Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Kitboga

Go To

Over the years, Kitboga has created numerous personas that he plays during his scambait calls.

Note that multiple names may be used for the same character. Listings fall under the name most commonly used for the character and/or the one Kit uses for them when speaking about them out of character.

    open/close all folders 

The Voices

    In General 
Traits held by most or all of Kit's characters.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: As eccentric and cartoonishly tech-illiterate as Kit's characters may be (especially Edna), woe betide any hapless scammer who mistakes them for easy targets.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Some more than others, but all of them are very eccentric, the better to lull the scammers into a false sense of security.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Many of them believe the earth is flat, though they tend to just mention this in passing rather than make it a focus of the conversation.
  • Forgetful Jones: Many of Kitboga's characters display this tendency, particularly his elderly characters. This is both to reinforce the idea of those characters being elderly, as well as great scammer time-waster, forcing them to repeat who they are or the reason why they were calling.
  • Hopeless with Tech: Tech support scams tend to target people who fall under this category. Naturally, Kit's characters tend to be like this too.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Kitboga often derails scam attempts by pretending to mishear or otherwise misunderstand the scammer, and then doing the exact opposite of what the scammers tell him to do. This is often combined with an I Can't Hear You gag.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: While in reality it's Kitboga Obfuscating Stupidity, the characters he plays demonstrate this, being so Hopeless with Tech that they inadvertently ruin the schemes that scammers were expecting them to fall for.
  • Universal-Adaptor Cast: Kitboga has a cast of recurring personas, each of which can change names, hobbies, occupations and relationships between each call. Pretty much the only thing that remains consistent is a broad outline of each personality.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: Sometimes assisted by audio equipment too. But Kit does sometimes wear wigs when playing certain characters, especially Edna and Neveah.

    Chad 

Chad

A, well, stereotypical Chad or frat bro.
  • Out of Focus: One of the lesser-used personas, as 'male young adult' is well out of the demographics that scammers usually aim for. When he does show up, it's usually in a secondary role. This, and his spaced out, stoner personality tends to annoy the heck out of the scammers to the point that they simply hang up in irritation.

    Daniel 

Daniel

A scammer from the "World Wide Web Wide Tech Support Team", who is often added to the conversation mid-call, to the real scammer's dismay. Uses Kitboga's own voice.

  • Always Someone Better: Compared to the real scammers, he's more charismatic and tech-savvy, and he wastes no time putting his talents to work to steal their victim.
  • Interpretative Character: Daniel tends to alternate between being a hyper-competent criminal mastermind, a Stupid Evil crook whose schemes are extremely transparent or an Only Sane Man Punch-Clock Villain who comes off as more helpful and genuine when compared with the scammer, depending on which personality suits the call better.
  • The Rival: Inevitably becomes this to any scammer he joins a call with, since he's a competitor chasing after the same mark.

    Dixie 

Dixie

A middle-aged woman from the Deep South. Sometimes cameos as a store employee or the wife of the stream's main character.
  • Brainless Beauty: Is a bit air-headed; often lampshaded by Dixie herself, who describes herself (or references others describing her) using the expression "The porch light's on, but nobody's home."
  • Literal-Minded: A key plot point in one call involved Dixie misinterpreting a scammer's request for her to buy $2,000 worth of Vanilla-brand prepaid credit cards, and buying $2,000 worth of vanilla-flavored items (and a Vanilla Ice CD).
  • Southern Belle: Dixie is a modern version.

    Edmund 

Edmund

An elderly man. Sometimes goes by the name Billy Maizear.
  • Grumpy Old Man: Is often portrayed as this, being cantankerous and lacking patience for the scammers' typical antics. He is also prone to complaints about how things are in the present compared to how they were "back in his day," and about the general behavior of Millennials.

    Edna 

Granny Edna

Kit's most famous persona, a woman in her 80s who is prone to going on long tangents.
  • Crazy Cat Lady: Depending on the call, she may be portrayed as this, having either just one cat ("Mr. Whiskers") or possibly as many as seven or eight and seeking more.
  • Dirty Old Woman: Obsessed with her mailman, and prone to tangents describing how sexy he is.
    Edna: That mailman... Oh...
  • Drives Like Crazy: Invoked in a call when Kit booted up Grand Theft Auto V to audibly convince the scammer that Edna was driving to the store to buy the gift cards. However, it's a bit tricky to drive cleanly and safely in a game partially revolving around driving fast and creating automotive chaos, resulting in the scammer being legitimately concerned for Edna's safety.
    Edna: I'm not driving fast. I have a license, don't judge me!
    • He would later switch to using BeamNG.drive for a calmer driving experience, but will still drive like crazy on occasion.
    [Edna's car wipes out and crashes into a tree]
    Edna: "That's it!... That's it!"
  • Elderly Ailment Rambling: Will often go on long tangents where she talks about her various health problems in excessive detail. This has the effect of both wasting the scammer's time and also making them uncomfortable in order to put them on the back foot.
  • Literal-Minded: Edna is very prone to this, often misinterpreting the things that the scammers talk about as being about a literal subject (hearing the typing instruction "I as in ice cream", and suddenly talking about ice cream, or suggesting that cloud storage literally involves clouds), or mishearing the addresses they give her (such as, for example, "HelpMe" as "Healthy Me" or "Healthy Knee", and more spectacularly, "FastLikeWeRunFastSupportLikeWeSupportYou.com").
  • Never Mess with Granny: When Steve claims that he will "show her his power", she mockingly retorts with "You haven't even seen my final form!". Considering how she made him lose his mind to an epic degree during the last hour of the stream, she made good on her claim.
  • Overly Long Gag: Edna can practically turn the simplest of tasks into one, due to her forgetfulness and general tech incompetence.
  • Rambling Old Woman Monologue: A standard tactic, she will talk and talk about her life, her dog, her health problems and what-not, often talking over the scammers and pretending not to hear them.
  • Sitcom Archnemesis: Her neighbor, Susie Derkins, whom she has an ongoing rivalry with when it comes to things like Bingo. Though, in one call, Kitboga actually plays the character of Susie Derkins, but still using the Edna voice and wig.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: She likes baking pecan sandies.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: A romantic example with her husband played by Jerma985.
  • When I Was Your Age...: This is sometimes a subject of her extended tangents, and yes, she has spoken of having to walk uphill both ways to school before in the snow.
  • Who's on First?: Kit sometimes names her "Dawn Dewitt", allowing her to conveniently mishear a scammer's "don't"/"don't do it" as either her name or as "Dawn, do it" (generally in reference to redeeming gift cards). Also sometimes paired with her husband, Don Dewitt.

