In my role of scam warner I’ve had many occasions to correspond with internet scammers. They lie, (a lot!) and never reveal their true information. That said, one scammer from South Africa actually admitted he was a scammer and answered some questions I asked. This is a two part article with exact quotes of the questions and answers we exchanged.
Scammers aren’t usually willing to discuss their “trade” with anti fraud volunteers, so the information is provided here as a point of interest, whether or not his answers are actually the full truth about how he, or other scammers, operate.
Backstory
A victim of a scam wrote to me for support and advice. She also sent me the information the scammer was using, to publicize on the forum at ScamWarners.com. After I had done so, the scammer found the topic and joined the forum. He was banned and rejoined repeatedly. He was brazen, even joining with the username of “luv4Jillian” in one of the instances, as well as quoting song lyrics to me. I began email correspondence with him, which lead to this series of questions and answers.
Please note that while scammers usually either threaten me or try to proclaim their innocence, this one seemed to enjoy toying with me. This scammer is not typical. Also, please remember that he is a criminal – Don’t try this at home.
Questions and Answers – His thoughts about ScamWarners
Q: I’m curious what you hope to gain by posting on the forum.
A: Honestly, Nothing. I will love to chat with you that was why I sent you a message.
I want to chat with you doesn’t mean I want to justify what I have done cos I know my sins and i’m not scared of the consequence but doesn’t mean I will give myself up to the police.
Q: Most scammers won’t talk to me; they don’t like what I do. What do you think of what I do online?
A: There is always a thief and a police. There is not bad in what you are doing, they are just angry that you alert more potential victims which I don’t think they should be.
Q: Do you mean that scammers are angry that we alert potential victims? Why shouldn’t they be? We take your victims away. Or, are you too good at what you do to be bothered by us?
A: I’m always ahead on my game. I DO RESEARCH, intensive ones. The only reason a victim might not pay me is either she doesn’t have the money or she is stingy. I read all your scam profiles and you only have ONE of my stories, read how to identify a scammer on your site and I beat that by atleast 95%. Not saying im the best but I believe that you have to be good at whatever you do to get paid so I tried to be very good at it.
Q: Are most scammers you know aware of groups/sites like mine?
A: Lol, this aint the first time that I have appeared on such site, there was time they even got MY REAL PICTURE (that was crazy) and I was set up by another scammer and do you know that I can crash your site ?
He never did try to crash our site, though he and I did share more emails. See part two of this article for more of his answers to my questions about how he scams.