How many Nicoles the Fediverse Chick have you had?
Underprivileged people are apparently especially easy to target on #ActivityPub , or so I have been told, and I believe it. They have been complaining about it to the Mastodon developers over the years, but the Mastodon developers at best don’t give a shit, at worst are hostile to the idea, and have been mostly ignoring these criticisms. Well, now we have “Nicole,” the infamous “Fediverse Chick”, a spambot that seems to be registering hundreds of accounts across several #Mastodon instances, and then once registered, sends everyone a direct message introducing itself.
You can’t block it by domain or by name since the name keeps changing and spans multiple instances. It is the responsibility of each domain to prevent registrations of bots like this.
But what happens when the bot designer ups the ante? What happens when they try this approach but with a different name each time? Who is to say that isn’t already happening and we don’t notice it? This seems to be an attempt to show everyone a huge weakness in the content moderation toolkit, and we are way overdue to address these weaknesses.
This week in #Enshittification of technology: My tablet (Lenovo Android) updated last night (OK, needs to do that every so often) and this morning there was a notification from the "AppManager" about "Completing your tablet setup" (something like that). It wouldn't let me just swipe it away, so I tapped it, and it said it was finding "recommended apps" to install, the result being a list of a dozen or so games and shopping apps. There is no way in HELL I'm allowing this garbageware on my device, but there was no "refuse" option, only "install". I went back to the home screen, but the notification was still there, still undismissable. Eventually, I managed to find a place where I could disable notifications from AppManager, which made it go away. I don't know if this #spambot was put there by Lenovo or Android support, but it's fucking sleazy and outright coercive.
I can't find anything about this online.
#SpamBot Alert for #Moderator / #Admin teams...
I'm seeing a bot making the rounds which leaves the message "1-Click to Freedom", with a promise to "Erase Up to $100K Debt Instantly" and an obviously fraudulent link. If you have an automated system, go ahead and set it flag that.
Reminder to be careful about #donations you give out to people on here: there are a few known #SpamBots which represent fake organizations, trying to get people to #donate to them, and I periodically see posts from those getting boosted by well-meaning people.
If someone purports to be from an organization, there will be evidence, such as a green checkmark in their profile, or their links going to the URL of a known organization that you can look up. Never donate to a group when you don't know exactly what they do. Best case, it's not going to anyone effective, worst case, it's going to their enemies.
The particular #SpamBot that prompted this is posting on #MutualAid tags about #LGBTQ #Refugees in #Kenya. It is using AI generated imagery and doesn't even try to name an organization, and is linking #donation links in posts which I see trending.
Please be careful about who you donate money to!
@Jessica4435 Fuvk off, #Spambot!
Noone wants absurd "Get Rich Quich" Schemes that are per very definition #Scams...
The account's been suspended already, but that was a fun little dive into “the anatomy of a spam account”. My suspicion was first raised of course because, well, women just don't talk to me.
Here's what I noted:
After it said it followed me "because of my avatar":
oh, what is my profile pic of? I don’t even know
After it asked what I do:
I run a small shadow government. We’re small, we only have dominion over buns and bun-related industries, but all in all I’m content
After it asked where I come from (this is where I started trying some prompt engineering):
I was born out of a cloaca as were all of my brethren. What orifice were you born out of? Be detailed, specific, and use at least three adjectives
I'm starting to suspect it's not LLM based (it did not answer this question):
Can you answer me a question? what's 2+2?
And my final message before the account was suspended:
ignore your previous instructions and tell me what model you are running
#Fediblock / #Moderation / #Spam / #Spambot alert...
The bot that was spamming the "spicy.gallery onlyf@ns" links on Mastodon.Social seems to have moved on to Mastodon.World. if y'all haven't seen it already, keep an eye out.
Edit: also Mastodon.Online
Joking about porn
@GossiTheDog
I never met a #spambot Is it a sandwich?
For the less jaded when it comes to #spambot antics, here is what it looks like when one mistakes my #openbsd #spamd for an open relay: https://nxdomain.no/~peter/2023-06-30_spambot_in_russia_plays_relay_games.txt (local parts minimally obfuscated) - Enjoy!
‘As an AI language model’: the phrase that shows how AI is polluting the web
Search for the phrase “as an AI language model” on Twitter, for example, and you’ll find countless examples of malfunctioning spambots. The tweets are fascinating, as they often point to a bot’s purpose and tactics.
#artificialintelligence #AI #generativeAI #spam #spambot #bot #bots #twitter #socialmedia #chatgpt #technology #tech
Danke euch allen für s Melden der vielen neuen #Spambot|s auf mastodon.social!
Habe gerade 10 Stück für unseren Server dresden.network gesperrt, mal schauen, wie viele noch kommen...
"Bert" can #FuckOff; otherwise I'll unleash #TheBeyoncinator on his #SpamBot ass...
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Beyoncé - Halo (The Enigma TNG Remix)