This Fake Bitcoin ATM Scheme Has Wasted 4,000 Hours of Scammers’ Time

A YouTube and Twitch streamer has trapped scammers for simply shy of 4,000 hours in an not possible maze masquerading as a method to redeem Bitcoin from their victims.

Whereas designed as a way of losing their time, the pseudonymous Kitboga informed Decrypt, it is usually his simplest instrument for acquiring data that can be utilized to punish malicious actors.

Kitboga’s workforce of 12 actively searches out scammers to allow them to fake to be a susceptible particular person on a cellphone name. That is executed to allow them to waste the scammer’s time, create humorous content material, and gather particulars to cease the scheme.

Typically, the calls would result in the attacker demanding cash to be despatched through a Bitcoin ATM—so Kitboga created a faux Bitcoin ATM receipt that might by no means be redeemed.

“[Bitcoin ATMs are] a means that you possibly can put money in a machine after which it will get transformed to crypto. So the scammers see that as a method to immediately take your cash,” Kitboga informed Decrypt. “They’re anticipating a receipt. So we went to a Bitcoin ATM, obtained the receipt, and Photoshopped it, and the QR code hyperlinks to our faux change. The 1-800 quantity on the receipt is my 1-800 quantity. That’s form of the doorway to this maze.”

Over greater than a yr, the faux Bitcoin ATM scheme has trapped roughly 500 scammers for a complete of 164 days and 17 hours—or 3,953 hours. The typical time a scammer spends within the infinite maze is simply wanting three hours, with the longest one particular person spent attempting to redeem the non-existent Bitcoin being 156 hours, or six and a half days.



What occurs contained in the maze?

The positioning has a sequence of infuriating duties which can be tedious to finish, resembling a CAPTCHA that asks for an estimate on what number of nuts are in a bucket or how tall a wave is. Kitboga is presently internet hosting a problem for followers to code CAPTCHAs that waste time, considered one of which asks the consumer to play the tune “Sandstorm” by Darude on a keyboard.

Ultimately, the scammer might be requested to enter their Bitcoin pockets deal with, which doesn’t course of accurately, and they’re informed to name the 1-800 hotline.

That is the place the enjoyable begins, Kitboga mentioned. The scammer is pressured to navigate by means of a complicated automated menu earlier than coming into the final 4 digits of their Bitcoin pockets—which the automated operator will all the time mishear. After failing a couple of occasions, the scammer might be informed they’re being transferred to a human to assist.

“We’ll simply depart them on maintain for like two hours, and nobody ever comes to assist them. Or we’ll have recorded messages of a fax machine going off or somebody answering with the decision middle within the background, however no one can hear them,” Kitboga informed Decrypt. “Think about ready on maintain for 2 hours after which the particular person cannot hear you.”

To make issues worse, whereas being on maintain, the scammer should repeat ridiculous phrases each couple of minutes to show that they’re nonetheless there. These phrases embody “tremendous smelly ghost,” “purple porcupine,” and “resourceful rattlesnake.” 

The hotline is deliberately taxing and calls for consideration, so Kitboga’s workforce is aware of the attacker can’t be scamming another person whereas on maintain. For that cause, the three,953-hour complete is considerably conservative, because the workforce solely data time wasted attentively on maintain or trying to resolve a job on the location.

That is only a primary overview of the faux Bitcoin ATM scheme. Kitboga described it as an infinite maze with doorways that his workforce can toggle on or off, relying on what they need to do with an attacker. Generally they’ll simply need to waste a scammer’s time or create content material, whereas others might be searching for very particular items of data and need to take issues extra significantly.

Kitboga informed Decrypt that the infinite maze ranks as his second-most efficient time-wasting instrument, behind solely AI bots that robotically name scammers, however it’s the simplest instrument for gathering intel. For instance, in the course of the Decrypt interview, Kitboga mentioned a scammer was required to offer entry to their digicam so the workforce may determine them.

“It is the simplest instrument I’ve in gathering actionable, actual data. They’re not going to offer me their GPS location over the cellphone,” he defined. “When these scammers suppose they’re this near getting $30,000 or no matter—from a good crypto change—typically they’re going to give me their massive pockets that they funnel the entire crypto by means of. That is an enormous mistake on their half, as a result of now I can move it off to legislation enforcement.”

The streamer claims to have helped freeze the funds of attackers, as a result of they’re storing crypto on respected exchanges. Kraken is partnered with Kitboga to share intelligence, and the change helps fund the scambaiter’s operations. 

Now, he’s increasing his choices to waste the time of scammers. Kitboga’s workforce is presently creating comparable infinite mazes for scammers asking for present playing cards or for money to be mailed to them.

Why do that?

Kitboga mentioned he began trolling scammers greater than eight years in the past, after seeing a video of a Microsoft scammer getting offended at a pre-recorded previous man who couldn’t hear correctly—often called “Good day, This Is Lenny.”

It was the primary time he’d heard of tech assist scammers. He instantly considered his grandparents, who had dementia and Alzheimer’s, and he believed they’d have fallen for it—particularly contemplating they’d been scammed prior to now.

“I do know they might fall for the tech assist rip-off, and I would be capable of do one thing about it,” Kitboga informed Decrypt. “If I spent quarter-hour on the cellphone with a scammer, that was quarter-hour they weren’t speaking to somebody’s grandma. That was my name to arms.”

At first, he merely referred to as scammers and wasted their time on weekends as a “ardour venture.” When his pals needed to look at, he started streaming the interactions so they might all snicker collectively. Sooner or later, a clip was shared on Reddit, and he began gaining an viewers. This ultimately led to him quitting his job as a software program engineer to grow to be a full-time scambaiter.

“I distinctly bear in mind telling considered one of my pals that I labored with on the software program job that it could solely be a yr,” Kitboga mentioned of the pivot. “You understand, it is like a one-year factor. Sort of you gotta shoot your shot. Individuals suppose that is cool. Perhaps I am going to be capable of educate, you understand, a couple of thousand folks about scams.”

Eight years later, he has 1.2 million Twitch followers, 3.74 million subscribers, and nearly a billion views on YouTube. That’s a bit various thousand folks.

“It has been a very enjoyable journey,” he completed.