Fedi.TipsDec 12

⚠️ Scam alert: if anyone ever asks you to "temporarily change" the email address on your Mastodon account, DO NOT DO THIS.

There is currently a scammer posing as a server admin telling people to temporarily change their Mastodon account's email to an address supplied by the scammer. This is a scam, don't do it.

Real admins will NEVER ask you to do this.

You can see examples of this scam in the thread at https://ohai.social/@redsad/115708030185038699

(Thanks @markwyner for the warning about this! 🙏 )

#FediTips

captain acab :antifa: (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image is this for real? someone said they accidentally reported my account and said to contact this person now they say they want me to change my email address edit: confirmed scammer. do not respond to a text like this

ohai.social
Show threadFedi.Tips

p.s. To add a bit of context, the scammer may message you to claim they reported you by accident. They then try to convince you to get in touch with a different account that pretends to be an admin who can "fix" the situation. All of the things they tell you are lies.

The scammer is actually running both accounts and just wants to take over your account by tricking you into changing your email address to their email address. They would then use your account to post other scams.

Dec 13 at 1:56amWeb
Show threadKaliahDec 13
@FediTips I've seen a similar scam go around on discord. I'd imagine it'd be easy to fall for this sort of thing if you aren't tech inclined or don't know about this stuff. I hope all of these jerks get exactly what's coming to them and like someone else said in this thread, let's not shame people if they do end up falling for scams.
Show threadFedi.TipsDec 13

@Kaliah

Yeah, never a good idea to shame anyone as:
1) They are victims, it's just wrong to shame victims
2) All of us are vulnerable, we should all be keeping our guard up
3) Shaming discourages victims from warning others, so the shaming is just helping the scammers

Show threadGareth 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Dec 13

@FediTips @Kaliah
Here’s a good post from @pluralistic himself about how even if this sort of thing is your world, it still only takes a moment of distraction.

So yeah. It can happen to anyone. Blaming the victim doesn’t help, however “obvious” it seems to someone else with distance and hindsight.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

Pluralistic: How I got scammed (05 Feb 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Show threadthermonuclear small claimsDec 14
@FediTips @Kaliah
They're doing this as a full-time job and putting their whole attention on it. As @pluralistic says, the scammer only has to be lucky once. You have to be lucky always.
Show threadIBBoardDec 13
@Kaliah @FediTips "I've accidentally reported you" is one of the standard scams these days. It's going round on Tumblr. It's going round on Archive of Our Own. It's basically going round any service where you MIGHT be able to report people, because "your account is at risk for nebulous reasons" is a strong motivator that fools the unaware.