Guidelines on Protecting Yourself

[Trauts]

Scamming, in general, isn't very hard to do. There are plenty of stupid people out there who are very easily manipulated into doing whatever you want them to do. The hard part is staying safe from the smart people who want to find you. This guide will hopefully give you some insight into what is needed to stay fairly anonymous.

Notice I say fairly anonymous. This is very important to understand, and unfortunately not many people do. ANYTHING YOU DO ON THE INTERNET CAN BE TRACED BACK TO YOU. There are people whose sole jobs are to track people using the internet. Digital forensics is what this field is called, and many large companies (and ofcourse the government) employ these people. Anything you do on the internet leaves traces, and it is impossible to connect and not leave those traces. Now that you are probably considering unplugging your ethernet cable, understand this: it is also very expensive to track people on the internet. Effectively this means that it becomes a numbers game for the company. Is what you did worth the cost of tracking you down?

Anyways, enough of that. On to the good part: making it as hard as possible to be traced. There is no set best way to accomplish this, and opinions on this subject differ very greatly. This is meant to be a general guide, and if you need very strong anonymity, I suggest you do your own research.

.::Proxies::.
There are two types of popular proxies. Most of you are probably familiar with "web proxies". You know, the kind you use to get on Facebook at school. They work by using a php script that basically renders the web pages on their website. The other kind is a SOCKS proxy. You connect directly to this kind, and all of your traffic is routed through this. Many schools/corporations use these to enable content filtering, and monitoring. They can also be used to provide an extra "layer" between you and the internet. All that is shown on a websites logs when using any proxy is the proxy server's IP address, not yours. This doesnt neccessarily mean you're safe, because the proxy server may keep logs (which can be retrieved, traced back to you, etc).

If you're just scamming WoW accounts, or something thats in a "gray area" of the law, then a proxy should keep you pretty safe. Keep in mind that a SOCKS proxy is generally faster, and alot easier to use than a web proxy when scamming. Alot of sites dont load very well on a web proxy due to bad scripting, incompatibilites, and so forth.


.::Tor::.
Tor is a remarkable program, capable of increasing your privacy online by quite a bit. However, in my opinion at least, it is touted as an all-in-one solution to the problem of hiding yourself. Many people don't understand how it works, and overestimate its potential. There hasn't really been any "testing" of tor, atleast in the legal area as far as I know. We just don't know what information is available to the government, through subpeonas and such.

Tor doesnt provide complete anonymity. There are logs of you connecting to the first "layer" in the onion routing system, and that could potentially be used against you. Even Tor states that it shouldn't be used in cases where strong anonymity is needed. Tor also changes your IP address every ~15 minutes, which can trigger automated systems in some sites, such as PayPal. Tor also is notorious for being as slow as Christmas, which can severely screw with your scamming. In scamming, time is usually of the essence.

.:: My Personal Take on What Should Be Done::.
The need for anonymity varies upon the situation, and how paranoid you are. Here are some general guidelines I consider.

Scamming WoW accounts, other online non-tangible goods - Use a proxy, change your proxies with each scamming session, create a new alias each time you do something. Also, alot of people seem to be under the assumption that if they mess up and do one step off-proxy, that it is okay to continue. This kind of complacency is the worst thing for someone interested in not getting caught. Don't get careless, no matter what you're doing.

Scamming PayPal in any way, shape, or form - This is getting more and more common, mainly among people who don't do the research and understand the risks involved in dealing with a company such as this. Even if you're just scamming a "Chinese account scammer" for some PayPal, this makes you involved in whatever those guys are trying to pull. PayPal is a multi-BILLION dollar corporation, with the resources to put a world of hurt on you. My personal advice is to stay away.

* If you insist on going ahead and doing this, atleast be as safe as possible. Use someones wireless, change your MAC address, remove all cookies, and it probably would be a good idea to reformat you HD after you do this. This may sound like a pain, but there's more pain from a guy named Bubba tappin' you from behind.


