this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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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.

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[–] Oka@sopuli.xyz 64 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] moonlight@fedia.io 13 points 12 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.

[–] CTDummy@lemm.ee 39 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

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@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 18 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

But then you're also wasting your own time.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 25 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Glide@lemmy.ca 27 points 11 hours ago

It's just meat based ddos.

What a fascinating sentence.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Maybe. That gets expensive very fast. We should all ask for artwork.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

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@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

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

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 hours ago

yeah but it's fun

[–] CTDummy@lemm.ee 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

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@lemmy.world 3 points 11 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.

[–] Tower@lemm.ee 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

And if you can get them to do stupid things, you can post about it here!

https://www.419eater.com/html/trophy_room.htm

[–] fastfinge@rblind.com 16 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

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@piefed.social 14 points 12 hours ago

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

[–] moonlight@fedia.io 12 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

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?

[–] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 8 points 11 hours ago

Some 7D chess I can’t possible comprehend or a really bored troll.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 10 points 10 hours ago

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

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 6 hours ago
[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

What’s the point of any scam? To make money.

[–] Glent@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 hours ago

Your guess is as good as mine. Some people are just crazy.

[–] jewbacca117@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 2 points 8 hours ago

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

I think Lemmy ran out of Beans, so someone decided to make that as a joke.