Scammers could soon get a taste of their own medicine, from a new chatbot designed to waste their time, diverting attention from potential victims.
Re:scam (https://www.rescam.org/), developed by Netsafe, engages with scammers over email, asking them a never-ending series of questions. It imitates real human tendencies, complete with humour and grammatical errors.
The aim is to turn the table on scammers by wasting their time, and ultimately damage their profits. Re:scam will continue the conversation indefinitely, or until the scammer stops replying. The would-be victim's email address is not used.
It works by simply forwarding a scam email to their email address, me@rescam.org.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for Mother Nature cannot be fooled. -- R.P. Feynman