The World Wide Web is rife with fraud and different types of scams, which are usually aimed at people who are not great with technology, primarily the elderly.
While malware and other similar cyber threats can be fought with antivirus software and similar tools, scams are a bit more difficult to deal with. This is where scambaiting comes in.
How Scambaiting Works
Scambaiting is a form of cybersecurity vigilantism that revolves around disrupting scammers’ activities with the goal of saving potential victims.
Scammers prey on the vulnerable. They usually contact their targets via email or phone, impersonating a legitimate entity. A scammer might pretend to be with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and law enforcement, or claim to be a technical support agent in what are known as tech support scams.
In a typical tech support scam, for instance, the scammer contacts their target claiming there is something wrong with their computer, and offers to help. The scammer then asks the victim to install remote access software, and takes control of their device. The next step usually involves asking for money, for example subscribing to an overpriced service, submitting a payment, or purchasing gift cards.
What scambaiters do is essentially flip the script on scammers. They pretend to be an unsuspecting victim, but actually use their knowledge to obstruct the scammers’ work in some way. This can range from simply wasting a scammer’s time or over…
