Like, it can’t be a real person, right? Has anyone tried following the links? I’m curious how they’re scamming people. It just seems like anyone getting the same message 5 times won’t fall for being catfished, so I don’t understand what their strategy is.

  • CTDummy@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    The same reason a lot scam emails are riddled with typos, follow recognisable formats (eg nigerian prince) and can be easily determined as scams. If you can spot it, you aren’t the mark. It’s a form of selection bias. If you recognise Nicole you probably aren’t new to Lemmy or the Fediverse and are a bad mark. I’d guess, I never followed the links, don’t generally follow links dm’d from random, days old accounts in general. Maybe Nicole truly is just thirsty for Lemmy friends and keeps getting banned lmao.

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 hours ago

      If you can spot it, you aren’t the mark.

      This doesn’t make any sense to me.

      Why would you deliberately make your bait less appealing to filter out the fish that might wriggle off the hook before you land them?

      The typo’s are in order to evade bayesian spam filters which get suspicious about certain words.

      The common formats are used because those are the ones that work.

      • CTDummy@lemm.ee
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        2 hours ago

        Because you’re selecting with people who lack experience with scam/critical thinking to figure out they’re scams.

        • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 hour ago

          I understood you the first time. My point is, it’s nonsensical.

          If you’re sending emails to potential victims you want as many responses as you can get.

          It’s an absurdity to suggest that typing errors would intelligently select for people more likely to be scammed.

    • lordnikon@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Honestly people that do recognize it for what it is should respond. Keep them talking to waste their time so they can’t hurt someone else.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          If we all wasted 5 minutes we could shut down the system.

          People really underestimate the power of collective action. It’s just meat based ddos.

          • Azzu@lemm.ee
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            19 hours ago

            I mean if everyone “collective action” ignored them together, no one would have to waste even 5 minutes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

            And theoretically, if there would be the same amount of scammers as decent people, everyone would have to waste all their time with your strategy, but with my strategy none of the decent people would waste time.

            But yes I understand it of course, protecting the weak is not a bad thing.

            • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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              8 hours ago

              you mean, everyone who already knows it’s a scam or can recognize that it probably is. which is not everyone. otherwise the whole thing wouldn’t exist.

              • Azzu@lemm.ee
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                3 hours ago

                Which is what I acknowledged with my last sentence. All I’m saying is that both methods could be worthwhile, and in a perfect world where everyone is educated, everyone ignoring the scammer would be better.

            • doleo
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              2 days ago

              I had to do a re-read because my brain did an autocorrect

        • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted. I always love talking to Indian scammers when they call about my student loans that don’t exist.

      • CTDummy@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        That easier done with more involved scams like phone calls you see YouTubers do. Especially since they likely paid for that info. Places like here there’s no buy in so it’s a volume game i imagine. If I can’t get you to another platform to buy me stuff I’d move on to the next one quickly as possible.

        • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I had one Indian scammer use my name so I was interested. Then he asked if my email was still current and gave an email that I used like 20 years ago in middle school. I laughed and told him he paid for shitty info. It was a goddamn Hotmail account to give you an idea.