤣 She called me the Weenie King

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1.1k Upvotes

I don’t think our marriage is going to work out…


r/scambait 6h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Elon Musk #2, part 3. Drowning in his ketamine habit.

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15 Upvotes

Makes less and less sense as we go on. Fiance starts on page 7 and goes till end.


r/scambait 3h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Laugh with me

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6 Upvotes

r/scambait 11h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Franck Part 22 with Maggie

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17 Upvotes

r/scambait 20h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Scammer got fooled

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68 Upvotes

r/scambait 4h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Need ideas to string along an “inspection yard” scammer

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2 Upvotes

Got a scammer pretending to be interested in buying my motorbike. He sent me to inspection yard to pay £30 for a “vehicle report”. Obviously fake.

I’ve got his WhatsApp and number, and I’ve already reported the number to 7726. He doesn’t know I’m onto him yet, so I’ve got a window to have some fun.

Any suggestions for safe ways to waste his time? I’m thinking of feeding him fake details or pretending to pay, but I’d love to hear what tricks work best.


r/scambait 19h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Fronk part 10 - a loner, Dottie, a rebel!

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31 Upvotes

I'm having fun adding all these stickers to my slides 🤪

So, a funny thing is happening with his messages. They’re on some kind of delay or something, because he’ll say something and I respond to it and after I respond, another message from him comes through, but it appears before my response to the first thing he said. Make sense? It doesn’t to me, either, but I don’t care enough to worry about it. So when he says his network is acting up, it might just be the truth - the only iota of truth you will ever get from him.

More bullshit about taking care of me. I don’t need no stinkin' man! But I made sure to let him know I think people who ask for money are weak and lazy. That won’t deter him, though. And my circadian rhythm is just fine, stop telling me when to rest, fuck knuckle!

Santino and Christafuh could totally be fraternal twins, even though James Caan isn't Italian. Poor Sonny, he didn't deserve that ambush at the toll booth 😭

Then, it's time for a biology lesson. Or an attempt at one, anyway. I still can't make sense of that sentence. It gives me a hurty brain. Maybe I should go back to the zoom...


r/scambait 7h ago

Funny 🤣 Colm Kelleher wants to give me money!!

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3 Upvotes

I love how creative this email is. I truly appreciate the effort that was put into this


r/scambait 19h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Short and Sweet, I guess there are no turnip trucks in Nigeria either.

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24 Upvotes

It's been a while...and unlike some baiters I have very little patience. On my profile where this guy contacted me, I very clearly stated that if you slip into my DMs I will call you out and post the resulting conversation. They never read your bio. He's blocked me in short order, I'm not mad.


r/scambait 19h ago

Funny 🤣 Yes hello this is Ego the Living Planet

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20 Upvotes

r/scambait 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Dennis the Menace - It’s a “must” for a woman to clean and “Paris has a lot of ocean okay?” - Part 5

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64 Upvotes

Dennis finally reconnects after waffling for almost two months, but this time he sticks around. He had a failed ask months ago, so he has probably forgotten about all that. He claims to be a US/UN doctor in Israel who had a bad signal and I stressed to him that Israel was a high tech country and it wasn’t likely he had a hard time getting connected.

Immediately he shows his sexist self when replying to my comment that I was cleaning.

“But you’re a woman and it’s a must”

After I call him out for being sexist, he tries to change the subject. By asking about what I had for lunch, of course! I wasn’t letting him get away from that comment, so he tries to make it sound like he was saying it was because I was alone that I must clean. I am not buying it and I redirect his attention to the original comment about me being a woman.

He then pivots to how he will clean with me when we are together, but Charlotte doesn’t want a sexist pig around the house. No thanks. We get into what he originally said once again, and he compounds the issue even further:

“Are you not a housewife?”

Ahhh - so that’s why he thought it was a “must”! No - Charlotte isn’t married. Are you going to remarry? Absolutely not. Don’t you believe in love? Sure - but not marriage. He demands clarification as to why I think that way. After explaining that to me it’s just a legal contract, he drops it and begins on the romance and how he really wants to be with Charlotte.

