this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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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 an 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.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (18 children)

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, but are you able to confirm whether admins have reported this to the police?

Even if violence hasn't been perpetrated, the harassment is still a crime surely.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (15 children)

I don't know if others have, I only know that we (Lemmy.World, Fedihosting Foundation) have not reported it to the police.

I don't have high hopes that the police would be able to do anything about this. For the harassment against the person shown in the images, that would likely have to be reported by them directly for the police to take that up.
For random online spam, as in harassment of fediverse users receiving the PMs, that seems like it would be an extremely low priority for police. It's also likely fairly difficult to impossible to follow up on, considering that the person sending the PMs most likely used a VPN to access these accounts.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Hmm.

The people receiving the spam are not being harassed, obviously.

The woman depicted is very likely the target of harassment.

Sharing the images depicting violence is tantamount to a threat of violence.

As admins, you're not just witnesses but the stewards of a community and the representatives of many thousands of people in this matter.

Pre-empting what the police will do is not a reason not to report. You don't know what they will do. They might do nothing at you would have wasted 15 minutes. On the other hand perhaps Nicole has been trying to get a restraining order against some creep but has been unable to due to lack of evidence.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have spam in my email. Should I report that to the police as well?

There just isn't enough for regular police to go on, without even considering jurisdiction. Cooperating with authorities is fine, but there's not really anyone to proactively reach out to about this.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Yes. If you run an email server and one of the accounts has been used to perpetrate a harassment campaign including threats of violence then obviously you should report that.

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