If you’ve ever been hit up or torched by an internet scam, you’ve probably thought a lot about revenge. Fantasized about it, too. There’s a good chance you’ve imagined yourself in the same room or on the phone with your scammer, doing the same things to them that they did to you.
Or maybe you’ve just watched Kitboga. He’s a Twitch streamer and YouTuber with over 2.9 million followers on the platform, not to mention a serious net worth of about $1 million.
He’s done all this by using his software engineering career to build the skills to hunt down scammers. Kitboga’s unique form of scambaiting has led to a unique career, so if you hate scammers or have actually been bilked by one, there’s a good chance he’s your revenge guy.
Early Days
One of the most unusual things about scam baiters is that they usually don’t reveal a lot about themselves. Most celebs and wannabe celebs use their daily lives as a vehicle to promote their brand, but folks like Kitboga tend to take the opposite approach.
Instead they let their skills speak for themselves. In Kitboga’s case, that means doing live streams in which he reveals his coding process, which serves the dual purpose of revealing how he finds and goes off on scammers while wearing sunglasses and using a voice changer.
No one knows if Kitboga will eventually reveal more about himself, but his coding skills have made it abundantly clear that he knows what he’s doing when it comes to software engineering.
Success Story
Kitboga began his path to success back in 2012, when he created his Twitch channel so friends could observe his coding process. He quickly grew a large following based on his scambaiting calls, and he added a YouTube channel in 2017.
Another unusual aspect to Kitboga’s career is that he seems to have something of a social conscience. He’s partnered up with a STEM organization called FIRST to create an educational stream designed to get young kids to start coding, and it’s been a huge success.
Altruism aside, it’s also been a great way to polish his image, which is at least slightly over the top if you’ve ever sat in on one of his calls, and to advance his brand as well.
There was one brief controversy, however. Kitboga was banned from Facebook after he set up his Facebook, with the company flagging the page for suspicious activity.
The geniuses at Facebook finally realized that there wasn’t any bot activity on the page. Which might have been a better goof, actually – and the page was restored to its former status, with the band rescinded.
Sponsorships
One of the most intriguing aspects of Kitboga’s story has been his decision to capitalize on various partnerships. He’s hooked up with Adobe, Chipotle, NVIDIA and Paradox Interactive, among others, but there are no details as to how much they add to his annual income, which is estimated at $300,000 annually.
Given the nature of commercial partnerships, someone from one of those companies could spill the beans on Kitboga’s personal life. Maybe then we’ll learn more about this unique computer vigilante who takes a decidedly unsubtle approach to shutting down scammers.
