I was on Tumblr the other day (and yes it still exists though its in a digital purgatory of sorts like MySpace and shit) when I saw I had a message. Me being me I ignored the shit out of it until I finally thought fuck it and read it. Now I get the occasional message but this one was really different from the rest. It took out like a sore fucking thumb that’s for sure. You see I do get messages from time to time and its just the usual some other User popping in to say Hi and that they like my content or some other shit.
Now don’t engage anyone online or on social media not because I’m anti social (thats Les’s fucking job LMFAO!) its the fact I general assume that everyone online is either and idiot, asshole, or troll. What I’m saying is this message was random as fuck and absolutely unsolicited. This was the text equivalent of a robo call like the ones used by various scammers to find potential victims. Whoever it is was just blanket messaging the shit out of who the fuck know how many people this is the “Let’s throw a bunch of shit at the wall and see what the fuck sticks” type scenario.
The message was from someone claiming to be named Anthony Jackson who was looking for some online companionship due to some dire circumstances in his life. Anthony is also offering to pay me $700 a week to text/call him as if we were dating or some dumb shit. I identified this a scam right away. The premise is lame and cliche in the fact no one wants to be lonely, and since we have social media/ internet there doesn’t seem a reason for anyone to feel isolated, alienated, or alone. Outside of that it’s so fucking absurd its really insane. I’m supposed to be a woman who just blindly accepts that some complete fucking stranger who is also painfully lonely is willing to pay me (who is a complete stranger to them as well) $700 a week?
This scam to me reminds me of the fucking early days of the internet with the African Prince scam where out of the blue you get an email, but not just an email and email from fucking Royalty! The there would be some bullshit about the sender being rich as fuck yet unable to currently access funds. Then they’d promise to give you millions in return if you can hook them up with some cash now. It’s jut like the cartoon character Wimpy from fucking Popeye who’s catch phrase was “I’ll gladly pay you for a hamburger Tuesday for a hamburger today.” personified.
Several years back before the non stop onslaught army of scammers unleashed its full fucked up potential I stumbled across some Scambaiting Videos. The first scam baiters I discovered was Trilogy Media and was hooked right from the get go. I like Les hate fucking bullies or in this case sleazy scammers, and we both champion underdogs in this case being the victims. I found as I went there are two separate and equally unique styles to scam baiting. Theres the first group of people that waste scammers time and piss them off since the scammer can’t scam a victim if they’re tied up on the phone with a scam baiter (and plus listening to theses scumbags go apeshit is HILARIOUSLY ADDICTIVE). The second group are the tech scam baiters who hack scammers computers and delete files, wipe the scammers computer, lock the scammer out of their computer (syskey), call flood call centers, and infect scammers computers with a wide range of viruses.
The only thing that has kept this message on my mind is I can’t for the fucking life of me figure out what the fuck the scam’s end goal actually is. I have mulled it over for hours and I came up with two scenarios. One the scammer is attempting to use the bullshit $700 payments to gain access to the victims bank account by pushing the direct deposit angle. Secondly the scammer is attempting to eventually hack into my phone/computer to steal personal information (identity theft) that they can use to commit several kinds of fraud. A third scenario just fucking occurred to me as I’m typing this shit up. The scammer may be looking to hack the victims phone to steal sensitive information like nude photos and then blackmail them. Anyway you look at the person isn’t Anthony their an asshole.
Scammer’s Original Sent Message :
anthonyjackson
Hello sweetie I want to be your sugar daddy. I’m willing to give you $700 as your weekly allowance no sex or just texting and calling like boyfriend and girlfriend I prefer it online cause it tend to last long than seeing each other everyday all I want is just online companionship to relieve me from the grief of my late wife text me on (206) 614-0462
As You can see English appears to be Anthony’s second language since even this short message is riddled with grammatical and punctual mistakes.The first and most apparent is the lack of any punctuation including periods making this message one long ass run on sentence. Seriously if you have a free moment try reading that shit out loud in one single breath the way it’s written. Since I’m not a English teacher and I don’t want to bore anyone with a lifelessly dull grammar lesson or anything like that. Thus I thought the easiest way to address this issue is to do a quick compare and contrast. First I’ll write Anthony’s Original message exactly as it was written. Then following that I will rewrite Anthony’s original message so it makes some sort of fucking sense and all that jazz.
