Q for warners - success rate of warnings?

I've seen sample warning emails over at eater, and I know how you get your send to lists. I was wondering what the success and biater rates were?

That is, how many people respond at all, how many say "oh, thanks for telling me I'll stop immediately" / "could you tell me more", how many say "thanks for telling me, get lost" and how many replies are from baiters.

I can only answer for myself.

About 30% of people reply to my warnings.
Less than 1% of the people that reply are baiters.


Of the 70% who don't reply, I would imagine that some are baiters, some are too embarrassed and some simply don't care. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of those whom I warn and who don't reply, switch onto the fact that they're being scammed though, so replies are no way in which to judge a "success rate".

Replying to our warnings is very important as it allows us to mark a potential victim as safe and allows us to move onto others who may be being scammed.

I'd like to echo that Chris please respond if you get a warning
My response is about 10% which isn't great.

I reckon to get a reply rate of about 10% - but I concentrate on Lotto Lads, and because of that, probably send out more warnings than most, so though the percentage is low that amounts to a lot of replies.

Overwhelmingly the replies are very nice, and some are quite moving. It's impossible to tell whether it has had the effect of saving money or not. A lot of the scam mail I see is going out to the Indian sub-continent and many of the people couldn't afford the fees anyway.

You get a really close up look at the damage the scammers do with some replies you get, but what the victims say to me, stays with me.

I'd say about 10% too. Many warnings go to people who know they are being scammed and a few reply with "thanks for the warning but I know this is a scam" but many of them don't bother. It's very helpful to get any kind of reply because it often opens a dialogue between the warner and victim who may have questions or need advice on how to deal with their particular situation.

I do mainly phone warnings, which means that my response rate is much, much higher. When the person picks up the phone I am guaranteed a response, whether a good or a bad one.

As for email warnings, I get about 30 % response, maybe 25%. Usually people saying they understood the warning and will break off all communication. I suppose the people that do not respond, also do not heed my warning, which means that I will re-send a warning with a clearer message. When baiters do not respond, this is a time waster for me.

As others indicated, my response rate is about 10%. But, when I get a positive response from someone who was about to pay the scammer, that makes it all worth while

I think the problem regarding baiters not replying is that baiting makes you very cynical for obvious reasons, you adopt a don't trust anyone stance. If I got a warning from anyone on this site I would know it was genuine and would respond accordingly but if I got a scam warning from someone or a group I didn't know I probably wouldn't respond.

My response rate is at a similar level, but I thought I'd point out that it is quite a relief for the warner to get a positive response as well, since it means that the message has made it - often I worry that the mail hasn't made it past the junk mail filters, etc. so if you get a warning, please reply!

If I got a warning from anyone on this site I would know it was genuine and would respond accordingly but if I got a scam warning from someone or a group I didn't know I probably wouldn't respond.

I think that is one of the valuable aspects of this site. If this site is referenced in the warning email, victims and baiters alike can come over and confirm that the warning is from a legitimate source.

Having said that, I don't really see the harm in responding to any warning that seems legitimate. I can't imagine a scammer sending a warning to find out if someone is a baiter. They wouldn't risk alerting a potential victim just to find out if they are being baited. The exception would be something like a victim recovery scam, but those are easily spotted.

I've gotten a few replies from baiters, and I am always appreciative when they respond.

Having said that, I don't really see the harm in responding to any warning that seems legitimate. I can't imagine a scammer sending a warning to find out if someone is a baiter. They wouldn't risk alerting a potential victim just to find out if they are being baited. The exception would be something like a victim recovery scam, but those are easily spotted.

Sometimes baiters send out warnings that look like possible recovery scams there was one such example of Eater, a baiter sent out this.

I WOULD LIKE TO WARN EVERYONE ON THIS LIST THAT THIS EMAIL WAS A FRAUD EMAIL
AND THE POOR LADY WHO'S INFORMATION WAS UNAWARE THAT SHE WAS BEING FRAUDED!

PLEASE IF ANYONE FELL FOR THIS OR HAS ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE REPLY BACK TO ME
IMMEDIATELY!

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!

This looked to me and others like a recovery scam all in caps and the sender asking possible victims to reply to them if they have any questions. Turned out to be a baiter CLICKY here for the thread

Victims are often suspicious of warnings too. It's unfortunate that the healthy skepticism and caution warners sometimes see from victims wasn't present at the time they first made contact with a scammer.

Very true Chris, sadly a lot of victims are more inclined to want to believe the person offering them enough cash to escape the daily grind than someone offering them nothing but the harsh truth. That lure of life changing wealth is a very hard thing to counter and you do a good job even if you can only convince 10% of victims.

I have sent out warnings, and can't estimate the response, I think under 10%. An interesting note. When my elderly father, in his late 60's first got a computer, and began using the internet and mail on a regular basis, I sent him a warning about on-line scammers and predators, and let him know especially about the ones that come with links to update accounts etc.

I never got a response from him on that message. I should add, my father responds, almost to a fault, to everything I send to him. The fact that he didn't respond to my warning was peculiar. But I never asked him about this. I guess the lesson learned is just because somebody doesn't respond isn't an indication they didn't appreciate the warning. So keep doing good work everybody!

Not to necro, but I am new to the warning biz.... out of 200 warnings sent, only 2 replies. So that is 1% for me . Nice to hear, but I hope that some larger percent of the 200 got the message and broke off contact. So for any of you that are receiving warnings out there please respond. If you are baiting please let the warner know that as well.