    Jebediah 

Jebediah

A middle-aged man from the Deep South.
  • Half-Witted Hillbilly: His slow, seeming hillbilly nature makes him an easy target for scammers who think they've found an easy mark, even if they may not be entirely familiar with the stereotype.
  • Simpleton Voice: Has the voice to go along with the hillbilly personality, further registering in scammers' minds that they're speaking with someone who's likely to fall for their scam.

    Dr. Linda 

Dr. Linda Fairbottom

A high-powered, highly successful relationship guru. She is the author of several best-selling self-help books regarding relationships and marriage. She charges $200 per hour for a session over the phone. As such, she is literally losing money every second she speaks with scammers, as it's time that could be spent on the line with a paying client. Alternatively, a Phony Psychic who serves as a spiritual advisor and can supposedly raise the dead in conjunction with her partner, Dr. Igor. She is not a licensed doctor in any state and cannot legally practice medicine.

  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She tells one scammer that she has a degree in theoretical physics, is not "technically" a doctor, and thus is not allowed to call her clients "patients." However, her dubious credentials don't seem to stop her from attracting a high volume of clients.
  • Drives Like Crazy: She ignores all road signs, claiming to simply not see them anymore because there's so many of them and she's been seeing them for so long that they simply fade away as noise. She also tells a scammer that the bank wanted her driver's license, but she doesn't have a driver's license.
  • It's All About Me: Admits to a scammer to having been focused entirely on herself ignoring the world around her.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: She refers to herself as "Dr. Linda" because of this.
  • Plagiarism in Fiction: She spends time reading books for the purpose of finding tidbits to put into her own books.

    Nevaeh 

Nevaeh

A Valley Girl in her early 20s, often portrayed as a wannabe Instagram model.
  • Dumb Blonde: She has shades of this, as a method of convincing scammers that she can be easily swayed. It helps that Kit sometimes wears a long blonde wig whenever he plays the character.
  • Head-Turning Beauty: An odd version, as they never actually see "her," but she seems to attract scammers who creep on her and/or want to strike up a romance.
  • Motor Mouth: To a truly impressive level, especially if a scammer is trying to get her to listen to them.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: Often points out that her name is "Heaven" spelled backwards.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Nevaeh opening up a call by asking for someone who "specializes in pornography". As in malicious pornographic malware.
  • Valley Girl: Her main character schtick and manner of speaking.

    Tony 

Tony Andrews

A slick-talking man with a highly-exaggerated Brooklyn, New York accent. Generally full of himself and speaks in a free-wheeling manner designed to infuriate the scammers as much as possible. Sometimes added to a call as an alternative personality of Kitboga's "rival scammer" or "bank managers" characters, though occasionally used right from the start.
  • Alliterative Name: Often goes by alternative alliterative names, such as "FTC Frank," "Better Business Bureau Bob" or "Target Tim"

    Tyler 

Tyler

A nervous boy in his early teens. Has a grandpa who does weird experiments.
  • Expy: Of Morty from Rick and Morty.
  • SatelliteCharacter: Given that he is generally portrayed as an elementary- or middle school-aged boy (who presumably would not have any significant financial assets), scammers generally do not try to scam him directly; thus, both the scammers and Kitboga use him as a means of keeping the scam(bait) going, rather than as a direct mark.

    Viktor and Vicki 

Viktor and Vicki

Eastern European immigrants. Both have a similar personality outline.
  • Ruritania: Although they are ostensibly from Russia, Kit deliberately mixes a bunch of Eastern European traits together to make the character. This includes, for example, having them speak both Gratuitous Russian and Gratuitous German.

