Like, it can’t be a real person, right? Has anyone tried following the links? I’m curious how they’re scamming people. It just seems like anyone getting the same message 5 times won’t fall for being catfished, so I don’t understand what their strategy is.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 hours ago

    The strategy is to get you onto a different platform to make instant messaging easier. They are just “advertising” on Lemmy.

    Once you’re on a chat platform, they will likely attempt the Pig Butchering scam: make the target fall in love, then persuade them to send money for things like “travel expenses” or “family medical bills”. Also involves buying crypto.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_butchering_scam

    • moonlightOP
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      1311 hours ago

      This makes the most sense, but I still find it odd that they would send victims to the same discord server, or friendica.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 hours ago

    The same reason a lot scam emails are riddled with typos, follow recognisable formats (eg nigerian prince) and can be easily determined as scams. If you can spot it, you aren’t the mark. It’s a form of selection bias. If you recognise Nicole you probably aren’t new to Lemmy or the Fediverse and are a bad mark. I’d guess, I never followed the links, don’t generally follow links dm’d from random, days old accounts in general. Maybe Nicole truly is just thirsty for Lemmy friends and keeps getting banned lmao.

    • @lordnikon
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      811 hours ago

      Honestly people that do recognize it for what it is should respond. Keep them talking to waste their time so they can’t hurt someone else.

        • @surewhynotlem
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          2410 hours ago

          If we all wasted 5 minutes we could shut down the system.

          People really underestimate the power of collective action. It’s just meat based ddos.

        • @SkyezOpen
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          611 hours ago

          Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted. I always love talking to Indian scammers when they call about my student loans that don’t exist.

          • @hoshikarakitaridia
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            610 hours ago

            I already asked 2 scammers on discord for bathwater and they never took me up on it :( it’s a cruel world

      • @[email protected]
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        11 hours ago

        That easier done with more involved scams like phone calls you see YouTubers do. Especially since they likely paid for that info. Places like here there’s no buy in so it’s a volume game i imagine. If I can’t get you to another platform to buy me stuff I’d move on to the next one quickly as possible.

        • @SkyezOpen
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          310 hours ago

          I had one Indian scammer use my name so I was interested. Then he asked if my email was still current and gave an email that I used like 20 years ago in middle school. I laughed and told him he paid for shitty info. It was a goddamn Hotmail account to give you an idea.

  • Porto881
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    1010 hours ago

    The point is to introduce me to my future wife so stop messaging her!!

  • 🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦
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    1611 hours ago

    I wish I knew. I followed the link to the Matrix community, and it was just confused people and trolling NAZI’s. No Nicole, no attempt at catfishing.

    • cabbage
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      1411 hours ago

      I guess the scammers are also in the process of figuring out how to use the Fediverse. Give them time. :)

    • moonlightOP
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      1211 hours ago

      Yeah this is what I’m confused about, why would you send your potential catfish victims to the same place where they can talk to each other and then ignore them?

  • Mayor Poopington
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    29 hours ago

    The point is I can’t even get a known scammer to talk to me :(

    • _NetNomad
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      27 hours ago

      hi it me john mastodon can u send me 200 vbucks so i can keep making website