Features

Baiting basics

Scam-baiters use anonymous email addresses with providers such as Hotmail, Yahoo! or Gmail. If they need to give out a fax or phone number, they use free services such as eFax (http://home.efax.com), which enables users to send and receive faxes as email attachments, and UKnumber (www.uknumber.co.uk), which gives you a free UK number. Another useful resource is the Payphone Directory (www.payphone-directory.org), which lists payphone numbers. Most of these are US numbers, but other countries are also included.

All scam-baiters need fake ID, which they can make by scanning a passport and driver's licence, altering the information and putting the various components together in Adobe Photoshop or a similar

ADVERTISEMENT

package. Volunteers on scam-baiting sites often help each other with creating fake IDs and personas.

Should you play?

Scam-baiters feel that no-one is looking out for the interests of future victims, so they take on the task themselves. Many scammers have so many victims on the go at once that they can become sloppy about what they leave in emails, such as the email addresses of other victims in the To or cc fields. Scam-baiters take any clues they find about other victims and try to track them down before they hand over their cash. It's a race against time, as there's no way of knowing how long the scammers have been working on these victims, how much money they may already have sent or, worse, if the victim is planning to meet the scammer.

Scam-baiters may have a point. There simply aren't the police resources to take pre-emptive action against scammers. So unless there is evidence that fraud has been carried out, the police in the UK simply aren't interested.

For advice on what to do if you ever find yourself in this position, or you know someone who is, visit www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm. A lot of useful advice about scams is also available at The Office of Fair Trading (www.oft.gov.uk/oft_at_work/consumer_initiatives/scams).