There were a lot of weird photos that looked like they were taken from a webcam/stream, in private settings, with extremely specific work address/personal info to tie her in person. There was also no continued communication like there usually is from scammers. Plus the bots spammed from countless instances with the same messages and different pics, like it was dedicated to making sure people would know her irl identity. Not 100% positive, but for a lot of people it felt “off” from the usual scam and spam campaigns. There was a dedicated community of folks who were concerned about this, as well.
Other spammers eventually rode the coattails and tried crypto-scheming with similar strategies but those were more “traditionally” scammy.
fizzle@quokk.au 18 hours ago
Im struggling to remember the details if im honest.
Initially it was new accounts spamming Nicole photo and links to a matrix channel. However, there was no “Nicole” to talk to, just vague directions to find her at her work.
After a while someone started a community about Nicole posts and there were a few threads kinda collating theories on what was going on.
I forget the details exactly but IIRC someone postulated that is was a creepy stalker trying to prompt people to go find her IRL. On realising that the /c/Nicoled community was fueling creepy wierdo’s game, the mods locked some posts or something.
Thats when shit got real, and the same spam accounts started DMing gore stuff, but no confirmation of whether it was “nicole”.
That was it really. Nothing further.
At the very least, it certainly wasn’t Nicole DMing her own photo to everyone.
sauerkrautsaul@lemmus.org 18 hours ago
yeah id say it was unlikely the fediverse chick was reaching out to people in earnest. someone messing w her by sending those messages then directing people toward her irl makes way more sense to me than taking that at face value
NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 11 hours ago
I stumbled onto her real name and can say that she’s alive and the gore pictures were fake (I was bored and a bit drunk)
fizzle@quokk.au 9 hours ago
Yeah, at the time no one really thought those pictures were her, but it strengthens the harassment narrative. Whoever was doing it was a fkn creep.