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Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by gnicholas on Friday November 03, 2023 @02:15PM (#38132698)
Can someone explain how the scammers are pulled in in the first place? That is, what's the 'funnel' for this?

I get that this is amusing and a good way to waste scammers' time, but where did he originally find the scammers?

Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by abetusk on Friday November 03, 2023 @02:28PM (#38132878)
So, I'm not sure but I think what's going on is that a scammer calls and asks the "victim" (in this case, Kitboga) to transfer funds into one of their Bitcoin wallet addresses. This can be done via a Bitcoin ATM which will then print out a receipt which the scammer asks the victim for a picture of (see [0]).

As Kitboga says, the scam normally has to end at this point because the scammer can easily verify whether the receipt is fake or not. So, instead, Kitboga and his team created a fake receipt that takes the scammer to the web and call center labyrinth, promising them they can redeem the Bitcoin at the end.

Third party Bitcoin management entities are kind of common now, I guess, so this doesn't raise any big red flags?

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzz3NeDz3E&t=150s

Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by KallDrexx on Friday November 03, 2023 @03:19PM (#38133753)
Why would victims be calling in on the scammer's behalf then? I would assume that would only happen if a real victim somehow has a receipt that ties into Kitboga's fake system right?
Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by chrisjc on Friday November 03, 2023 @04:11PM (#38134355)
I think you have the right idea. And that's what threw me off at the end. How did this lady (as well as the others he mentioned) get pulled in to the mix?

Perhaps the scammer convinced this lady to handle the call for him since it was taking hours/days of his time. If she was gullible (no disrespect) enough to be scammed for 6 years, she could be easily manipulated into doing their tedious work.

Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by abetusk on Sunday November 05, 2023 @08:54PM (#38157887)
There's a recent video by Kitboga that goes into detail about this prolonged scam [0].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzXRb8PdmJo

Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by dvaletin on Friday November 03, 2023 @03:32PM (#38133894)
They don'w own this bitcoin wallet of course. They need receipt to attribute payment to them and get comission. They verify transaction and get into the loop.
Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by jabroni_salad on Friday November 03, 2023 @02:32PM (#38132953)
He calls in to fake hotlines that you can find in google searches and lets them mess around with a virtual machine. When it's time to pay for the "services," he furnishes them with a fake gift card or bitcoin QR code. The scammer now wants to mess around with this fake institution because they think there's a bitcoin at the other end side of the maze.

Also, once you call in a time or two you are now a proven easy mark and they will sell your number to other scam ops as a premium lead. Just like real sales!

Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by iris2004 on Friday November 03, 2023 @02:19PM (#38132756)
> Can someone explain how the scammers are pulled in in the first place? That is, what's the 'funnel' for this?

Viewers send in spam emails. They also look for ads on Facebook and other Ad networks that pretend to be virus pop-ups or bank alerts.

After they engage with a scammer, they trick the scammer into thinking the victim has lodged money in a bitcoin ATM. However the receipt is fake and funnels them to the Gauntlet (the endless phone system and verification process).

Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by teaearlgraycold on Friday November 03, 2023 @02:16PM (#38132721)
They have public phone numbers they send out in spam email campaigns.
Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by cedws on Friday November 03, 2023 @05:18PM (#38135134)
If you browse the Internet without an ad blocker for a while you'll find all sorts.
Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by nullc on Friday November 03, 2023 @07:44PM (#38136491)
The classic way is that people forward him the scams or he finds them in web searches.

There is a relatively new technique though: scammers often have victims call them back once the victim has bought gift cards or whatever. So if once you get one of those callback numbers you can just call in pretending to be a victim in process. The scammers don't currently have pipeline management adequate to know if you're really a victim or not.

This lets you skip a bunch of the early and failure prone stages (scammers hang up calls eagerly at the beginning if they get the slightest hint you're not a real victim) and go right to the end game where things are much more fun and the scammers are much less likely to bail out.

Re:YouTuber Kitboga trapped 200 scammers in an Impossible Ma... by kumarvvr on Friday November 03, 2023 @09:48PM (#38137303)
In most cases, the baiter calls up the scammers. Most scammers send a mail of some sort saying the victim has been billed such and such amount. They leave a number for the victim to call.