Scammers

     Scammers in General 
The main targets of Kit's videos, who prey on easily-manipulated people and scam them out of their money. Unfortunately for them, their "victims" are Kit's various characters and they often waste their time in scamming them.
  • Asshole Victim: Their whole modus operandi is scamming vulnerable people, so it's hard to feel sorry for them when they undergo a Villainous Breakdown.
  • Angrish: Many of them are reduced to barely understandable angry gibberish when Kit messes with their scam.
  • Beat Them at Their Own Game: Just as they scam people out of money, Kit scams them out of their time.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Scammers who feel annoyed, frustrated, or suspicious about Kit's characters' antics during a call can often be heard saying "Mahke bul," which translates from Hindi to "smelling bull" (i.e., "bullshit").
  • Berserk Button:
    • Other scammers being added to the call.
    • A lot of them get really upset when Kitboga repeatedly hangs up the call.
    • Most of them lose it when Kitboga pretends to redeem gift cards instead of sending the card codes to the scammer.
  • Blatant Lies: Many of them claim to be things they are decidedly not. With being C.I.A agents, Microsoft tech support and Internal Revenue Service employees being some particular examples.
  • Broken Record: A very common occurrence, usually either in response to Kit going so far off-script that they default to repeating the script or ignoring them so much that they have to repeat their instruction over and over again.
  • Con Man: All of them make their living trying to scam vulnerable marks out of their money. Most of the scams are very unsophisticated, however, with many of the scammers clearly working from similar prepared scripts.
  • The Cracker: A lot of them pretend to be this. In most cases, it's to intimidate their victim to get them to comply, but some of them claim to offer their services to the victim in return for payment. Also, a lot of the tech support scammers that Kit calls claim that there are hackers on the victim's computer and that they'll be able to remove the hackers if the victim pays them.
  • Creepy Monotone: Some of them can only run the scam by reading directly from a script, causing them to sound extremely flat and monotone. It contrasts heavily with how angry they sound when Kit goes off-script and forces them to shout instructions at him.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: A great number of scammers rely on the exact same tactic of using HTML-editing to make it look like they "accidentally" transfer too much money to their victims, and then demand they give back the difference via gift cards. Kit milks this one-note script for all its worth, often by ignoring their instructions and redeeming the (bogus) cards he's supposed to give them to his own accounts, or creating fake bank websites that are as annoying as possible for them to pull off their HTML trick. Also, since the entire premise of their scam is that they're too powerless to do something as simple as reverting a faulty transaction, Kit (in-character) is able to frequently call bluff on their empty threats.
  • Elder Abuse: They have no problem scamming elderly people and have a tendency to fly into fits of rage and threats when the victims do not comply.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Many of the scammers will grow irritated at even the slightest provocation and will go absolutely bonkers given even more provocation. Given that their targets are often elderly people who are prone to making mistakes it's a wonder sometimes how they manage to scam anyone at all given how easily they fly off the handle.
  • Hope Spot: The gist of what Kit does to all of them. He hooks them in with the promise of an easy gullible mark, and just as when the money's about to be handed over, something always comes up that denies them of their long-awaited payoff. The most brutal example of this is probably what happened to "Joe Biden", who spent an entire year trying to get Kit's money (which he believes to be worth $400,000), only for Kit's character to screw up in the most inept way possible at the last minute over and over and over again.
  • Hypocrite:
    • The scammers tend to get upset when Kit's characters speak over them and don't listen to their instructions, even though a lot of them don't listen to a word Kit says.
    • Almost anytime that Kit calls a second scammer after initiating a conversation with the first, the latter will hurriedly attempt to prevent his character from falling victim to this new scam by outlining the scam...only to immediately try the same scam themselves.
  • Hypocrite Has a Point: They're technically correct when describing the other person's scam to Kit's character, even if they plan to scam them.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Most of the scammers that Kit's called attempt to play on their victim's emotions to get them to send them money, usually by claiming that they'll lose their job. A few of them, however, drop this altogether in favor of using verbal threats and blackmail to get their victims to comply.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: No matter where they claim to be from, almost none of them bothers to hide their Indian accent. A special mention goes to "Joe Biden", who claims to be the U.S. president while still speaking in his thick Indian accent.
  • Operator from India: Nearly all of them are based in India and speak with the stereotypical accent associated with this trope.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: A few specific scammers may qualify. Some are far nicer than others that Kit encounters, and a few warn his character about the scam in progress (or even express an intention to quit scamming altogether). Even those who do not admit fault after getting caught will sometimes stay on the line with Kit for honest conversations or singing, occasionally even joining him on a conference call with the next scammer in his queue. It is also worth taking into account that some scammers are in their current position for reasons that are not entirely their fault; some were deceived into thinking they would be working at a legitimate job, while others were coerced or trafficked into the scamming circuit. However, this nonetheless does not justify their actions when trying to scam a potential victim.

