Scammer Payback
{{Short description|American YouTuber and scambaiter}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox YouTube personality
| name = Scammer Payback
| other_names = Pierogi
| nationality = American
| occupation = {{Hlist
| YouTuber
}}
| associated_acts = {{flatlist|
}}
| website = {{URL|www.scammerpayback.org/}}
| channel_id = UCC9EjyMN_hx5NdctLBx5X7w
| channel_display_name = Scammer Payback
| years_active = 2019–present
| genre = Scam baiting, Vigilantism
| subscribers = 8.19 million
| views = 1.14 billion
| stats_update = May 11, 2025
| network =
| silver_button = y
| silver_year = 2020
| gold_button = y
| gold_year = 2021
}}
Scammer Payback, also known by his nickname "Pierogi", is an American YouTuber and streamer, who specializes in creating content about scam baiting against phone scams and Internet scams. He works against a variety of scams over the phone, such as technical support scams, refund scams, social security scams, and IRS impersonation scams.{{Cite news|first1=Whit|last1=Johnson|first2=Kaitlyn|last2=Morris|first3=Hannah|last3=Prince|title=FBI warns of rise in costly technical support scams|url=https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/fbi-warns-rise-costly-technical-support-scams-94165053|access-date=25 April 2023|website=Good Morning America|language=en}} He also has a dedicated team working to find numbers which link to different scams, as well as trying to stop other people from being scammed by using reverse connections.
In 2022, Pierogi and his Scammer Payback team made an "anti-scam call center", “The People’s Call Center”, which has had two runs. His team worked with AnyDesk: a Remote Desktop access software to ban over 2,000 AnyDesk Login IDs.
Career
Pierogi was born on July 16,{{Cite web|title=Pierogi on X: "The best present ever for my birthday tomorrow would be if you all could come to my premiere. I promise this thing is 🔥🔥🔥."|url=https://x.com/ScammerPayback/status/1548142239217463303|access-date=22 December 2024|website=X|language=en}} he previously worked as a cybersecurity professional.{{cite web|last=Ryan|first=Shannon|date=18 August 2022|title=YouTuber Pierogi targets scammers with 'Scammer Payback' channel, new project|url=https://www.fox7austin.com/news/youtube-pierogi-call-center-scammer-payback-target-scams|access-date=15 August 2023|website=FOX 7 Austin|language=en-US|quote=A former cybersecurity professional}} He launched his YouTube channel "Scammer Payback" on May 15, 2019, focusing on high-production scam-baiting content in which he pretends to be a scam victim by portraying a variety of characters with the use of a voice changer to waste the scammers' time and distract them. While distracted, Pierogi uses his expertise in cybersecurity to infiltrate the scammers' computer networks from his virtual machine, and proceeds to delete their files and gather their location and information to expose and use against them.{{cite web|last=Baleegh|first=Mohammed|date=7 June 2022|title=Hyderabad: Online scammers call cops after getting exposed|url=https://www.siasat.com/hyderabad-online-scammers-call-cops-after-getting-exposed-2343771/|access-date=12 April 2023|website=The Siasat Daily|language=en-US}}{{cite web|date=7 June 2022|title=American YouTuber busts scam call centre in Hyderabad|url=https://www.timesnownews.com/mirror-now/crime/american-youtuber-busts-scam-call-centre-in-hyderabad-article-92052496|access-date=12 April 2023|website=TimesNow|language=en}} Throughout his career, Pierogi has been able to stop numerous scams in progress and give money back to scam victims.{{cite web|last=Ryan|first=Shannon|date=18 August 2022|title=YouTuber Pierogi targets scammers with 'Scammer Payback' channel, new project|url=https://www.fox7austin.com/news/youtube-pierogi-call-center-scammer-payback-target-scams|access-date=11 April 2023|website=FOX 7 Austin|language=en-US}} He is known to read out the scammer's real name and location that he has discovered through the process.
Pierogi has been in a number of collaborations with other content creators, having worked alongside Mark Rober, Trilogy Media, and Jim Browning.{{cite web|last=Webster|first=Sophie|date=24 April 2021|title=Mark Rober, a Former NASA Scientist Turned YouTuber Content Creator That Engineered Glitterbomb Packages|url=https://www.techtimes.com/articles/259502/20210424/mark-rober-former-nasa-scientist-turned-youtuber-content-creator-engineered.htm|access-date=12 April 2023|website=Tech Times}} In 2022, Pierogi and his team set up an anti-scam call center dedicated to scam baiting. Named the "People's Call Center", its participants consisted of Pierogi and several other scambaiters who spent one week at the call center monitoring scam call centers, wasting the scammers' time, and preventing people from getting scammed.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/@ScammerPayback Scammer Payback's YouTube channel]
- {{cite web|url=https://time.com/7021745/the-age-of-scams/|title=Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams|author=Semuels, Alana|magazine=Time|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=September 18, 2024|archive-date=September 18, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240918173146/https://time.com/7021745/the-age-of-scams/}}
{{Scams and confidence tricks|state=}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scammer Payback}}
Category:YouTubers from Florida
Category:Social engineering (security)
Category:YouTube channels launched in 2019