Charlotte immediately expressed doubt that this can work being that he’s in Israel and seems to always disappear. Like all Yahoo Boys, they want the relationship to begin before meeting, though Charlotte still insist on the meeting before deciding on whether to pursue it. This is the problem all of them have because they can never meet you.

Not to worry because Dennis is getting back from Israel in 5 months. No biggie. Just sit and wait for him. Not a problem at all. But it’s a matter of time and patience, Charlotte. I have a feeling it’ll be a matter of money as well before too long. Just a hunch.

When he expresses his undying love for me which had happened within the past few days, I had to call him out on that. This is a guy who repeatedly disappeared and days ago was no where to be found. But I am being conditioned to believe that he’s had me on his mind all this time he’s been ghosting me.

But we have been talking for over 3 months, Charlotte! Sure, but off and on and the only memorable thing was that he asked me to pay for a card to purchase internet. Once I said no, he hopped in and out of the conversation at will.

Then we get to Charlotte’s hobbies - racing cars, Bible Camp and Jews for Jesus. Here’s where we get to the good stuff. Since his hobbies are “boat cruise”, he sends me two pics of some guy on a boat and on the beach at some tropical locale.

“This is my last vacation and boat ride in Paris”.

Paris!?!? See the last two slides of this post for what he thinks is Paris. After informing him that Paris is neither tropical nor is it on the ocean, he continues to double down. Have you been to Paris? Sure I have, and the pics you have shown me are definitely not Paris, chief.

Of course it is Paris! I instruct him to look at a map to determine exactly where Paris is and how far the ocean is. Not to mention the tropical setting is nowhere near it. Charlotte gets into more detail about how that is certainly not Paris, and he says he doesn’t want to prolong this argument.

I inadvertently offer him a way out by saying that wasn’t a boat cruise to Paris, so he agrees it wasn’t a boat cruise to Paris. The tropical beach pictures ARE in Paris! No Eiffel Tower, no Arc d’Triumph. Just tropical beaches on the ocean! Looks like Paris to me!

“Paris has a lot of ocean okay?” 😂

Finally I get him a map of France and circle Paris. I then identify what the color blue on a map means. Is Paris near the blue? Paris is 2-3 hours away from the ocean, and it definitely is not tropical as in the pics. He changes his story and says it is “France ocean”. Oh so not in Paris? Only thing close to that would be the south of France and that is on the other side of France. What a dolt: none of these Yahoos have any clue of geography. It’s like they can’t even read a map. I’ve spoke to some Nigerians who can’t even recognize other areas in Nigeria that are not near where they are.

I do a reverse search for the pics and got a result for Columbian footballer Juan Pablo Angel, though I am not sure it is him. Feel free to identify the final two pics as to whom this really is because he is still coming at me and asking for a selfie. Would love to hit him with that truth!


r/scambait 22h ago

Completed Bait ✅ I ran him off!

29 Upvotes

I'm still chuckling.


r/scambait 4h ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Mirror USDT wallet

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1 Upvotes

r/scambait 1d ago

Bait in Progress ⏱️ Reunited, part 13. I argue about rigs and boots are forgotten. Then, a twist at the end 😜

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63 Upvotes

He starts by sending a video of the Petrobas 77, that apparently went into full production in 2018 and is a huge platform moored in the Brazilian waters since then. But, no, apparently they "flooted" it to Denmark to refine some crude! I get some fond memories of my "Make" and his Norway stories though. Anyway, Stevie hates arguments and gets very angry during them, so you know I love it. But I'm getting so bored, and know I'll have to spark it up again with the return of my old phone, and discussion of Jimmy. Who apparently has very coincidentally been in contact with his daddy. For gift cards, no doubt 😂


r/scambait 19h ago

Other I sent them a law enforcement number.

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15 Upvotes

r/scambait 12h ago

Completed Bait ✅ Think I scared this person off ...

3 Upvotes

think the next one, I'll start with Jehovah's Witness.