Towards a Categorization of Scambaiting Strategies against Online Advance Fee Fraud

Abstract

Scambaiters are individuals in online information communities specializing in identifying, documenting and reporting actions of so-called ‘419 scammers'. A qualitative research approach was applied to two active scambaiting communities - 419eater.com and thescambaiter.com. Content analysis of several discussions and the examination of interviews from the web radio ‘Area 419: Scambaiting Radio' resulted in the seven categories of scambaiting techniques that are presented in this article. The aim is to both give a wider understanding of the scope of existing Internet scams as well as answering questions of why and how individuals or communities of scambaiters take action against Internet scammers. The analysis on various scambaiting practices is intended as a base for future discussions, for instance, whether some scambaiting methods should be implemented in media competence training.

Scamming the Scammers

“…Previous work on scam-baiting data has mainly focused on qualitative assessment and categorisation of scam-baiter activities [11]. Regarding advance fee fraud specifically, prior studies often focus their analysis on the components of the initial solicitation messages.…”

“…The description of a novel dataset of cleaned and labelled scammer/scam-baiter exchanges, the Advance Fee Scam-baiting dataset, sourced from active scambaiter communities. 3 A more detailed description of the scam-baiting community is provided by Zingerle [11] the Advance Fee Scam-baiting and the Enron dataset, comparing a range of classification approaches and feature sets.…”

How to Obtain Passwords of Online Scammers by Using Social Engineering Methods

“…They use storytelling and social engineering tactics to scam the scammers consequently gaining access to their inboxes [19]. Scambaiters try to get the trust of scammers by posing as a gullible victims with fake characters and compelling storytelling strategies.…”