this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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1254
Ban of "Nicole" images and potential doxing (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by lwadmin@lemmy.world to c/lemmyworld@lemmy.world
285 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hello world,

as many of you may already be aware, there is an ongoing spam attack by a person claiming to be Nicole.

It is very likely that these images are part of a larger scale harassment campaign against the person depicted in the images shared as part of this spam.

Although the spammer claims to be the person in the picture, we strongly believe that this is not the case and that they're only trying to frame them.

Starting immediately, we will remove any images depicting "Nicole" and information that may lead to identifying the real person depicted in those images to prevent any possible harassment.
This includes older posts and comments once identified.

We also expect moderators to take action if such content is reported.

While we do not intend to punish people posting this once, not being aware of the context, we may take additional actions if they continue to post this content, as we consider this to be supporting the harassment campaign.

Discussion that does not include the images themselves or references that may lead to identifying the real person behind the image will continue to be allowed.

If you receive spam PMs please continue reporting them and we'll continue working on our spam detections to attempt to identify them early before they reach many users.

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[–] MisanthropiCynic@lemm.ee 19 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

WTF is a Nicole image

Edit: After seeing responses…. I got it weeks ago but just ignored it as spam and didn’t even read it. The pic jogs my memory

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 14 points 4 days ago (6 children)

How long have you been here? I've only been here a few weeks and got no fewer than ten of these messages.

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[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 35 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (7 children)

Yay, fediverse lore!

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 24 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Would rather more positive lore, but I guess it is fediverse lore. Just checked from curiosity, all but 2 messages I have got are from Nicole bots, 1 was another spammer and the other an automated "welcome to this community" bot message.

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 40 points 5 days ago

part of a larger scale harassment campaign against the person depicted

Oh boy that's horrible, if true I hope she has reported it to police, and they can help her.

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 17 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I assumed it was something like a pig butchering crypto scam.

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[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

Glad to see there's effort being taken to stop this, as someone who's been harassed in a similar way on here it really kind of bugs me that people are making light of this or assume that the original person is the one doing this. Impersonation is frighteningly easy on the Fediverse and I really wish they'd add some kind of verification in Lemmy like they do in Mastodon to try and minimize the impact of it.

[–] melfie@lemmings.world 17 points 4 days ago

I bet the scammer is reading this thread right now. Yeah, you pal. I see you.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, but are you able to confirm whether admins have reported this to the police?

Even if violence hasn't been perpetrated, the harassment is still a crime surely.

[–] MrKaplan@lemmy.world 42 points 5 days ago (15 children)

I don't know if others have, I only know that we (Lemmy.World, Fedihosting Foundation) have not reported it to the police.

I don't have high hopes that the police would be able to do anything about this. For the harassment against the person shown in the images, that would likely have to be reported by them directly for the police to take that up.
For random online spam, as in harassment of fediverse users receiving the PMs, that seems like it would be an extremely low priority for police. It's also likely fairly difficult to impossible to follow up on, considering that the person sending the PMs most likely used a VPN to access these accounts.

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[–] nl4real@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago (6 children)

What kind of a loser does this to someone?

[–] sploosh@lemmy.world 29 points 4 days ago

I'm just guessing here, but maybe a rejected suitor? Or a person they're beefing with? A mentally ill person who found these pictures and decided to direct their hate at them? People do all sorts of weird stuff for all sorts of weird reasons.

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[–] Squirrelanna@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

To clarify for others, as I have no interest in doing this myself, but if people feel like sharing, are they allowed to do so provided they censor the pictire/remove it entirely from a screenshot? Not sure why someone would, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask.

[–] MrKaplan@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

potentially identifying information, such as addresses, must be removed. images of the person must either be heavily pixelated or entirely cut out.

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