Noteworthy Scammers

    Adam and Alex 

Adam and Alex

A pair of refund scammers who hold the record for Kit's longest scambait at 37 non-consecutive hours.
  • Arc Villain: For a given value of "villain", they're still the main scammers of the first Baited series of videos.
  • Broken Record:
    • In the first episode, after Granny has redeemed two of the three $500 gift cards and the scammers are desperately trying to prevent her from redeeming the last one, leaving the scammers with nothing:
    "First give me the $500 card number here.
    First give me the $500 card number in Notepad!
    First give me the $500 card number in Notepad!
    First give me the $500 card number in Notepad!"
    (scammer proceeds to repeat the sentence fifteen times in a row while Granny talks over him)
    • Later on, when Granny redeems more gift cards:
    "Your computer is going to blast!
    Your computer is going to blast! You have to move it!"
  • Confetti Drop: Kit did an animated confetti drop to celebrate the 24 hour mark. "Honey, Happy New Year, darling! Happy New Year!"
  • Elder Abuse: The character Kitboga is playing for most of the scambait is Granny Edna, an elderly woman.
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop: Though they're not cops, this seems to be one of their tactics when a scam attempt doesn't go their way. At one point, one of them pretended to call the FBI on Granny and have her "put behind the bars", while the other one acted like he was on Granny's side and wanted to stop it, and she just had to give them the money. Later on, during the "trial", one of them takes on the role of a lawyer defending Edna against the prosecution.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Adam in particular had these moments, often during gift card redemptions.
  • Hollywood Law: Their interpretation of the American court system is full of this. For one thing, the "trial" takes place over the phone, and starts the moment the lawyer is assigned to the case. Also, the prosecution doubles as the judge.
  • I Don't Pay You to Think: At one point early on when Kitboga is pretending to redeem gift cards, Adam shouts at him "Why are you using your mind?!"
  • I Have Many Names: They use various aliases when pretending to be FBI agents, Apple support, travel agents, lawyers and people Edna knows, but Adam and Alex seem to be their main aliases.
  • Impersonating an Officer: At one point, they pretended to be FBI agents. They were bad at it.
  • Laughably Evil: Their breakdowns and desperate attempts to scam Granny Edna are hilarious, if only because Edna isn't actually an old woman. It's still messed up that they would act this way towards someone who they think is an old woman.
  • New Job as the Plot Demands: What sets them apart from other scammers, and what allowed their scambait to go on for so long, was their willingness to jettison their script and improvise new scenarios on the spot, consistency be damned. They began as Microsoft technicians, and at various points were also FBI agents, Google support, Apple support, Verizon support, the Social Security Administration, travel agents, the Secretary of President Donald Trump and lawyers (both defence and prosecution).
  • No Indoor Voice: Adam in particular.
  • Oh, Crap!: When Kit goes to the Google Play Store webpage to redeem more gift cards after the first redeem, they immediately panic.
  • Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: At the 26 hour mark, Kitboga does his usual "Happy anniversary. Clap for me," routine. Adam responds with "Clap for you. Clap clap clap clap."
  • Refuge in Audacity:
    • The scammers tell Granny Edna to hang up the phone on a scammer from a different call center, warning her that he's going to scam her, before trying to get her to buy more gift cards for them. After she's already redeemed the gift cards at least once. Also, at one point, one of them admits to being a scammer before trying to scam Edna again.
    • The scammers, at one point, try to stop Granny Edna from redeeming more gift cards by screaming at her that her computer is about to blow up and she has to get away immediately.
    • After Edna mentions "Miss Kiki", her grandson's teacher, one of the scammers calls her and pretends to be Kiki. A woman. Without changing his voice at all.
  • Sunk Cost Fallacy: Kit points out that this might have been part of the reason why they kept trying to scam Edna even after failing so many times.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: At one point, Edna calls Adam and Alex because there's "hackers" on her computer (it's just Kitboga moving the mouse) and she starts to insinuate that Adam is one of the hackers. Alex decides to just go along with it when she keeps pushing the issue.
  • Those Two Guys: Two scammers from the same call center.
  • Villainous Breakdown: The first time Kit pretends to redeem gift cards, Adam completely loses it. He has several more breakdowns after that.
  • We Need a Distraction: The scammers scream at Edna that her computer is going to explode to stop her from redeeming more gift cards.

    Abel 

Abel

A refund scammer who turned out to be one of the scarier scammers that Kit's called because of how friendly and charming he appears to be on the surface.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He is good at hiding it, though, unlike most scammers.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He acts friendly and charming and goes to great lengths to relate to Kit's "Dr. Linda" character, and unlike most of the scammers Kit calls, he is very patient. However, all of this only serves to make him a more dangerous scammer and Kit even points out that Abel may have successfully scammed a lot of people. Only after hours of Kit wasting his time and putting him into increasingly ridiculous scenarios does he begin to crack and show some of his true colors. And even then, he is able to keep up the facade relatively well, at least until Kit pretends to redeem the gift cards.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He stands out in this regard even when compared to a lot of the other scammers that Kit's called.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: A subversion in that he's not really a doctor, but when Dr. Linda and one of her "patients" start referring to him as "Dr. Abel", he goes along with it.
  • No Indoor Voice: He is calm and soft-spoken most of the time, but when Kit pretends to redeem the gift cards, he starts to scream so loudly that Kit's compressor has to do a lot of work to make the call listenable.
  • Psycho Psychologist: A subversion in that he obviously isn't an actual therapist or psychologist, but he starts pretending to be one in order to make himself seem relatable to Dr. Linda and even talks to one of her "patients".
  • Suddenly Shouting: When Kit pretends to redeem the gift cards.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Unlike a lot of the scammers Kit calls, it takes a long time for him to finally crack, but he does.
  • Worthy Opponent: This seems to be how Kit views him, as Kit points out that he'd much rather have him on the phone than some of the other scammers, because of how good he is at smooth-talking his victims.

    Ash 

Ash the Singing Scammer

A refund scammer who turned out to be more committed than anybody else to sing for Edna's entertainment.

