by Wayne » Sun Oct 27, 2024 1:21 pm
In my talk I say that you don't need a fancy setup to bait, so I decided to set myself a challenge and make the absolute cheapest baiting PC possible. Here's how I did it, what challenges I experienced and how I got around them. You'll find a common thread about how I acquired the parts.
What the system needs to do is connect to the internet, allow me to email scammers and use Skype to make and record calls to the scammers. I could have gone with a cheap laptop, but wanted to build an actual computer for this project that I can carry around to workshops.
It all started about a fortnight ago when I lucked upon a 22 inch monitor at a recycling shop while on my way back from a trip to Newport. It has VGA, HDMI and DP connectors, plus a USB connection to work as a hub. Other than a mark on the stand it's absolutely perfect and only cost me £15.
Total spend so far - £15
Next up came the computer, which I managed to find on an online auction. It's nothing fancy at all, but it doesn't need to be. It's a thin client with an operating system I'd never heard of before, but that can be wiped and replaced with an actual useful OS. With fees and delivery it came to £36, and when it arrived it turned out to be unused with a keyboard and a mouse included.
Total spend so far - £51
The hard drive was too small be be usable for anything but the smallest of operating systems. I had 2 choices. I could either swap the drive for a larger one or find a version of Linux small enough to run on it. I tried both options and ended up replacing the drive and also upgrading the RAM. As it happens, I had some spares here that I was able to use, but looking around it would only have cost me £15 to replace them. Let's add the cost of those to the bill as not everyone would be lucky enough to have spares hanging around.
Total spend so far - £66
The operating system was tricky, and I must have tried over a half dozen different ones. Some Linux distros refused to work at all, and some would work but gave me all kinds of problems trying to connect a headset to it. In the end I went with Tiny10, which is a stripped down version of Windows 10. Even this was problematic as it refused to accept the key I'd bought for it due to it not being an official Microsoft product. In the end I had to resort to using a different program to register it. The key never got used, but as I paid for it I'll add it to the list here.
Total spend so far - £69
As it stands at this point in the story I have a computer that can access my email account and run Skype. Next up is audio. For a single use baiting PC, a basic headset would be fine. You can grab these for practically nothing. I however needed something a bit more substantial as I intend using this in the workshops, so people would be needing to hear what the scammer was saying. A headset won't cut it. A trip to another recycling shop netted me a small guitar amp for just £15, and a buy at a car boot sale a few years ago meant I also had a USB microphone. I'm not going to count these in the cost as these are extras purely for workshops. Likewise, the USB wifi dongle is only needed when the system is out and about. I had a spare headset from a job lot I won on the auction site, but you can pick up a headset for about a tenner these days, so let's add that to the price and compare what a fully built single person baiting system would cost compared to one for workshops.
Total spend for a single person system - £79
Total spend for the worktop version - £95
Skype recording software is free, but I had a spare key for the pro version of the program I use on my main PC so I used that. The free version is perfectly fine though, and I would have used that if I didn't have the key. I also swapped the keyboard out for a different one as I've recently upgraded the one I use day to day. These are things that didn't really cost me anything and are completely optional, so we'll ignore these. At this point we can also record Skype calls, and Audacity is a great free piece of software for editing the calls after.
Total spend for a single person system - £79
Total spend for the worktop version - £95
So then, for less than £80 I managed to build a computer system that would work perfectly fine as a standalone baiting system, and adjusting for the fact the system has a decent USB mic and speaker, the system still cost me less than £100. The only thing I still need to get is a cart I can use to carry it around. I've seen them for less than a tenner, but will wait til I'm in the area to get it as it's a 90 minute drive away and I pass by the place every few weeks. That is unless I find one first in a recycling shop. When all is said and done, the entire system, complete with a way to easily transport it would have cost just over a hundred pounds. As I said at he beginning, you don't need a fancy system to bait. This I hope proves the point.
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