I'm not going to apologize for the wall of text, because reading is a skill you should all master. Most things you want to learn aren't broken up with pretty pictures of easy steps. One final note, don't brag. We're all guilty of doing it at some point, but thats one of the worst things you can do. Would you rather have a bigger epeen or get away clean? (Hey that rhymed...)

Anyways, I hope you learned something, and will take the initiative to learn some more. Good luck.

[Hmmmmm]

you speak the truth! Great post and +rep

[Stans Dad]

Good information for the newer members, and nice attempt at contributing. What I would recommend for the future is maybe a better layout and pictures.

Instead of a wall of text users will be able to read the thread much better.

Anyways, good job!

+Rep x 2

[rs1302]

thank you for taking the time to write this up :biggthumpup:

[Rigormortis199]

Yes this is very helpfull, especially to the newer scammers like me

[MaxiPads]

.::Tor::.
Tor is a remarkable program, capable of increasing your privacy online by quite a bit. However, in my opinion at least, it is touted as an all-in-one solution to the problem of hiding yourself. Many people don't understand how it works, and overestimate its potential. There hasn't really been any "testing" of tor, atleast in the legal area as far as I know. We just don't know what information is available to the government, through subpeonas and such.

Tor doesnt provide complete anonymity. There are logs of you connecting to the first "layer" in the onion routing system, and that could potentially be used against you. Even Tor states that it shouldn't be used in cases where strong anonymity is needed. Tor also changes your IP address every ~15 minutes, which can trigger automated systems in some sites, such as PayPal. Tor also is notorious for being as slow as Christmas, which can severely screw with your scamming. In scamming, time is usually of the essence.

Aww. . Paypal + Tor = fail now. Wont work.
sorry

[7itanium]

ye Paypal has blocked Tor.. find a new proxy and update the guide..

[omg_lol]

Good guide

[Maree]

First I would Like to say, WHAT a wonderful Guide!
It helped me so much and it guided me through almost everything. As I and many people like me would benefit from this guide due to the fact that we are just taking our first few steps in to this Scamming world.

Scamming PayPal in any way, shape, or form - This is getting more and more common, mainly among people who don't do the research and understand the risks involved in dealing with a company such as this. Even if you're just scamming a "Chinese account scammer" for some PayPal, this makes you involved in whatever those guys are trying to pull. PayPal is a multi-BILLION dollar corporation, with the resources to put a world of hurt on you. My personal advice is to stay away.

I have noticed and talked to a person that have taught me something interesting today. I won't say his name as he wishes to remain anonymous.
He told me, Australian Paypal is a bit different and does not require you to add any sort of Card.
Once you created Australian Paypal account update from Personal to Premier
( I know, I heard there are some guides on this and that one was deleted because it was way too old )
Having said that, I think you should add that so that people would rather use Australian Paypal account because It's Safer way to Scam if they are willing to do it.

But, as you said it is risky and I 100% Agree.

P.S. Anonymizer is great way to hide under your IP, it works great with paypal and it's fast!

Thank you so much for such a great guide! Taught me a lot and I will pass on to my friends and my peers.

[Wilkey]

+rep great guide!

[Trauts]

Glad that it's helped yall out.

[Zifa]

The Australian Paypal account idea is mentioned on alot of scams on this forum.

Anyways, great guide Trauts! Plus reputation for you!

[cXm0d]

Wow I made a repost without intending to.

[sceat]

well i cant say that the wall of text wasent worth my time. thanks man, i would say that theres most likely somthing in there for everyone.

[Nolixz]

well i cant say that the wall of text wasent worth my time. thanks man, i would say that theres most likely somthing in there for everyone.

You shoulden't have bumped a thread that was this old.

For the thread creator:
Anyhow, you should have added VPN to one of your IP hiding methods. There are plenty of VPN services that costs money, but also encrypts your IP address so they don't know your orginal address. For free VPN go to www.relakks.com and click on the english flag if you want english.

You posted in the wrong section too.