Kitboga (streamer)

Background

Before launching his streaming career, Kitboga worked in software engineering. His technical background — particularly his familiarity with virtual machines and networking — became foundational to the scam-baiting methodology he would later develop and refine publicly.

Career

Origins of Scam Baiting

In mid-2017, Kitboga learned that his grandmother had repeatedly fallen victim to scams targeting the elderly, both online and in person. The discovery led him to research existing scam-baiting techniques, including a tool known as "Lenny" — a loop of vague pre-recorded audio messages used to occupy scammers without providing them any actionable information. After encountering videos of Lenny-based calls on YouTube, he began replicating the approach himself and streaming the results on Twitch, initially for a small circle of friends. His viewership grew steadily beyond that audience.

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic expanded, Kitboga began targeting scammers who falsely claimed to sell essential oils as a cure for the virus, following a warning issued by the United States Federal Trade Commission about coronavirus-related fraud.

Technique

Kitboga engages with multiple categories of phone fraud, including technical support scams, refund scams, IRS impersonation scams, and social security scams. To protect his identity and entertain his audience, he portrays a rotating cast of characters — among them an elderly woman or man, a Russian man named Vicktor Viktoor, a valley girl named Nevaeh ("Heaven" spelled backward), and a competing scammer named Daniel. He uses vocal imitation and a voice changer to inhabit these personas. A consistent trait across all characters is a deliberate lack of computer literacy, designed to sustain the scammer's confidence.

Because many scams require victims to install remote desktop software, Kitboga conducts his baiting on a dedicated machine running a virtual machine behind a virtual private network, preventing malware from affecting his primary system and concealing his real IP address. He and his team have invested significant effort in making the virtual machine appear to be an ordinary, well-used personal computer to avoid detection.

For refund scams involving online banking, he uses a custom-built fake banking website containing time-wasting features and Easter eggs for his audience. For gift card scams, he uses a piece of code that makes a redemption page appear to accept any properly formatted code, allowing him to stall scammers indefinitely with false card numbers.

At the conclusion of some calls, Kitboga disables his voice changer and informs the scammer that he was aware of the fraud throughout the entire interaction. Scammer reactions have ranged from immediate hang-ups to anger, regret, or dismissiveness.

One of the most widely circulated moments from his channel is the "Do not redeem" video, recorded in August 2020, in which a scammer using the alias "Steve Watson" spent nine hours attempting to extract Google Play gift card codes from Kitboga, who was posing as an elderly woman named Paula. When Kitboga began pretending to redeem the cards himself, the scammer repeatedly screamed at him to stop. The video has accumulated approximately 23 million views as of September 2025.

Industry Partnerships and Collaborations

In November 2020, Kitboga was signed by talent agency UTA. In May 2022, he signed with Evolved Talent Agency, founded by Ryan Morrison, to further his anti-scam messaging goals.

In February 2023, he began a working relationship with AnyDesk, the developer of remote desktop software frequently exploited by scammers. Under the arrangement, when a scammer uses AnyDesk during a bait call, Kitboga can relay the active connection ID to an AnyDesk representative, enabling the company to identify and ban the scammer's devices across their network.

In May 2023, he partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Kraken to create a spoof account designed to capture scammers' Bitcoin wallet addresses and personally identifiable information.

AI-Powered Scam Baiting

In March 2025, Kitboga publicly launched an AI bot system he had been developing for five years. The system uses generative AI to convert scammers' speech to text and generate real-time responses through a natural language model. Developed in collaboration with a developer known as ABK, the bots are trained on several of Kitboga's established personas, including "Granny Edna." The bots proactively dial scam operations identified through fake emails and advertisements, with multiple bots capable of occupying all available operators at a given scam center simultaneously. Kitboga has stated he can run between six and twelve bots at a time and created a dedicated YouTube channel, "AI Kitboga," to document their interactions.

As part of this initiative, he developed a "Bitcoin ATM maze" — a fake Bitcoin ATM receipt system that routes scammers through an automated series of time-consuming tasks, including CAPTCHAs and a challenge requiring users to play "Sandstorm" by Darude on a virtual keyboard. Over more than a year, the maze engaged approximately 500 scammers for a combined total of roughly 3,953 hours, with individual sessions averaging nearly three hours and the longest lasting 156 hours. Intelligence gathered — including wallet addresses and, in some cases, camera access — is shared with law enforcement and partners such as Kraken.

Anti-Scam Software

In 2024, Kitboga launched Seraph Secure, a software application that blocks known malware and phishing websites and disables remote access tools commonly used by scammers. Intelligence gathered by his AI bots feeds into the platform.

Other Work

Kitboga has promoted computer science and STEM education through his streams. In 2018, he partnered with the STEM organization FIRST to stream the construction of a physical "meme-o-meter" device, interacting with children interested in STEM during the broadcast. He has also held regular programming streams in which he maintains and develops the tools used in his scam-baiting operations. He has stated that if public awareness of phone fraud increases to the point where scam baiting becomes less necessary, he would consider returning to software engineering or shifting his content toward coding or gaming.