Profiting from scammers | Friday Fun Part 6

[alexkuzmov]

I`m so glad that people have found a way to monetize catching and reporting scammers on social media while providing good entertainment all at the same time

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiNTroZxURM


This is just one example, a video about a car scam.
Other examples from youtube are:

https://www.youtube.com/@Coffeezilla

https://www.youtube.com/@KitbogaShow

This got me thinking.

Are they running a legit business (as something that provides value to people)?
If so, then can their actions be viewed from a supply/demand perspective?
Client/Customer -> The consumer of the content?
Product/Service -> Entertainment?

OR is this a natural response to the scammers?
Have there always been people dedicated to catching scammers (outside police) and making a profit from it?

What do you think about such media forum?
Also what other people do you follow who profit from scammers, can you share links?

 

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[RicardoGrande]

Dude if someone found a way to punish and recover the money lost to scam farms or scammers I would donate to that so hard. Personally never been affected or had family fall for it but I've seen stories about how these locusts prey on older Americans and siphon hundreds of millions out of the American economy every year.

 

[Oso]

Dude if someone found a way to punish and recover the money lost to scam farms or scammers I would donate to that so hard. Personally never been affected or had family fall for it but I've seen stories about how these locusts prey on older Americans and siphon hundreds of millions out of the American economy every year.

There are already countless content creators that do this, and I'm sure none of them would scoff at the idea of free money, so pick one and go for it. Hell, one of them is an American that learned Hindi just to troll scammers.

As someone in tech, I think it's twofold. Obviously I'll never support a scammer, but at what point do we also accept the users have a certain level of responsibility as well. For instance, if you're NOT expecting a package to be delivered from Amazon, then that email you just received about how they were unable to deliver an Amazon package is probably bullshit.

... And yet it works, every second, of every day. Yes, scammers should probably invest that time, energy, and thought into something legal/productive, but can you entirely blame them with how ridiculously naïve (and outright stupid) the vast majority of society is?

Perhaps working in tech has simply jaded me...

 

[UK_Mike]

Personally never been affected or had family fall for it but I've seen stories about how these locusts prey on older Americans and siphon hundreds of millions out of the American economy every year.

Not just Americans, I've read some awful stories of how elderly people over here have fallen for something that you and I might see as obviously a scam. All sorts of stuff in place to try to help prevent it, while trying to strike a balance. Having to read through a load of "are you sure this isn't a scam, have you been asked to transfer this money etc." every time I want to make a payment in my online banking is a pain, but if it stops just one of these scum I'll put up with it.

I recall a site called "419eater.com" that was an early scam-baiting site, though it looks as if it's not being updated if the "latest forum threads" part is anything to go by. Good example of why putting dated articles on your web site isn't always a great idea.

 

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