An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of confidence tricks. 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."
The "Slave Reparations Act" is a tax fraud related to the concept of reparations for slavery. The scam claims that filers can receive $5,000 or increased social security payouts for African-Americans born in the United States between 1911 and 1926.
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 through ways which are hard to trace and have fewer consumer protections in place which could allow the victim to claim their money back, usually through gift cards.
Seán William McLoughlin, better known online as jacksepticeye, is an Irish YouTuber. Much of McLoughlin's YouTube content centres around gaming and vlogs. As of March 2024, his YouTube channel has accumulated 16.6 billion views and 30.6 million subscribers, making it the 2nd most-subscribed Irish channel on YouTube.
An IRS impersonation scam is a class of telecommunications fraud and scam which targets American taxpayers by masquerading as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collection officers. The scammers operate by placing disturbing official-sounding calls to unsuspecting citizens, threatening them with arrest and frozen assets if thousands of dollars are not paid immediately, usually via gift cards or money orders. According to the IRS, over 1,029,601 Americans have received threatening calls, and $29,100,604 has been reported lost to these call scams as of March 2016. The problem has been assigned to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Studies highlight that most victims of these scams are aged 20-29 years old and women are more affected than men. One way to decrease the risks of an individual falling victim to IRS impersonation scams is through awareness programs.
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.
Logan Alexander Paul is an American social media influencer, professional wrestler, YouTuber, entrepreneur, and actor. He has over 23 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and has ranked on the Forbes list for the highest paid YouTube creators in 2017, 2018, and 2021. He is the co-founder of Prime beverages. Paul has also run the Impaulsive podcast since November 2018, which has over 4 million YouTube subscribers. As a wrestler, he has been signed to WWE since June 2022, where he performs on the SmackDown brand and is the current WWE United States Champion in his first reign.
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, online personality, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for his fast-paced and high-production videos, which feature elaborate challenges and large giveaways. With over 250 million subscribers, he is the most-subscribed individual on YouTube and the second-most-subscribed channel overall.
Harry Brewis, better known as Hbomberguy, is a British YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Brewis produces video essays on a variety of topics such as film, television, and video games, often combining them with arguments from left-wing political and economic positions. He also creates videos aimed at debunking conspiracy theories and responding to right-wing and antifeminist arguments.
Gustav Emil Johnson is an American YouTuber.
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 1 million followers on Twitch, and his YouTube channel has over 3 million subscribers.
Lenny is a chatbot designed to scam bait telemarketers, scammers, and other unwanted incoming calls using messages.
William Osman is an American YouTuber and engineer based in Ventura County, California. His eponymous YouTube channel features invention-based builds and challenges, including testing dummy fingers in car windows, building a scrap boat for a competition, and challenging other popular YouTube personalities to an egg drop competition. Prior to YouTube, Osman used his degree in mechanical and electrical engineering to work with MRI machines, exploration vehicles, and military testing equipment. He is also one of the co-hosts of the Safety Third podcast.
Jim Browning is the Internet alias of a software engineer and YouTuber from Northern Ireland whose content focuses on scam baiting and investigating call centres engaging in fraudulent activities.
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.
Stephen Findeisen, better known as Coffeezilla, is an American YouTuber and crypto 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.
