An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is a common confidence trick. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.
Scam baiting is a form of internet vigilantism primarily used towards advance-fee fraud, IRS impersonation scams, technical support scams, pension scams, and consumer financial fraud.
419eater.com is a scam baiting website which focuses on advance-fee fraud. The name 419 comes from "419 fraud", another name for advance fee fraud, and itself derived from the relevant section of the Nigerian criminal code. The website founder, Michael Berry, goes by the alias Shiver Metimbers. As of 2013, the 419 Eater forum had over 55,000 registered accounts. According to one member, "Every minute the scammer I'm communicating with is spending on me is a minute he is not scamming a real potential victim."
A romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigning romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining the victim's affection, and then using that goodwill to get the victim to send money to the scammer under false pretenses or to commit fraud against the victim. Fraudulent acts may involve access to the victim's money, bank accounts, credit cards, passports, Cash App, e-mail accounts, or national identification numbers; or forcing the victims to commit financial fraud on their behalf.
John Patrick Douglass, better known as jacksfilms, is an American YouTuber, videographer, musician, and sketch comedian. He is best known for his series Yesterday I Asked You (YIAY) and Your Grammar Sucks (YGS), in which he commentates on content sent by fans. Douglass' career on YouTube spans over 18 years.
A technical support scam, or tech support scam, is a type of scam in which a scammer claims to offer a legitimate technical support service. Victims contact scammers in a variety of ways, often through fake pop-ups resembling error messages or via fake "help lines" advertised on websites owned by the scammers. Technical support scammers use social engineering and a variety of confidence tricks to persuade their victim of the presence of problems on their computer or mobile device, such as a malware infection, when there are no issues with the victim's device. The scammer will then persuade the victim to pay to fix the fictitious "problems" that they claim to have found. Payment is made to the scammer via gift cards or cryptocurrency, which are hard to trace and have few consumer protections in place. Technical support scams have occurred as early as 2008. A 2017 study of technical support scams found that of the IPs that could be geolocated, 85% could be traced to locations in India, 7% to locations in the United States and 3% to locations in Costa Rica. Research into tech support scams suggests that millennials and those in generation Z have the highest exposure to such scams; however, senior citizens are more likely to fall for these scams and lose money to them. Technical support scams were named by Norton as the top phishing threat to consumers in October 2021; Microsoft found that 60% of consumers who took part in a survey had been exposed to a technical support scam within the previous twelve months. Responses to technical support scams include lawsuits brought against companies responsible for running fraudulent call centres and scam baiting.
Seán William McLoughlin, better known publicly as jacksepticeye, is an Irish YouTuber whose videos focus on gaming, comedy and vlogging.
Mark Rober is an American YouTuber, engineer, inventor, and educator. He is known for his YouTube videos on popular science and do-it-yourself gadgets. Before he became a YouTuber, Rober was an engineer with NASA for nine years, where he spent seven years working on the Curiosity rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He later worked for four years at Apple Inc. as a product designer in their Special Projects Group, where he authored patents involving virtual reality in self-driving cars.
Steven Jason Williams, better known by his online alias Boogie2988 or simply Boogie, is an American YouTuber best known for his video rants about video games and nerd culture as a character named Francis.
AnyDesk is a remote desktop application distributed by AnyDesk Software GmbH. The proprietary software program provides platform-independent remote access to personal computers and other devices running the host application. It offers remote control, file transfer, and VPN functionality. AnyDesk is often used in technical support scams and other remote access scams.
James Stephen "Jimmy" Donaldson, better known by his online alias MrBeast, is an American YouTuber, media personality, and businessman. He is known for hosting the reality television series Beast Games, and his fast-paced and high-production YouTube videos featuring him performing elaborate challenges and donating large amounts of money. With over 340 million subscribers, he has the most subscribers of any YouTube channel and is the third-most-followed creator on TikTok with over 106.9 million followers. He also has over 63.9 million followers on Instagram and over 31.4 million on X.
Federico Michael Gaytan, better known as Fedmyster, is an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber. He is best known for his gaming and IRL live streams on Twitch. He is a former member of OfflineTV, an online social entertainment group of content creators.
Kitboga is the Internet alias of an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber whose content primarily focuses on scam baiting against phone fraud. His channel has over one million followers on Twitch, and his YouTube channel has over three million subscribers.
Lenny is a chatbot designed to scam bait telemarketers, scammers, and other unwanted incoming calls using messages.
Jim Browning is the Internet alias of a British software engineer and YouTuber from Northern Ireland whose content focuses on scam baiting and investigating call centres engaging in fraudulent activities. Browning cooperates with other YouTubers and law enforcement when they seek his expertise in investigating and infiltrating scam call centers. Browning has published several journalistic exposé videos highlighting the results of his investigations.
An overpayment scam, also known as a refund scam, is a type of confidence trick designed to prey upon victims' good faith. In the most basic form, an overpayment scam consists of a scammer claiming, falsely, to have sent a victim an excess amount of money. The scammer then attempts to convince the victim to return the difference between the sent amount and the intended amount. This scam can take a number of forms, including check overpayment scams and online refund scams.
Arun Rupesh Maini, better known as Mrwhosetheboss, is an English YouTuber who is best known for his technology-related content, and is the creator of one of the biggest tech-related YouTube channels.
Stephen Findeisen, better known as Coffeezilla, is an American YouTuber and cryptocurrency journalist who is known primarily for his channel in which he investigates and discusses online scams, usually surrounding cryptocurrency, decentralized finance and internet celebrities. Before Coffeezilla, Findeisen was active on YouTube with the channel Coffee Break between 2017 and 2020.
Trilogy Media is an American YouTube channel and streaming service founded by Ashton Bingham and Art Kulik(Russian: Арт Кулик) in 2016. The channel is known for producing content related to scambaiting and internet vigilantism, with a focus on exposing scams and fraudulent activities.
Rosie Okumura is an American voice actor, content creator, and musician based in Los Angeles. She creates scambaiting videos that combine humor, voice acting, and educational content to expose and counteract fraudulent schemes.
