Just some thoughts. We know the spammed messages have alluded to real places, and at least one of them has even given a workplace address, inviting the recipient to “come say hi” or similar. I’m aware that some of the places seem to change around, but that workplace thing in particular has galvanized how I think about this whole situation. The same day, I scrolled through some posts that were treating all the “hints” like some kind of ARG, like going to that workplace and asking for a Nicole would yield some special clue that will lead them to the next step of the ARG. (the shitty thing is that there is a vanishingly small non-zero chance of that being true regardless)

The odds that the person in the photos is consenting to being part of a spam effort are pretty low I’d think. The fact that some of them seem to be baiting users to a particular physical location reads like some early 2000s kiwi farm bullshit, and it’s creepy to see unfolding here on the Lemmyverse. The links are just spam, sure, and spam is just part of the sewage wading exercise that is using the internet, that’s not what bothers me. It’s the social side. These are real places, they’re photos are of a real person, which means someone really wants to get this face out there to a bunch of nerds. Given a big enough population, there’s statistically going to be someone receiving this spam who could give that person a hard time with enough nudging.

Personally I don’t think it’s a pig butchering scam. I think someone is trying to rope an unstable stranger into hurting/stalking/physically harassing someone.

I’m conflicted on one thing: I would think that the person in the photos should know that their likeness is being used this way, and to maybe take some precautions if any of the information. At the same time, I’m not exactly jumping with joy at the thought of going on a public forum like this one and saying “Hey guys help me dox this person for their own safety!”. Maybe I haven’t had to think about this much before since I avoid a lot of traditional social media where the spindly pointy tentacles of harassment campaigns do breach out into popular online spaces. This can’t be the first time something like this happens. I just don’t know what the most ethical way to deal with this is.

Not the spam, you can filter spam. I’m talking about dealing with the social consequences of whatever this is.

edit: cleaned up some wording.