A Delhi-based man recently shared his interesting story of how he outsmarted a scammer impersonating his college senior on Reddit. The scammer had reached out on Facebook, claiming to be an IAS officer and offering high-end furniture and appliances at extremely low prices, citing a “CRPF officer friend” being transferred.
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Suspicious messages raise alarm
The man quickly sensed something was off. When he verified the claims with the so-called friend on WhatsApp, it became clear that the offer was a fraud. Then the scammer sent him the photos of the furniture and a request for payment via a QR code from another account showing an Army uniform profile picture. He asked him to send the money urgently, which only increased his suspicion.
Using ChatGPT to track the scammer
Instead of ignoring the messages, the man decided to turn the tables. He used ChatGPT to create a fake payment portal designed to appear legitimate but secretly capture the scammer's geolocation and front camera image. In his post on Reddit, he explained how he asked ChatGPT to give him a simple, functional webpage; he put it online and sent the link to the scammer, saying it was going to expedite the payment process.
How the tables turned
He clicked the link in ignorance, unknowingly sharing his exact location, IP, and a clear image of himself. With this, the man sent his own picture and location details to the scammer, showing he knew exactly whom he was dealing with.
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Soon after, the scammer began calling repeatedly from different numbers, begging for forgiveness and claiming he would "abandon this line of work entirely." The Reddit post included screenshots that show the panic and desperation of the fraudster.
While the man fully realised that this scammer could easily continue targeting other people, he said that the feeling of having outsmarted a con artist was something one would never forget. Since then, the story has taken Reddit by storm and has become yet another example of how technology, if used with due care, might help ordinary people fight back against online scams.
