Baiting (Internet)

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This page is about an internet trolling technique, for the fraud method see bait and switch.

On the Internet, baiting is similar to trolling, in that baiters, like trolls, try to elicit a response from other users. The difference is that the response is supposed to be embarrassing to the user in question, and humorous to others. Baiters frequently concentrate on groups they do not like, such as pedophiles, fraudsters (often 419 fraudsters), religious fundamentalists, or homosexuals. What the baiter says does not need to make sense, it is often simply written to baffle the bait, and to produce an interesting result. In that respect, baiting is similar to telephone prank calls, but often much more elaborate. In the United States, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 makes some prank calls a felony with penalties of up to two years in prison, and possible fines (depending on severity). However, such penalties are rarely carried out.

Like prank calls, baiting is illegal in most jurisdictions as it is a form of targeted abuse or harassment. On IRC or instant messaging this can take the form of a denial of service attack and is frequently coupled with otherwise illegal practices such a flooding or ping bombing. For example a baiter may join an IRC chat channel dedicated to gay rights. By baiting the chatters or ops, the baiter dominates the venue creating a hostile environment for the other users of the IRC service. by concentrating on certain groups the baiter focuses his or her hostility in order to harass members of that group. When members of this community attempt to regain control of the venue the baiter will sometimes resort to DoS attacks in order to escalate the issue. Frequently chat logs are then typically posted on the world wide web in order to humiliate specific members of the community.

On Internet forums, baiting is sometimes used in attempts to empty forums or reduce a forum's usage. This type of baiting is usually done to make the atmosphere of a forum appear unpleasant or to make forum owners, moderators and long-time users look foolish. A person using this kind of baiting may post comments to elicit rude responses from prominent members of a forum, thus making the responding member or members appear as trolls or flamers to bystanders. As a result, forum users in general may become disgusted and leave the forum.

So called scam baiting has become popular in the last few years, with several thousand people taking part, attempting to either put a stop to advance fee scams, or at least having fun at the scammer's expense. This has given rise to several websites filled with transcripts, funny pictures and other trophies. 419eater.com is one of the largest and best known of these sites.

Some of these pranks have grown into Internet phenomena. For example, Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka from the popular website Something Awful engaged in a long ICQ session where he talked to a gullible user about "space robots" who supposedly "protected" humans from the "terrible secret of space" by pushing them down stairs, later posting the transcript under the title Space Robot Bonanza!.^[1] This was later turned into a song by The Laziest Men on Mars, with lyrics such as:

We are the space robots

We are here to protect you

From the terrible secret of space

The song, in turn, was adapted into a flash video.

Baiters are sometimes long time residents of a comment posting arena. They see a newbie visit, and toss a question or comment at some remark the newbie posted. It may be hostile, challenging, aggressive, just to see what the newbie is made of, if he or she has conviction, or knows the subject well.

Thus, baiting can be a sort of "hazing" or humiliation prior to initiation into a posting "club."