Scammer Payback Answers Scam Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

Pierogi from Scammer Payback on YouTube joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about scams and scambaiting. Why do scammers ask victims to buy gift cards? What are some of the biggest scammer red flags? Do they ever get caught? How many scams are out there? Should I mess with scammers for fun if I identify one? What software and hardware does Scammer Payback use? How can those creepy sex bot internet commenters lead to a scam? Pierogi answers these questions and many more on Scambaiting Support.


0:00 Scambaiting Support
0:27 Scammer red flags
1:12 Scammers and Gift cards
1:39 How many scams are out there?
2:13 Messing with scammers for fun
3:54 Scambaiting: Origins
4:24 Random scam texts
4:57 Most scammed social media platform
5:23 Can scam texts track your phone?
6:16 Amazon scam LIVE
7:03 The most absurd scam call ever
7:42 Voice changing/Scammer Payback Setup
8:41 Phone number spoofing—how?
9:08 Scammed out of your crypto
10:13 Benefits? PTO? How about a 401K Match?
11:06 How do the creepy bots make money?
12:18 Programs
12:41 …….
13:08 Some common senior citizen scams
14:35 How do scam call centers work?
15:37 Money mule address
17:50 Someone hacked my amazon account! But…
18:58 How did they get past my 2FA?
19:56 Is public wifi safe? Is VPN good?
20:42 Gaining access to scammers machines
21:36 The epicenter of call centers?
22:48 Pierogi > Police?
23:21 Let’s move this convo over to WhatsApp
23:59 Scam Likely
24:19 Fake shopping sites/The Cat
25:27 Do scammers ever get caught?
26:00 Caught in a PayPal scam
26:31 I want my money back
26:45 Meet the team


Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Mark Denney
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Pierogi
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Franz Criscione
Sound Mixer: Mark Cochran
Production Assistant: Reed Vrooman
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael; Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Special Thanks: The Entire Scammer Payback Team


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[ScammerPayback]

Thank you for having us on!! Don't get scammed!! <3

[SheilaMoraes_]

i had a teacher who lost her mom to the "grandma scram". they said 'we have your daughter, send us money' and she had a heart attack. that breaks my heart.

[emdotrod]

Pierogi, Jim Browning, and Kitboga are legends among the scambaiters.

[lydiannalima]

About 15 years ago my dad got a call at 2 am, someone crying and screaming in the background, and they say: we have your daughter, you need to give us money. He said he didn't have any money, and they replied that I was saying he did have money. He then realized it was a scam, because I knew he was broke 😂

[fieryweasel]

Lots of these scams say things like "your friend is in jail and needs to be bailed out". Joke's on them, I have no friends!

[sammy]

DO NOT REDEEM THE CODE!! DO NOT REDEEM THE CODE!!!





edit: MAAAM WHY DID YOU REDEEMED???!!! WHY YOU REDEEEEMEED??!!!

[ashurean]

Fun trick my grandma came up with to figure out if someone calling pretending to be me or claiming to be calling on my behalf is a scammer. She asks "what arm is his tattoo on".
Now, I don't have any tattoos, so unless the response is "I don't/he doesn't have any", she knows it's a scam and can either keep them on the line to mess with or just hang up.
It works pretty well because unlike hair or eye color, tattoos aren't usually publicly available info.

[antoniod]

The fact that the background guys are heard laughing so much makes this video legendary

[tonyclemens]

I usually speak French to scammers, most of the time they just hang up. Had one who got angry and told me to go back to school and learn English

[answer]

Any person online who says they'll help you get your money back after a scam is probably a scammer too.

[flux]

I worked at a bank in the customer service department. I had to leave because of the amount of people that got scammed, sometimes I was lucky and they called before they got scammed but it sucked when it was an older person and their retirement was taken and were now broke :(

[elainebelzDetroit]

At a former job, we had some scammer(s) pretending to be our boss sending us emails asking us to buy gift cards. My coworker replied to one, saying, "OK, I got the gift card. It's on your chair in your office!"

[SchindlersFiist]

It’s awesome that he’s here on Wired! I’ve been a fan of his channel and watching for years—loves it!

[AdaminaCarden]

The funniest marketplace scam/ bot I had was on an ad I put up for a roommate and they started with the generic "Is this available?" etc. And then it was "Can I pick it up?" to which my response was "They room? I don't know, how strong are you?"

[amybeth]

When my dad was in the hospital for a week, the phone kept ringing, but everyone we needed to talk to had our cells. So we never answered the phone because it was always scams. I got bored one day and answered the phone and messed with them, playing really stupid and not following directions. My dad’s room was right outside the nurses’ station and they heard everything I said. They were laughing. I was glad I could entertain them for a minute or two.

[thebigmistakeof]

A friend of mine keeps falling for several of these. Even after I tell her again and again that they're scams, she doesn't believe me and keeps happily giving away her card number and making payments she can't afford. I think this is a great video and it should be required viewing for everyone in the world.

[winklenator]

As a former banker, listen to a bank employee if they're telling you that you're falling for a scam. I once had a client who went against my advice. She used to be an accountant and was adamant she was investing in someone. She ended up wiring out $60k and ended up apologizing me for doubting.

Bankers are trained regularly to identify these scams

[xliquidflames]

The best advice he gave was to the person wanting to do what he does. If you aren't confident that you can keep yourself protected, you should not try to do what he's doing. If you are worried about it or aren't confident, it means you don't know enough about infosec to keep your real information out of their hands. So, don't do it until you've studied up. Also realize that nothing is perfectly secure. Even he would probably admit that. Doing what he does comes with inherent risk that cannot be 100% mitigated. You can be the best security expert in the world and still inadvertently leave something exposed. Or, you could expose your info in ways that are completely out of your control like faulty hardware or software. Doing what he does comes with accepting that risk, regardless of how knowledgeable you are and how good your security is. If you're not confident you know what you're doing and/or if you aren't okay accepting the risk, do not try to do what he's doing.

[anirbanbardhan]

As an Indian myself, thank you. To Jim, and to Granny Kit as well.

[KelMonstah]

If you're buying things on something like Craigslist, Facebook, etc, and it's a smaller item - many police departments recommend doing the hand-off in the lobby of your local police station. If the person isn't willing to meet there, there's likely a reason. Several PD's in northern Washington and southern British Columbia recommend this especially for electronics.