The Scammer’s Message in Proper English:
Anthony Jackson,
Hello sweetie I want to be your sugar daddy. I’m offering you a $700 weekly allowance if you call/text me like we are boyfriend and girlfriend (nothing sexual) . I prefer online relationships because they tend to last longer than if we see each other everyday. All I want is some human companionship since I’m in grieving after my wife passed. If your interested you can text me at (206) 614-0462
Some Prime factors that indicate Anthony is a scummy scammer:
- Anthony is obviously a scammer.
- This is a new scam being perpetrated on Tumblr as that’s where the potential victims are contacted/solicited.
- Anthony based on his poor mastery of the English language appears to be an African scammer. African scammers unlike Indian scammers tend to be less tech savvy.
- African scammers tend to use third tier tech I mean how many of you reading this right now even knew Tumblr still even existed?
- While Anthony contacted me on Tumblr he immediately provides a number for texting because more than likely he doesn’t want any of the actual scam on Tumblr. If he is exposed Tumblr will shut down his account(s) and this is his particular way of soliciting victims.
- The number Anthony provides is to a Text Only Number meaning you can only text the person, and are unable to contact them by just calling the number directly.
- The Area code of the number Anthony includes in his initial message is a Washington Are code, but lets fucking face the fact the number was generated by the scammer using Spoofcard or something similar like Spoofcaller.
- The name is also a pretty dead give away as its a Generic sounding American name I mean fucking come the fuck on Anthony Jackson? What was John Smith already taken?
- Anthony’s profile pic is also as Generic as Possible. It’s a picture of some average middle aged nondescript guy who looks like a fucking soccer dad. It took is as fake as Anthony’s name. Chances are its just a shitty stock photos or it might be copied from a persons social media account/profile.
- As far as I remember there is no gender identifier on Tumblr which indicates this is a mass blanket text to a shit load of people since most like Me will not reply. My Tumblr user name is thethcministy which is pretty fucking gender neutral (my name isn’t Daisy Petals or some shit).
- I am for the record a Heterosexual male (I assume Anthony thinks I’m a female, but hey who knows nowadays so no biggie) and I post very unfeminine things like death metal, demons and devils, horror movie shit, creepy fucking gifs, and death match wrestling for starters. As you can see these are not exactly lady like topics.
In conclusion:
I know if you’re anything like me you’ve wondered who in the name of all things sane would ever fall for such an obvious a scam. Thats the same sediment as asking who would join a cult. The point is this scammers are professional conmen who are trained and practiced in the art of manipulations and lies. They’re paid bullshit artists and unfortunately they’re pretty damn good at it. Thats why a majority of scams are nothing more than rebranded fear tactics. Fear tactics are designed to keep the victim panicking because if you’re panicking or hysterical you won’t stop and think “Hey what the fuck is this really? What the hell is going on here?!” they just want you to react impulsively out of fear.
Scammers will use such fear tactics as in the IRS/Social Security scams that if you don’t pay to settle the issue immediately you’ll be arrested and all your assets seized by the IRS. They will also try to scare victims by telling them that all their personal info, work shit, pictures, and other shit on your laptop/pc/smart phone will be permanently deleted if you don’t act immediately (and of course that requires you paying them for their fake services). As of recent as you can damn well imagine scammers are now using the fear of Hackers/Identity theft to scare their victims into paying without a second thought. I think you can see the pattern here.
The other scammers use the “It’s too good to be true” method claiming you won a Luxury Stay at a High End Hotel, an all expenses paid cruise, or a Vacation in Las Vegas with all the perks you could want. These scammers use people’s greed against them. They just tell the victim everything they want to hear about how great this free opportunity is. They will also claim you have won gift cards or deserve a refund you knew nothing about so they use the “Free Money” ploy or the “Something for nothing” scenario.
Anyway you look at it while you and I may be smart enough to see through the bullshit on an unscrupulous scammers shithead remember not everyone knows what we do. The sad fucking fact is if no one got scammed then there be no scammers so problem solved. Thats why the best thing any of us can do to combat these shitty scammers is to EDUCATE OTHERS about them so if they are targeted they know how to defend themselves. Thats why we at FYB fully endorse heading over to ye old youtube and watching some scam baiting videos not just because they are entertaining, but EDUCATIONAL as well.
FYB’s favorite scambaiters Recommendations :
- Trilogy Media
- ScammerRevolts
- Jim Browning
- Kitboga
- IRL Rosie
- ScammerPayback
- Hoax Hotel
Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you all later,
By Justin Sane 