Scam baiting is the practice of pretending interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to influence a scammer in many possible ways. The purpose of scam baiting might be to waste the scammers' time, embarrass them, cause them to reveal confidential information which can be passed on to legal authorities in the hope that they will be prosecuted, or simply to amuse the baiter.Scam baiting emerged in response to e-mail based frauds such as the common Nigerian 419 scam. Several websites publish transcripts of correspondences between baiters and scammers. One common goal of scam baiting has become the photographic trophy. The scam mail senders, sometimes known as lads, are goaded or cajoled by the Mugus, or victims, into having a picture taken by them.

Many scam baiters will also send the scam mail senders to a Western Union office to collect the supposedly sent money and get them to book hotels for them. A few scam baiters have also succeeded in receiving cash from the fraudsters. Other techniques includes, giving the scamm a long, silly questionnaire to fill out filling up their inboxes with large attachments making nigerian scam mailers call the baiters back on the telephone (using anonymous VOIP numbers), in order to waste their time and money hacking into the scammers email accounts in order to find their victims addresses.

A new technique called an "ASEM bait" (Accidentally Sent E-Mail) has been recently developed. It fools the scammer into believing that the scam baiter has accidentally sent an e-mail to him when the "victim" is actually intending to send the e-mail to another fraudster. Many ASEM baits have been very successful. A beneficial side-effect of scam baiting has been the exposure of false and fradulent "banking" and "credit" services, which are often created by the scammers to further their scams and make them seem legitimate.

Scam-baiting is a potentially dangerous activity. At least one scam victim has been murdered as the result of a 419 scam, and scam-baiters are presumably not well-liked by the 419 scam operators. However, there are no known cases of a scammer finding the identity of a scam baiter, since baiters always use fake email accounts and are careful not to disclose any personal details. Scam baiting can also be considered a type of sting operation, although many scam baits are simply to waste time instead of catching the scammer, so it may not fit the definition.