    Steve 

Steve

"BITCH! BITCH! YOU ARE A FUCKING ASSHOLE!"
A refund scammer who, by a wide margin, was the angriest scammer Kit has ever called. Steve holds an infamous position among the scammers in that he didn't even try to hide just how malicious he was, going so far as to threaten to rape and murder Edna and her family if she doesn't give him gift cards.
  • Beware the Quiet Ones: At the beginning of the call, Steve was generally quite tame and even low-energy for a scammer. That changed after he completed the fake bank transfer, when he gave a ridiculously exaggerated reaction to the excess money being sent, which quickly turned into genuine anger.
  • Big "NO!": Occurs quite a few times, but one of the biggest incidents is just before Kit redeems the second Google Play card.
    Steve: "DO NOT REDEEM!!! (x3) DO NOT REDEEM THE CARD!!! DO NOT REDEEM CARDS!!! DO NOT REDEEM THE CARDS!!!"
    Granny: "What? Yes, I'm redeeming the cards! I'm redeeming the cards!"
    Steve: "NOOOOO!!! NOOOOO!!! NO, NO, NO, NO!!! NOOOOO!!!"
  • Broken Record:
    • Five seconds after Kit redeems the first Google Play card.
    Steve: "WHY DID YOU DO THIS? WHY DID YOU REDEEM?! MA'AM, WHY DID YOU REDEEM?! ARE YOU MAD?! ARE YOU MAD?!... WHY ARE YOU REDEEMING CARDS?! ... WHY THE F— ARE YOU REDEEMING THE CARDS?! WHY ARE YOU REDEEMING?! WHY ARE YOU REDEEMING?!"
    Granny: "Steve, you told me you wanted the cards! This is so you won't bother my family again-"
    Steve: "THEN WHY THE F— ARE YOU REDEEMING?! WHY ARE YOU REDEEMING?! WHY ARE YOU REDEEMING?! WHY DID YOU REDEEM IT?! WHY DID YOU REDEEM IT?!"
  • Controllable Helplessness: When Granny is about to redeem the third card and the redeem box pops up, Steve attempts to click on the fake Cancel button 24 times in a row. After Granny confirms it, he then clicks the space where the Cancel button used to be 3 more times.
    Steve: Ma'am, you are redeeming it for your own! I won't get it! I won't get it! I WON'T GET IT! MA'AM WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
  • Dramatic Irony: The viewers know from the start that all the hurdles and rages Steve went through would be for nought, as there never was any card for him to extort from "Paula". When he broke down in sheer impotent rage over Kit redeeming his cards, he was raging over nothing as Kit was just inputting a bunch of gibberish into a fake redeeming form.
  • Elder Abuse: Towards Edna for most of the call.
    Steve: Write the name of your favorite teacher, write-
    Edna: Steve, I am trying to help you.
    Steve: WRITE THE NAME OF YOUR FAVORITE TEACHER!!!
  • Evil Is Hammy: When he's not just incoherently screaming, he has these moments.
    "You have made me angry now. NOW I SHOW YOU MY POWER!"
    "You get the cards, you'll be saved! You don't get the cards, you die!"
    "Do not break the computer you mad BITCH!"
    "You are gonna get the cards, and you are gonna BEG!"
  • Flowery Insults: Some of his more...out there insults qualify, like "MA'AM ARE YOU A PROSTITUTE?".
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Holy Mother of God. From pretty much the moment the main body of his scam attempt commences, he drops any attempt at being friendly and shifts to sheer unbridled rage. One such incident occurs earlier in the scam, when Granny tries to restart the computer to "fix" the "incorrect money transfer" (which cuts the scammer's connection to the computer and wrecks their HTML setup).
    Steve (relatively normal voice): "Ma'am, just check your account; you have no money!"
    Granny: "I think there's something wrong, hold on, let me try..."
    Steve: "No, no, no, just..."
    Granny: "I might have to turn it off and turn it back on again, if it doesn't work right..."
    Steve: "NO!!! NOOOOO!!! HOLD ON!!! NO, NO, NO!!! NO, B—, NOOOOO!!!"
  • I'll Kill You!: Threatens to kill Edna if she doesn't give him the gift cards.
    Steve: If you don't get me the cards today, you'll lose all your money today. You get the cards, you'll be saved! You don't get the cards, you die!
  • Insane Troll Logic: Many of Steve's points, including how he was supposed to redeem the cards on his computer as if Edna doing so is insane and wrong... because of course that ruins the scam. But the prize goes to this moment where he declares that Edna will go to jail.
    Steve: You will go to jail, now! You will go to jail! You just wait!
    Edna: Why would I go to jail?
    Steve: I'm gonna show you. Because you redeemed my fucking cards! Why did you redeem it?
  • Laughably Evil: Unlike most scammers, Steve is genuinely psychotic to the point of being disturbing but is hilarious regardless, if only because Edna isn't actually an old woman.
    Steve: I will shoot your husband point blank in his head!
    Edna: I'm sorry, what? Hey, hey, hey!
    Steve: I will shoot him! Hey, B—, did I tell you to redeem huh?!? WHY THE FUCK DID YOU REDEEM, HUH B—
    Edna: You have no idea what you're talking about! You're acting like, you're throwing a temper tantrum of epic proportions! Clearly, you have, clearly you have lost your mind!
  • Lack of Empathy:
    • After he starts screaming at Granny for turning off her computer (see Hair-Trigger Temper), she starts crying and asks him why he's screaming at her. His only reaction is to ask her if she turned the computer back on.
    • At one point, Edna tells him that she hopes he feels a little bad for his behavior. He flatly tells her that he doesn't and just wants the money.
    • Tries to coerce Edna to lie to the bank even when she repeatedly tells her she can't do that.
  • No Indoor Voice: Kit showcased that his audio compressor had to reduce Steve’s shouting volume by almost 30 decibels just to make the call listenable. By the end of the call, even the compressor was starting to reach its limit.
  • Obviously Evil: While most scammers at least try to hide their slimy, thieving ways beneath a cover of professionalism, Steve doesn't even care to do this, outright throwing it away the moment the main body of his scam begins, in favour of openly threatening to commit heinous actions on his victim should they not comply.
  • Psychotic Manchild: Accused of this by Kit himself, and not for no reason. Steve's reaction to having his (non-existent) rewards stolen from him was to throw a temper tantrum of epic proportion and throw threats at Edna, the same way a child would throw a tantrum in hope that his mom will relent and give him what he wants.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Threatens to "fuck" Edna's whole family after she fake redeems some gift cards.
  • The Sociopath: Not only does his utter hatred of his victims come to the fore the moment he initiates the main body of his scam, but at one point during his monumental breakdown, he shows that in spite of his sickening behaviour, he sincerely believes what he's doing is right.
    Steve: "I am a good person."
    Granny: "You're a good person, Steve?!? Ha!"
    Steve: "Yes."
    Granny: "You just threatened to murder my husband if I don't give you $2000."
    Steve: "Are you going to give it, yes or no?"
  • Terms of Endangerment: At one point, he starts calling Granny Edna words like "honey" and "love" while trying to coerce her to lie to the bank. This is probably another intimidation tactic, given that this happens after he screamed at her for almost an hour and changed the bank page's HTML to make it look like Edna lost all her money. When this fails, he switches back to screaming at Edna and telling her he's going to steal her money.
  • Villainous Breakdown: The final hour of the call, in which Kit fake-redeemed a set of Google Play cards, really needs to be heard to be believed.
    Steve: (When Granny redeems another card) "NOOOO!!! NOOOO!!! NO, B—, NOOOO! NOOOOOOOO!!! DO NOT REDEEM THAT! DO NOT REDEEM THAAAAAT!!! DO NOT REDEEM THAT!!!" [Beat]..... "Now I fuck your whole family."

