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So summer of 2021 I stumbled upon scambaiter content online. What led me to this was a rather weird interaction I had on Instagram. A fake account was setup on IG with someone posing as a former colleague of mine sending me an invite to connect. When a message came from this account my first thought was, am I friends with this person already? For some reason I did not think at the time to quickly search my connections to confirm if this was true so I carried on a conversation with this person thinking it was them and how thoughtful they were to check in with me. It started to get a little sketchy when they were pretty persistent with me to hit on a link in the message. I was pretty wise enough to listen to my own intuition and do no such thing because I am aware of phishing attacks. Conversation eventually went a little south and just stopped chatting. A day later that person who I thought I was talking to posted on their other social platform explaining that their social media account was hacked. When that suspecting IG account reached out to me again I messaged back that I knew they were a scammer and they slowly retracted all their direct messages from me and either blocked me or deleted their account. Luckily I screen captured the conversation and shared it with that former colleague so they were aware of what content they were sending to their friend list. I was very lucky not to fall victim to anything further than just a brief fleeting conversation but it sure can be bothersome to know that someone tried to take advantage of you.

I must have Google some term on this kind of scam because it brought me to a well known scambait artist known as “Kitboga.” I suspect he is a former MA (Boston / Dorchester / Worcester) native and perhaps from CT / VT / NH because he usually uses a pretty well known Boston area code number when he calls these folks (maybe nostalgic purposes). Certainly cannot mistake that non-rhotic accent too. Some of his YouTube content and streams have been rather funny and educational but nothing more than that. He is a former software engineer but describes himself as an improv online artist and has been doing this kind of line of work since 2017 or so. Mostly his kind of work is to just keep scammers occupied over the phone for long durations of time so that he distracts them from actually scamming a real person. From those interactions he makes video content that is entertaining to an audience just to show what fools these scam-artists are while he is making a well deserved living and income at it as well!

At this point in time I was working on a design passion project when I came across this kind of content. Usually like to listen to stuff in the background while working on a website or app design as I multi-task quite a bit! Who doesn’t during this time!! Had already consumed a lot of my favorite podcasts and just went down the rabbit hole I guess.

YouTube algorithm is quite a funny thing. After racking up quite a few videos for consumption from “Kitboga” another scambaiter came across my feed by the pseudo-name of “Pierogi” who has a YouTube channel called Scammer Payback. I came to watch some of his content and thought the material was educational and yet also addictive to watch.

In Pierogi‘s video content he engages in scambaiting various kinds of scams from –

There are parts of his videos that are rather funny but he takes it in a completely different direction in dealing with these scammers. He has been climbing in viewership on YouTube (at this point in time in which I am writing this entry, 1.4 million subscribers). He would actually come to be known as the scambaiter that would take retribution by capturing content from these thieves machines to later use and call up potential victims and save them from losing out on their very life-savings from these savage scam-artists.

Scammers have a prolific way in instructing victims to download remote desktop connection tools like AnyDesk, TeamViewer, UltraViewer, ConnectWise and many others in order access the victims devices and deceive them. These screen sharing apps have a legitimate use in business settings when you know exactly what permissions you are giving to others. However scammers use them for nefarious purposes in order to to peer into bank accounts, monitor internet activity, steal personal files as well as capture login access codes to various personal accounts. Even more problematic is when they like to fire up the victims webcam and capture their face for further use of identity theft which is beyond creepy. Often scammers will resort to installing additional remote apps while keeping the victim occupied in order to tether others within their organization to keep connected to the victim while they run the scam process. It’s important that once the victim identifies they have been targeted by a scammer to act quickly to remove these apps or take their system to a physical local repair center to have these apps and possible malware removed. When Pierogi is able to reverse access to their systems it’s all fair game for him to acquire helpful information such as victim lists that scammers keep as well as to find out more about their operations.

When that obtainable opportunity arises Pierogi contacts victims directly to warn them that they have been scammed. He will advise them on what to do next in order to minimize the damage caused by the heartless crime that took place, if they choose to accept his help (when time is of the essence). He has helped to recover a lot of money back that the victims have had stolen from them if Pierogi has that window of opportunity with the scammer himself.

Most of these scammers target the elderly but not always. Just after he captures the information from a reverse connection from a scam call he would then delete their files and render their systems quite unusable thereafter. But not only has Pierogi managed to do this kind of justice but has also been able to shut down call center numbers completely, whether for the day or permanently. Which believe it or not has successfully cut down on some spammy phone and email scams! And he is only one person!

