How one man turns the tables on identity thieves and scammers who target the elderly

From an undisclosed location somewhere on the East Coast, “Pierogi” as he's known, is a scammer's worst nightmare. 

“I do my real job, I work in cybersecurity," he said. "When the bell hits 5 o’clock, I do my second job."
 
His "second job" is to just ruin a scammer's day. His YouTube channel, called "Scammer Payback," has grown to nearly 200,000 subscribers in just a year and a half.

"Scam baiting" as he calls it is part performance, part technical-trickery.

“I create a virtual machine that the scammers connect into. We reverse the connection so they think they're dealing with my computer but I’m dealing with theirs,” he explained.

And it's more than just fun and games. From deleting a scammer's nefarious files, to saving victims thousands of dollars in real time, it is all about not letting the bad guys win. 

“I get a fire in my belly when I think about what they do to the elderly in our country,” he told FOX 13.

And unfortunately, it happens here all the time. Just this year, Wallet Hub named Florida the most vulnerable state in the U.S. to identity theft and fraud.
 
Speaking of Florida, "Pierogi" often uses references to the Tampa Bay area in his scamming of the scammers. He's been here many times. 

“Whenever the scammers would ask me questions, I would say Sarasota and I just memorized the zip code and things about Sarasota, it became a routine for me,” he said.

“Every ten minutes you’re on the phone with them it's saving somebody else from being scammed,” he added. 

They say not all heroes wear capes. No, some use keyboards.