    Jay Anderson 

Jay Anderson

A scammer who poses as a provider of technical support for printers. As his call center tends to be the only one open late on Monday nights, he is a recurring target of Kit.
  • Aesop Amnesia: He never seems to catch on to the fact that Kit has a high chance of calling him on a specific day.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The closest thing Kit has to one.
  • Sore Loser: Doesn't take Kit's reveals very well. In particular, he loves to (unconvincingly) play the Knew It All Along card whenever he gets called out.

    "Father" Gary Jackson 

"Father" Gary Jackson

"I am the father here."
A refund scammer who went the extra mile after Edna mentioned being religious, and pretended to be a priest.

    Raymond 

Raymond

A refund scammer whose scam starts to go south when he is called out by Daniel. He then gets sucked into an elaborate web, eventually making all sorts of claims about Daniel and even singing to try to get money.
  • Blatant Lies: Despite Daniel being a character created by Kitboga, he claims to personally know Daniel and says that he's somebody who used to work for his company and is now out trying to scam people on his own and exposing company info.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: At one point, he states "Ma'am, just hang up the call of Daniel, ma'am. He's a Daniel, ma'am."
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Like Ash, he sings and like Ash, he is not good at it. Kitboga plays this for laughs by singing as Daniel in a singing competition with him, singing just as badly.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Emotional manipulation is his primary tool and Kitboga has to warn the audience multiple times not to feel sorry for him, that he's willing to resort to any trick and even ultimately telling the truth while still trying to scam for gift cards.
  • Refuge in Audacity: He tells Kitboga's character, "Debbie," that Daniel is going to scam her then proceeds to outline the exact details of the scam, saying that this is what Daniel is going to do. He then proceeds to try the exact same thing himself, barely modifying the script.
  • Villainous Breakdown: He becomes more and more desperate as Daniel negates each of his attempts at scamming and can't understand how Daniel is somehow still on the phone even though Debbie keeps hanging up on him.

    Michelle 

Michelle

A scammer from a call center posing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement who turns out to be quite a nasty piece of work.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first, Michelle acts polite, but she shows her true colors as a verbally and emotionally abusive, short-tempered and callous piece of work as soon as Kit's "Vicki" character asks her a few questions.
  • Control Freak: The slightest deviation from her script is enough to anger her.
  • Elder Abuse: Towards Vicki for most of the call.
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop: Subverted: About an hour into the call, a second scammer calling himself Sergeant Max is brought on to act as the Bad Cop, but it's more of a Bad Cop/Worse Cop situation because Michelle was already very nasty towards Kit's character.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Loses her temper when Vicki starts crying, starts asking questions or really does anything to take her off-script.
  • Lack of Empathy:
    • Doesn't show any compassion towards Vicki when she talks about how afraid she is to go back.
    • Keeps telling Vicki to "stop crying like a baby" after threatening her with deportation and verbally abusing her to the point of tears, and gets audibly frustrated when she keeps crying.
  • I Don't Pay You to Think: At one point, she basically tells Vicky this while also not-so-subtly threatening her.
    Michelle: Right now, you are not in a situation to think what is wrong and what is right, okay? So that's the reason why I'm asking you to think wisely, okay? Don't do anything which will bring you.. into... uh, into trouble, yeah?
  • Impersonating an Officer: A scammer pretending to be an immigration officer.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: A scammer who targets immigrants and threatens them with deportation in order to get them to pay up.
  • Quit Your Whining: Tells Vicki repeatedly to "stop crying like a baby" while verbally abusing her.
  • Rage Quit: At the end of the call, she tells Vicki that she sent the police officers to her home to deport her, and Vicki asks her where she lives. Realising that the game is up, she swears and hangs up.
    Michelle: Since the officers will be dispatched from their department, you can simply disconnect the call now. You can be where you deserve to be.
    Vicki: Hey, Michelle. Where do I live?
    (Lengthy pause.)
    Michelle: Fuck yourself bitch. (Hangs up.)