Even though Pierogi removes files from their machines, please do note he will carefully copy over that same content and sift through it to find victim information. This helps to build a case and hand over to government authorities to deal with these crimes. At the right time within weeks or months later after gathering such info and if circumstances are just right he will publicly shame the scammer/organization for their deeds in one of his epic content pieces to put these criminals on notice.

If a scammer is somewhat knowledgeable about scambaiters or think they might be talking with one of them they will usually utter Pierogi or “Kitboga” in haste, in the middle of a conversation. Usually to see what kind of reaction they get from the other side. These two guys are like the titans of their industry of scambaiting. You can just about hear how terrified the scammers become if either Pierogi or “Kitboga” decide to reveal themselves. Usually because the scammers are so triggered by past experiences with dealing with either of them, that it left quite a mark. The LIVE stream chats will often describe that these scambaiters have run so many circles around the scammer minds that it sometimes resembles some sort of PTSD experience. Based on the scammers reactions or behaviors they must have had from their interactions, they or the whole call center just completely loses it during the call.

In recent streams “Kitboga” has decided not to reveal himself anymore because the scammers seem to get a thrill out of the possibility of being shown in an upcoming video. Pierogi on the other hand wants to interact with them as they seem to provide really beneficial information. Pierogi does not make it a point to berate them over the phone but to rather ask they become informants. It sometimes rather becomes impossible to get them to come down to his level and just have a calm conversation because their experience with other scambaiters get them so riled up “just for fun” in the first place for entertainment value which is justifiable. However it gets quite interesting until they realize just who is exactly on the other end of line, that’s when Pierogi can really get down to business with them.

Usually when he does this, it irritates the scammers to no end, as if it’s unlocking some sort of “secret code”. Pierogi does not just want to learn the language to throw insults back and forth but to be more adaptable and knowledgeable about their culture and maybe have more rapport with them. It has proven to be a useful tool, in addition he has stated that he knows other languages as well.

Pierogi has a very interesting background, he is in his late 30’s and a former Cyber Security / Network Engineer (End-Point) with a bit of a financial background. So he knows a thing or two. He lives somewhere in the US, most likely along the East Coast because most of the stream schedules are noted in eastern time zone. However he usually jokingly says he appears in every scammers dream (safely in a VM somewhere)! It is rather interesting to watch him utilize such critical thinking tactics (social engineering) to get to the information he needs. Just ask for his nifty “funnel” PowerPoint presentation during the stream! Now Pierogi does not quite go all bounty hunter and do further damage himself, so he does his best to acquire information and provide it to connections he has with US federal law enforcement officials who can close the case on some these endeavors that happen here. Sometimes it is a bit sad not to hear exactly what the end story is to some of the victims he either encounters or acquires information about on his LIVE streams. However there are rare occasions that he has been able to work with others in his field and follow the story to the very end and report it in a later video premier.

“Pierogi” from “Scammer Payback” has content on both –

His content is generated a majority of the time from LIVE streams online which can often go on for as long as 4-6 hours in a single day. In addition his streaming schedule can be anywhere from once or twice a week (in the past it had been between 3-4 days) and does not include additional time to run private streams for subscriber members only groups. Some of the wildest stories have come out of the public LIVE streams and become material that is carefully crafted and edited for his YouTube channel. They present a little entertainment to the viewer but also educate what the scam was about and how to watch out for those scenarios so you do not fall victim to it. It is rather entertaining but there is a purpose.

People are often asking on his LIVE streams how they can get in on this kind of action. To be honest those that do, really should reconsider not messing around in that area and maybe think of launching into a career in IT Cyber Security first. It does take a special set of skills to know how to go about this. Just the fact that he has to use a pseudo-name to keep his identity somewhat private (from being doxed) tells you something right there.

Be it “internet vigilantism”, “white hat hacking”, “cyber mercenaries” or a “keyboard samurai” – folks like Pierogi are doing a great service to society by infiltrating these types of criminal activities with the resources and knowledge they have.

:: Remember ::

Scammers typically target the potential victims and attempt to steal money by several means.

1. To steal Bank Saving or Checking Accounts
2. Investment Accounts or 401k Retirement Funds
3. Credit and Debit Cards
4. Purchasing Gift cards
5. Cash Withdrawals and
6. Cryptocurrency

Scammers are ruthless criminals that have no problem stealing every last dime from their victims bank accounts. Please protect yourself as well as family members who might not be familiar with these type of scams.

Even though I have enjoyed Scammer Payback content I am rather interested in the whole streaming setup thing because I have an interest in myself doing some content stuff but in my field of study in web development. There is already a ton of information on YouTube for that and below you will find additional material on what I have come to learn along the way in this other post!

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Interviews

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Event: The People’s Call Center

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