[HN Gopher] A fake company to play around with spammers and you ...
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       A fake company to play around with spammers and you can use it too
        
       Author : wila
       Score  : 85 points
       Date   : 2021-02-13 15:51 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | alisonkisk wrote:
       | This will work for a few days until the 419ers update their
       | scripts to filter these out. To succeed you'd need a lot more
       | domains and scripts, and ask for overly specific but plausible
       | information that takes time for attacker to provide. These guys
       | aren't dumb; they run efficient operations.
        
         | etc-hosts wrote:
         | I have gotten the "card services, how are you today?" at least
         | three times every weekday for last 5 years.
         | 
         | They're not efficient.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | That could be 3 different scammers with your number rather
           | than 1 single scammer calling you that many times. It
           | changes, slightly, the perception of efficiency. Essentially,
           | these places all shop at AllYourDataAreBelongToSale.com
        
           | rhizome wrote:
           | Are you under the impression that humans are leaving those
           | messages?
        
       | gallego2007 wrote:
       | Clever. So the rest of us just need to send a single reply with
       | that first email address to set a chain of events into motion
       | since the scripts are already set. Hah
        
       | xaedes wrote:
       | "The benefit of this is that you won't have to chase people, or
       | go from one person to another to find someone who can help you."
       | 
       | Brilliant
        
         | codetrotter wrote:
         | You may also enjoy this: https://www.419eater.com/
        
       | princevegeta89 wrote:
       | Reminds me of instances where I played with Craigslist scammers
       | who sent fake PayPal emails and asked to ship to countries like
       | Nigeria, Sudan, etc. I used to create a new usps label (and
       | request refund later) and give it. When there's no activity i
       | asked them to call the post office and speak to them. Used to be
       | fun
        
       | prepend wrote:
       | This seems like an anti-scammer fantasy. I'd like to see some
       | examples of the stories that are created out of scammers
       | following these procedures. Just stats like how many made it
       | through each stage will be funny.
       | 
       | It seems like it won't be very effective in saving the poster
       | time as they'll get the same number of messages. But any time
       | spent by scammers at least is less time on others. However, I
       | suspect scammers have lots of free time because they cast a wide
       | net with spam and then reply back to every single person who
       | responds. So they will still interact with the same number of
       | people, they will just waste more time and go home later. My
       | understanding is that most scammers are in very poor nations so
       | scammers working long days is pretty cheap.
       | 
       | It's different from synchronous spam like telemarketing where
       | occupying a scammer does literally reduce the amount of time
       | someone else would get.
        
         | code-scope wrote:
         | Someone can enhance lenny's spammer chat bot
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSoOrlh5i1k
         | 
         | to support:
         | 
         | Multiple voices, and pass the phone between Lenny, his nurse,
         | family members, etc.
         | 
         | Create "Spammer Turning award" for the best Lenny spammer chat
         | bot that can get caller stay the longest.
         | 
         | That will be the ethical AI project I love to support.
        
           | motohagiography wrote:
           | This is amazing. I had never heard of that Lenny chatbot, but
           | the possibilities are endless.
        
       | leesalminen wrote:
       | Years ago I got into a deep conversation with a gift card scammer
       | over the phone. We talked for almost 30 minutes about the inner
       | workings of the scam and the exchange rate of gift cards to local
       | currency. Eventually I asked him why he doesn't leave his country
       | for more opportunity as he was clearly intelligent with strong
       | English skills. He explained that a passport in his country cost
       | thousands of US dollars. I told him that in the US a passport
       | costs $100 every 10 years and he was shocked! It clearly upset
       | him. At that point he said he had to go as his manager was
       | coming. I don't think I'll ever forget that call.
        
       | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
       | someone should set up a script or something for mailinabox for
       | example. that way people who are doing selfhosting can just do
       | this on their own domain so it looks more plausible?
       | 
       | question. if scammers do "realize" this technique and block you,
       | would that mean a signal for them to not bother this guy? or
       | what?
        
       | joshka wrote:
       | Something like this + procmail (or similar) + GPT-3 would be neat
       | to see.
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-13 23:01 UTC)