    Three Slice Lisa 

Three Slice Lisa

A refund scammer who tries to do the usual scam, but gets more than she bargained for when Granny Edna's bank keeps undoing the transaction and Edna loses money to a virus.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Acts a lot more friendly than most of the scammers Kit's called, but she's still a scammer.
  • Faux Affably Evil: She acts friendly and personable towards Granny Edna and makes small talk with her, but at the end of the day, she still intends to steal money from someone who she thinks is an old woman. When Kitboga derails her scam, she begins to show some of her true colors before breaking completely.
  • Lack of Empathy: When a distraught Edna talks about how she's lost almost all her money and asks her if the McAfee antivirus would have stopped the virus, her only reaction is to ask if she has another bank account.
  • Oh, Crap!: Panics when the fake ransomware pop-up appears.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: The main tactic Kit uses to derail her scam (other than the fake ransomware virus) is to have Granny Edna claim that, as a senior, her bank has enrolled her in fraud forgiveness and all she has to do to undo the transaction is call the bank. So every time Lisa pretends to have sent too much money, Kit just reverses it and has Edna claim that she called the bank, or the bank called her. Because the premise of the refund scam is that the scammer sent too much money by accident and you have to pay it back, this would solve the problem... if it was real. To drive home how ridiculous the scam is, Kit reverses the transaction several times while Lisa keeps pretending to send too much money again. When the transactions keep getting reversed, she breaks down fake-crying and claims she's going to lose her job (even though there's no reason why she should be in trouble now that she got the money back).
  • Villainous Breakdown: When Kit keeps reversing the fake transactions, she becomes more and more desperate as the sheer ridiculousness of the scam is made obvious and her attempts to get back to her script keep failing.

    Catherine the "Professional" Scammer 

Catherine the "Professional" Scammer

A refund scammer who turned out to be one of the scarier scammers that Kit's called because of how good she is at appearing professional, as well as being able to improvise on the spot and go along with the absurd situations Kit puts her in while lacking the Hair-Trigger Temper typical of most other scammers. Two other scammers from her call center, Jack and David, pose as her technicians and are brought in a few times to give the scam an air of believability.
  • Arc Villain: The main scammer of the second Baited series of videos.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Even though she's much better at hiding it than most other scammers, make no mistake: her friendly, personable and professional demeanor is all an act.
  • Bookworm: Claims to like reading books when Kit asks her what she likes to do in her free time.
  • The Comically Serious: For most of the call, she is able to keep up a professional demeanor despite the absurd scenarios Kit puts her in.
  • Consummate Liar: She is great at making up elaborate lies on the spot.
  • Faux Affably Evil: She acts friendly, personable and professional towards Kit's character and makes small talk with him, but as Kit points out, it's just an act to get her victims to lower their guard by making them feel like there's a personal connection. It just serves to make her a more dangerous scammer. The facade begins to crack after hours of Kit putting her in increasingly ridiculous scenarios, but even then, she's quick to regain her composure. When Kitboga pretends to redeem the second set of Google Play cards at the end, the mask comes off completely.
  • Kansas City Shuffle: When Kit's character gets suspicious of her and James the technician and insinuates that she's being scammed, she tries to dissuade him at first, then changes tactics when Kit refuses to drop the matter by having a scammer from her call center pose as Alan, a Best Buy manager. This new character accuses Catherine and James of being scammers while they accuse Alan of being a scammer in an attempt to get Kit's character to trust one of them, who would then continue the scam.
  • Manipulative Bitch: A scammer who poses as a customer service representative, is good at building up a rapport with her victims to make them feel like there's a personal connection, and has a knack for emotional manipulation.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: At one point, while she's trying to get Kit to buy more gift cards after the first fake redeem, she's interrupted by Kit's character's wife (the "Dixie" character) barging into the room and demanding to know why he's talking to a woman late at night.
  • Mistaken for Romance: At the beginning of the call, Kit keeps asking if she and one of the other scammers from her call center (who was temporarily on the phone) are married and pretends to mishear when they correct him.
  • No Indoor Voice: When her Faux Affably Evil facade finally begins to crack as a result of Kit's antics.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Notably averted. Unlike most scammers, she is good at playing the part of a customer service representative and, as Kitboga notes, she does things like building up a rapport with her victim and bringing in a second scammer to pose as a technician to connect with the victim's computer (instead of just doing it herself) to give the scam an air of believability. Even though Kit spends about half an hour Stating the Simple Solution and forcing the technician to come up with excuses for why transferring the money back, calling the bank, etc. wouldn't work, he points out that an actual victim who doesn't know about how these scams work would probably fall for it.
  • Perp Sweating: At one point, she's supposedly locked up in an interrogation room and Denied Food as Punishment while she's waiting to get fired. The two scammers posing as her technicians take over during this time to help sell the story.
  • Stating the Simple Solution:
    • When she "gets out" of the interrogation room, Kit tells her that if she was held in an interrogation room for hours and Denied Food as Punishment, that's probably illegal, and he knows a really good lawyer called Bob Loblaw who can help her sue her employer. Of course, because none of it is real, she comes up with an excuse for why this wouldn't work.
    • Kit spends over half an hour running the technician in circles and bringing up other, much simpler solutions, such as simply transferring the money back to him, or calling his bank.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Gets very defensive when Kit looks up a page on the official Best Buy website warning against scams. Kit capitalises on this by having his character get suspicious of her, before insinuating that James the technician is scamming her.
  • Villainous Breakdown: At the end, when Kit redeems the Google Play cards, she loses it.
  • Worthy Opponent: This seems to be how Kit views her, since she's a lot more competent than most of the other scammers he's called and this makes her more dangerous.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Pretends to be locked up in an interrogation room while she's waiting to get fired.

