Friday will be day 1 of BSides Bristol, and I'll be giving my latest talk there. Not only that, but on day 2 I'll be running a workshop where we call up scammers live. Before that even happens though there's more to tell. In October there's BSides Newcastle and I'll be attending that event too. Day 1 is called PreSides and I've been asked to run the scammer calling session there. I've also put in a CFP to do the new talk there. The selection process in going on right now and I should hear if I got accepted to that in a few days or so. One thing I've done with the new presentation is put up a disclaimer at the start. As I'll be playing parts of a set of calls where we convince a scammer I've just shot my wife while he's on the call with us and use a sound clip where another baiter pretended to be shot, I felt it only fair to warn people beforehand in case it's something they'd feel uncomfortable hearing. I've rewritten the text to the disclaimer probably over a dozen times now. I obviously don't want to traumatise anyone, but at the same time it's a great example of just how far you can go once you get a scammer well and truly hooked into your story. Interestingly, it's not the first time we did this idea. The month before we did the same scenario, but that time the scammer seemed to have no issue with it, likely because he didn't actually hear the "murder". Not only was he fine with it, but he also agreed to accept a parcel with the gun and 10k, then throw the gun into a river by where he lives to dispose of the evidence. That's the thing with scammer calls, you never know which way the scammer will react. You can do the exact same story with them and get completely different reactions each time.
I also have some new stickers to give out, based on the Panti Claus photos I received from a scammer group a number of years ago. They look really cool too. Want to see them?
I love the shiny bits in the colours on the underwear. That really adds some zing to them. Not only that, but I'll have a young assistant with me at Bristol. While giving my ex neighbour and her sons a lift one day, we got talking about what it is I do. They were all too young to understand when they lived next door to us, but they're more grown up now and absolutely loved listening to the calls we'd made and uploaded online. I bought tickets for Bristol, but when you're accepted as a speaker you get a free ticket, so I had a spare. One of the sons is coming along, and is super excited about being involved. I've even given him a job to do - answer the burner phone if a scammer calls while we're in other calls so we can call him back. You never know, we may even bring him in on a call or two!
Oh, and if you want to see the original Panti Claus image I made the sticker from, here it is:
