We've all gotten those random texts from numbers we don't recognise, typically they’re some sort of scam.

You know the ones – usually promising a free holiday or a big chunk of money if you just click on this link, or enter your bank details here. They're obviously fake that it's not even worth replying to them.

But what if you decided to have some fun with the scammers instead? That's exactly what happened when Australian radio host Ben Fordham got a text from someone claiming to be trying to contact an Australian tour guide.

The 2GB host shared on Thursday's broadcast that he decided to perform a prank on a fraudster after getting an unexpected message from a person claiming to be 'Tina.'

A screenshot of the message exchange between Ben Fordham and the scammer. Credit: 2GB/WhatsApp.

The message from 'Tina' read: 'Hello, is this Peter's tour guide services? It's me Tina, my friend gave me this number. I'm going to Australia for a vacation.'

Along with the message was a photo of a young woman.

'So I couldn't help myself,' Mr Fordham said. He then replied back mockingly, pretending to be the tour guide for 'Pathetic Pete's Aussie Outback tours'.

'What part of the country do you want to see?' the radio host replied.

The woman then asked which number she had dialled, saying that she had just realised she was messaging the wrong number.

'I'm so sorry to bother you,' she added.

'You can call me whatever you want but most people call me Robbo.'

The scammer tried to ask the radio host some personal questions. Credit: 2GB/WhatsApp.

The radio host then pretended that he believed that the other person on the line is named 'Robbo', replying: 'Don't worry about the clumsy fingers, love.'

'I only have three fingers on my right hand after getting chomped on by a kangaroo.'

'It's tough down here, Tina, so make sure you've got a good tour guide,'

When the woman asked him where he was from, he answered by saying that he was from the 'bush' behind Bourke. 'It's lovely here but there are too many flies!' he added.

The woman also inquired about his age and whether they could meet for coffee if she visited Bourke.

'I'm in my 50s and I've been married a few times; there are a few tin lids running around,' replied the radio host.

He added that it would take a few hours to drive from Sydney to Bourke, advising her to have coffee with him anytime.

'I like Nescafe and a few TimTams, too,' he said.

The woman replied that she 'loves a road trip' and was sorry to learn about his marriages.

'I'm 30 and I'm happily single,' she said, adding that age was just a number.

Fordham admitted that he should have quit at this point, but he read the exchange to his wife Jodi.

'She kind of looks at me and thinks, "Why are you wasting your time?" But, I heard someone say once that if you're wasting the time of a scammer, then they don't have as much time to scam someone else,"' said the radio host.

So he decided to keep the joke going, telling Tina that he had retired after being 'lucky at the races one day'. He added, 'I also collect (excess) “rock n roll” from Centrelink but let's keep that between us.'

The scammer then responded, saying that the information would be their 'little secret'.

Finally, she tried calling Fordham three times and left a voice message, which prompted him to end the conversation.

He remarked: 'So I then said we'll have to chat later, Tina, I'm heading out to dinner. I'm going down to the bowling alley to murder a steak and chips.'

'And then she's then been messaging me since to say, “Robbo, are you still there”.’ So anyway, I have a feeling that Tina and I won't be taking a road trip out back of Bourke.'

Key Takeaways

• Ben Fordham recently revealed that he received a message from a would-be scammer on WhatsApp.
• Fordham decided to play a trick on the scammer by pretending to be a tour guide named ‘Pathetic Pete’.
• The scammer then asked to meet up for coffee, to which Fordham responded that he was in his 50s and ‘had a few marriages and there's a few tin lids running around’.
• The scammer then tried to call Fordham three times and left him a voice message, which is when he decided to cut the conversation off.

Who knew that innocent small talk could spiral so quickly? This raises the question: why do scammers bother chatting with their victims, if all it does is give them more opportunities to fall for a trick?

Well, it turns out that the small talk isn't entirely innocent... Scammers want to get as much information about their targets as they can, so they ask questions to find out and gather information such as their age, occupation, and where they live.

Some scammers will even engage their victims in several conversations, often over a period of several days, pretending to like them. All of this is done in an effort to get you to trust them, which is all part of the scam (birthday, marital status and your hometown are all considered private information which is desirable to scammers).

Stay safe out there, folks!

 

[JehazFNQ]

I was once targeted (my own greedy fault) by the old “holiday in Cancun, plus Bahamas cruise” scam way back about 20 years ago. All was well til they rang, telling me all arrangements were in place and to make sure my passport was in order. They then asked for my credit card number. Summoning up my best, quavery “little old lady” voice, I told the caller “Oh, I don’t have one of those. They’re inventions of the devil, you know”. Never heard from them again and, so far, I’ve never been to Cancun or the Bahamas either

 

[JustPat]

Australian Tax Office Scam -

SCAMMER - ATO here
HUBBY - oh is this about the $6,000,000 you owe me.
SCAMMER - hesitant aah yes we need your account number to send the money.
HUSBAND - oh it goes to my lawyers' trust account but hold on for 5 or so minutes and I'll get his details for you to send the money.
SCAMMER - yes, I'll hold on.
HUSBAND - 45 minutes later gets back to scammer - my lawyer says you should have all the details as per judge's ruling so just send the money on.
SCAMMER - Bast--d BANG goes the phone.