Could taking action against scammers be acceptable?

[TomKing]

My main, general question is: could hacking a scammer be legal/illegal and is it ethical/unethical?

I often enjoy taking down scammer's phishing websites (by legal means) as well as reporting email scammers by finding out their IP through bait links or find out IPs of 'Microsoft tech support' scammers by using a VM and wireshark and further trace them through who.is.
However, I have become annoyed on multiple occasions due to the fact that these scammers very rarely get prosecuted and the authorities lack interest, despite the fact these cruel and ruthless people take hard-earned money from innocent victims, sometimes even targeting those who have already been scammed.
Which leads me to consider if I should try to perform any actions against them (such as scanning them for open ports and taking advantage of their badly programmed websites) to try and remove them as much as possible from the internet. Could taking an action against these malicious people be acceptable to try and inhibit their incessant attack on vulnerable people?
I would like to hear both opinions and facts, I understand that this site does not support illegal activities. However I feel that something more needs to be done. I would also like to say that I am not an experienced hacker, this is more for out of interest for the future.

[tremor77]

The question is, who gets to decide what is malicious and deserving of punishment? This is vilgilantism, which itself would be considered illegal, regardless of method - whether it's hacking or donning a cap and a mask running around in the streets stopping evildoers. That aside - there are probably a few targets that you could go vigilante against without much fear of reprisal but I don't think your run of the mill scammers are one of them; these targets might include ISIS, and that's about it... vaguely quoting something I read in a book about hacking, where the FBI had prosecuted hackers who attacked child porn rings simply because "hacking is hacking" it doesn't matter the reason.

[Jbraithwaite]

The way I see it, there's always someone better than someone else out there. No matter what. No matter what my skill level was, I'd probably never hack back. Much like poking a stick into a hornets nest, you'd better be prepared to get stung.

[boriz666]

My main, general question is: could hacking a scammer be legal/illegal and is it ethical/unethical?

No its not legal, its called vigilantism and is illegal.