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.

  • Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world
    283·
    6 days ago

    I’ve heard that if you actually add her on friendica, the mayor of Toronto shows up at your house and gives you an old fashioned.

  • yarr@feddit.nlEnglish
    45·
    6 days ago

    This annoys the fuck out of me and I hope whoever is behind it doesn’t realize their goals, because I don’t want lemmy to degrade into a bunch of spam PMs.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
      91·
      5 days ago

      TBF, it’s bound to happen.

      Guaranteed almost.

      Lemmy has minimal controls for protecting against spam and bot spam. It’s built to handle the internet 5 to 10 years ago, not the internet today.

      I can only hope that this changes because as soon as the platform becomes popular enough (which it is slowly). Then the rate of bot spam and other sorts of spam will just go through the roof, and there’s very little that admins can do to combat it without it becoming a full-time job.

      • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
        3·
        5 days ago

        We can have an opt in spam filter that makes it harder, the instances can defederate spamming instances (user) unless they do something which yes there is a lot admins can do at signup. Or have I misunderstood something?

    • Random_Character_A@lemmy.world
      6·
      5 days ago

      I don’t either want to see story on TV about Internet hacker group “Lenny” destroying womans life by a persistent harassment campaign.

  • DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world
    36·
    7 days ago

    Damn, I never thought about it this way. Wow. I always took it as a funny thing not thinking of the person in the photo being an actual person who could very well be harassed. Thank you for bringing this to light. Whoever thought of this is a good human being. <3

  • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    6 days ago

    I’ve been thinking this since it started and saying it for a bit. I don’t understand at all how there were memes of this on the front page all the time and it took this long to do even this. Has there been any attempt at an effort to notify whoever is in the picture that this is happening? I would like to help if possible.

    • Zomg@lemmy.world
      21·
      6 days ago

      I think “notify her” feeds the harassment they’re referring to, even if contacting her is well intended

      • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago

        I mean depending how its handled and on context, yes of course, but I’m not suggesting we traumatize this person further than whatever has already happened. Like someone else said letting the university is a decent first step.

  • 18-24-61-B-17-17-4@lemmy.worldEnglish
    201·
    6 days ago

    I can’t believe I managed to never get one of these spam messages. I didn’t even know what a Nicole was until the week or two ago.

  • MisanthropiCynic@lemm.eeEnglish
    212·
    7 days ago

    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

  • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
    122·
    7 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.