Kitboga

About

Kitboga is the online alias of an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber whose content is primarily focused on scambaiting, a form of internet vigilantism used against scam callers attempting to steal money from unsuspecting victims. In his streams, Kitboga deliberately calls scammers and convinces them that he is a clueless victim, often through the use of voice-changing effects, leading them on and wasting as much of their time as possible.

Online History

In June 2017, after finding out that his grandmother had been scammed repeatedly by fake bill scammers, landscapers and a woman pretending to rid her computer of viruses, Kitboga launched a Twitch^[1][2] channel on which he streamed himself baiting scammers into wasting as much time as possible. Kitboga achieves this by using a voice-changer as he pretends to be a vulnerable target, such as an elderly woman, and then leads the scammer on for hours. At the end of the scambait, Kitboga often reveals that he was baiting the scammer and confronts them.

On July 3rd, 2017, Kitboga launched his YouTube^[3] channel, uploading his first video,^[4] "Tech Support Scammer Refuses To Say Jesus Or Talk About Trump," on October 3rd that year (shown below). His YouTube channel content typically consists of shortened and edited versions of his longer, uncut Twitch streams.

In three years, Kitboga uploaded over 350 YouTube videos, with two of his most viewed videos,^[5][6] "Scammers Wanted $3,000 – They Watched Me Spend It All" and "The Angriest Scammer I've Ever Called," accumulating over 19 million and 12 million views in three years and two years, respectively (shown below, left and right).

Following

On YouTube, Kitboga gained over 2.5 million subscribers in five years. On Twitch, Kitboga has over 1.1 million followers as of July 2022.

Reputation

Kitboga spent most of his career working in software engineering and occasionally holds programming streams where he works on the tools that he uses in his scambating livestreams and promotes computer science education.^[7] In late 2020, Kitboga partnered with various organizations to promote his anti-scam message.^[8]

On February 6th, 2018, The Daily Beast^[9] published an interview with Kitboga by Taylor Lorenz, which described the streamer as "one of the most popular scambaiters on the internet" who "saved potentially thousands of people from falling victim to tech support scams in the process by raising awareness about different types of fraud."

In June 2021, G4TV announced an animated series based on Kitboga's streams.^[10]

Personal Life

For security reasons, Kitboga has never revealed his real name or identity, and little is known about his personal life. Before launching his Twitch and YouTube career, Kitboga worked in software engineering. Kitboga is also married, referring to his wife on social media as "Ladyboga." They had a child in September 2018.^[11][12]

Search Interest

External References