⚠️ If you see a post or DM saying "your account is currently suspended for verification purposes", do NOT click on the link. It is a scam.
Fediverse servers do not ask people to verify their identity. There is an optional self-verification system, but that's just for those who want to use it. No one is ever asked to do it.
If you are in ANY doubt about ANY official-looking message, contact your own server's admin directly using their public email address on your server's website's "About" page.
Yeah, it works totally differently to what the scammers are trying to do.
Self-verification works by linking to your account from your website in a certain format. More info at:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-verify-my-account/
It doesn't reveal your identity, it just confirms your ownership of a website or web page.
It also doesn't involve any kind of credit card, which is what the scammers are trying to get hold of. The posts I saw were trying to trick people into giving card numbers etc.
Oh I understand now I connected to my gravatar and that is why it shows up in green on my profile ...correct??
Yeah, exactly, if you link in both directions with a special tag in the HTML code called rel=me it turns the link green as verified.
Rel=me was designed to be a general standard used by all social networks and sites so people could prove they were the same person on different platforms.
Unfortunately Google, Meta, Twitter etc refused to use it presumably because they don't like open standards 😦
But Mastodon and some others do use it.
Fedi.Tips
TroikaFox