How to Defeat Scammers - The Scamalot Anti-Scam Toolbox

Image of a thief stealing money

The Internet allows scammers to work quietly, sneakily, dishonestly and always criminally. The tools they use to obfuscate and befuddle are available to all, so here are some resources you might find useful when trying to track down the scammer, or just to find out a little more about thgem that they like to let on.

We're working on adding to the toolbox as we find more. If there's anything you'd like to see, drop us a line.

   

Where in the World is the Scammer?

IP address lookup service. Enter an ip address to see where in the world it is.
  Go
Scamalot wishes to thank MaxMind for the use of it's GeoLite2 Geo-location database. We use it to investigate scams and scam reports and to limit comment spam. See more at http://www.maxmind.com.
Also, we use the APNIC and ARIN Whois Databases for domain name and Ip lookups.

Check Your Password!

Check your favorite password against a Vast Database of passwords exposed by data breaches worldwide.
Just type in a password and find out how many other people (possibly including you!) are using the same password.
 

What does this mean?

If the number is less than 10 you're pretty unique! if it's over 10000, then you are a good target for 'brute force' hacking.

We use the Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) database of A HALF BILLION passwords from 270 websites that were hacked and made available to other hackers.

Find IP addresses in Scam Emails

Find IP Addresses in Email Headers. Paste the Email Header here and click 'Go'.
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Need to find the Headers in your Email?

  • Microsoft OutLook:
    1. Open the particular email in a new window by double-clicking on the message in the message list. (This is importan t, it's not enough to be just looking at the message in what Outlook calls the 'reading pane'.)
    2. Follow the menu File | Info | Properties
    3. Look for a text area labelled internet headers
    4. Here are the headers. Select and copy the text to a text editor.
  • Mozilla Thunderbird: Simply press Ctrl-U when you are reading an email
  • Google GMail: From the dropdown actions icon, select 'Show Original'
  • Any more?

IP Address Geographical Lookup When you connect to the internet, you do through with a unique identifier called an 'IP' address which commonly looks like four sets of digits separated by periods ('.'). eg. 192.168.4.22. Armed with this information, one can generally find out where in the world, and often down to the City and County level the person of interest is located.
Free Email Addresses
Pretty much everyone has an email address that costs them nothing. Huge Internet companies such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been providing free email addresses for decades now. You'rs is probably pretty personal to you, even if it's JohnDoe20919@gmail.com - Scammers always use these sercvies to contact victims they keep them for as long as they need and then they abandon them and choose another.
Scam Tip Off Reports
Scammers are often from developing nations and their English is poor and amusingly archaic. They can often be spotted by poor spelling and odd colloquialsms and formal, stilted phrasing. They work from 'playbooks' and use of stock phrases is one way they can be caught out. Eg. the phrase 'am ok with the condition' is used in 99% of Classified Ad Scams. Search Scamalot and Google to find examples of clunky syntax.
Scamdex on Social Media
DUTY OF CARE

believes

organizations utilizing the Internet have a Duty of Care to their users, AND to those victimized by people who use those services for fraudulent means. "

READ BEFORE USING WESTERN UNION

If you are ever asked to send money to someone you don't know personally, Western Union is a Bad Idea!

Especially if the person wants the money quickly, says he can't accept PayPal or other online payment methods, and especially if it's for a big ticket item. In most cases, WU is the same as cash, which is why it's the Scammer's Best Friend. It's not such a great deal if the laptop never turns up and your money is gone!
See here: CraigsList and here: eBay and here: Western Union

Since you’re here …
we have a small favour to ask. More people are visting Scamdex and Scamalot than ever but advertising revenues are falling fast and we have no 'product' to sell. And unlike many informational websites, we haven’t put up a paywall or membership barrier – we want to keep our site as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Scamdex/Scamalot websites takes a lot of time, money and hard work to keep running. We do this because we hate to see our fellow humans getting scammed out of their hard-earned money by low-lives.
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