One professional scam baiter said he's found a way to confront scammers face-to-face.

Jim Browning said it feels good to 'turn the table' on those who are trying to scam money from people.

These scams can range from text messages claiming to be 'your child', to phone calls claiming you owe money on delivery items.

Mr Browning told The Hard Shoulder it is a two-way street.

"It's always good to waste the scammers time, but I go a tiny bit further than just winding them up," he said.

"I actually try to reverse the scam, and I try to see exactly who these people are that call you.

"I usually wait for the phone call, it's the kind of phone call that everybody gets; they're supposed to be from Amazon or your bank or the tax authorities.

"What I do is I play along with the scam, but I pretend to be a victim.

"I've even got a voice changer that'll make me sound like an old woman - because unfortunately they're even beginning to recognise my voice at this stage.

"The ultimate aim is try to find out who it is that is making the calls.

"That can be quite difficult, but with a little bit of effort I can reverse the scam."

'I can see them'

Mr Browning said the access the scammer gets to his computer gives him access to theirs.

"I have been able to do things like name the scammer who's actually calling me," he said.

"I can see them even on their CCTV, and I've had a chance to call the scammer out face-to-face.

"What they do is they want access to my computer... so I deliberately let them on there and I've got fake bank pages.

"It make it look as if I've got lots of money, and because of that they take a very keen interest in me."

Screen shot of a text message sent by a scammer. Picture by: Mark Coope / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Browning said while this is going on he is working away in the background.

"What I'm doing in the background is they've got connections to my computer, and I simply reverse that connection," he said.

"I can see all the files that they've got on their PCs, sometimes they've got webcams.

"If there's other things on the network, like CCTV, sometimes it's possible even to get access to that and see what they're up to".

Mr Browning said he hopes the videos he posts on his YouTube channel can help others.

"It means that the scammers don't always have it their own way, and it's kind of nice to be able to turn the tables on these guys," he said.

"I put the videos on to YouTube for a bit of entertainment, but equally if you can recognise what a scam looks like," he added.

Main image: Split-screen shows scam baiter Jim Browning (blurred) and a person using a mobile phone