    Peter Collins/Tyler 

Peter Collins/Tyler

A tech support scammer who, when his usual scam doesn't work, starts posing as a lawyer named Peter Collins while claiming that Tyler, the grandson of Kit's character, was arrested and is in jail for something he didn't do. The scammer also pretends to be Tyler using a ridiculous voice.
  • Amoral Attorney: Subverted, since he clearly isn't a real lawyer, but he poses as one and tries to get Kit's character to buy him gift cards by claiming that Tyler, his grandson, is going to jail if he doesn't. When this fails, he tries to intimidate Kit into buying the gift cards by claiming that he'll "add more allegations" to make sure that Tyler goes to jail for the rest of his life, before threatening to chop Tyler into pieces.
  • Exact Words: At one point, Kit uses this against him. The scammer (while pretending to be Tyler) tells him to only speak to Peter Collins, but then the scammer starts pretending to be Simon. Of course, Kit reminds him that he's only supposed to speak to Peter Collins.
  • I Have Many Names: A standout example. A lot of other scammers Kit's called have pretended to be different people throughout the call, but this one almost takes it to the same level of ridiculousness as Adam and Alex from the first Baited series. The scammer's aliases include Steven Mars the Comcast technician, Peter Collins the lawyer, Simon the lawyer, and Tyler. At the end of the call, he also briefly claims to be the wife of Kit's character while doing a voice.
  • I Have Your Grandson: The scammer tries to get Kit's character to buy him gift cards by claiming that his grandson is going to jail if he doesn't.
  • Moving the Goalposts: Promises Kit to set up a video call with Tyler after he goes to the bank and takes out the money for the gift cards. Of course, this is impossible and the scammer knows that, so he keeps putting up roadblocks like telling Kit he'll set up the video call after he gives the money to the scammer, telling Kit that it can't be done over the phone so he has to get back home first, and telling Kit that he'll send him a link first when Kit points out that he can just install Skype on his phone.
  • New Jobs As The Plot Demands: Began as a Comcast technician. Then, he works for the FTC, and then he's suddenly a criminal defense lawyer who also works for FTC and Comcast and has an office in a prison building.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: When pretending to be Tyler.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The voice he uses when pretending to be Tyler is just a higher-pitched version of his normal voice. He doesn't even bother to put on a fake American accent. Kit lampshades this, but decides to go along with it, because otherwise the call would be over.
  • Villainous Breakdown: At the end of the call, when Kit tells him that Tyler's parents called and told him his grandson is fine, he has a spectacular meltdown. The reality of the situation doesn't appear to sink in at first, since he keeps pretending to be Tyler, but then he completely loses it and begs Kit to talk to Peter before pretending to be Peter again, claiming that it was Kit's character's wife on the phone, and that he's going to send her to Russia if he doesn't get the money. When Kit says that his wife is in the living room, the scammer then claims that it's not his wife and that she's a different person, and threatens to kill his wife and grandson before demanding that Kit hang up the call.

    "Joe Biden" 

"Joe Biden"

"You need to do- you need to do a wire transfer, they have captured me!"
A tech support scammer who, in an utterly bizarre turn of events, starts poorly impersonating U.S. President Joe Biden while claiming to Edna that he's been captured by Chinese and Russian agents (in truth, just his fellow scammers doing voices). Naturally, he pleads with Edna to do a wire transfer of 15,000 dollars so that China and Russia will release him from captivity.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Even Kit feels a little sad about the emotional breakdown Joe suffers after seeing a $450,000-payday disintegrate before his very eyes.
  • Blatant Lies: Claims to be the U.S. President, and that he's being held captive in a hostage situation that can only be solved by Edna wiring 15,000 dollars. Suffice to say, even Edna realizes how outlandish the situation is and that it's just criminals trying to scam her.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Claims to have been fed poisoned food and later beaten by his "captors", all the while begging Edna to save him.
"Joe Biden": My hands are tied and I am suffering right now.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Apart from briefly raising his voice, he doesn't show much emotion at all despite ostensibly being held captive and tortured in a secret jet plane by his "captors".
  • Laughably Evil: While his pathetic attempts at attempting to obtain his marks' money - going as far as pretending to be poisoned and stabbed to death on two separate occasions - may indeed be absolutely hilarious, it doesn't detract from the fact that he's no less determined than any other scammer to steal money from his victims.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: The scammer pretends to be a President Target, claiming that he's been captured by America's enemies and that Edna needs to pay his ransom.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Exaggerated. He makes no attempt to sound like Joe Biden at all.
  • Sound-Only Death: Is done twice, with the first one having him pretend to be poisoned while the second time is him getting "stabbed" to death by his captors.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top