Scamming The Scammers

Taking on the scammers and wasting their time seems like a good idea, but is it worth the time and effort? Cyber Insider enjoys a bit of schadenfreude and finds out

THERE’S NOTHING QUITE like the schadenfreude derived from an email scammer getting their comeuppance. Remember that spate of comedy postings a while back, such as the one where the would-be victim convinced his scammers to go to extraordinary lengths, such as carving a Commodore 64 out of wood?

As fun as these were to watch, the work that went into pulling them off was not insubstantial. But what if you could take yourself out of the equation and get AI to take over the role of harassing the fraudsters?

CHATTY MAN

The good news is that you can. All you have to do is forward a scam email to Re:scam (me@ rescam.org), powered by New Zealand-based security firm Netsafe. A chatbot picks up the email, uses a proxy email address (not yours) and starts sending realistic-looking replies back to the scammers in an attempt to waste their time and resources.

For example, when sent a ‘beneficiary scam’ email (you know the ones, where you have to help someone in a foreign land recover their late husband’s fortune for a cut of the millions of dollars), the chatbot replies with something like this: “Thanks for getting in touch. I’m sorry to hear about your late husband. I struggle with punctuality myself, and I know how irritating it can be. This sounds like new territory for me aye. Before we get the lawyers involved, would it be a good idea for me to get some legal advice?”