this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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Nicole - Temporarily paused

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little do they know nobody is going to type out those urls by hand...

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Friend of Nicole

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Nicole Cage top

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

Thank god phones let you easily copy these links from the image. I was worried I'd have to type them in.

Edited to not rankle people.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Lol are you a Google rep?

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So admins have to do ocr on every pic now?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It might be more effective to penalize instances with open sign ups that the bots are using, to pressure such instances to use bot-filtering tactics on their sign up pages.

Rate limiting, blocking DMs, or defederating (perhaps graduated after a warning) from minor instances that can't control bots sounds like a reasonable admin action.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think the most effective would be to add a step so you could only write a message to people when both parties have consented or something like that.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

As an American, I'm voting for her next election.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Cute, you still think you'll get elections

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I get the joke, but that thinking brought us our current admin.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

She doesnt fit the requirements to be able to become a candidate in the united states of america unfortunately

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

We can rig it.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago

poor girl is trying so hard to make friends

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago

I just got this exact same message. Different account tho. Couldn't report it for some reason even though the account isn't banned yet.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It seems like the theory of deanonymizing users using images makes more sense with this

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not really. The messages always had pictures. That hasn't changed. This is to bypass text filters.

If this entity just wanted to deanonymize users, a transparent GIF pixel would work even better. Then you wouldn't even be aware there was an image. And then you could vary the text sent to each person to avoid filters and avoid suspicion.

The message itself could just be a single word like "a". Something you can't reasonably filter. There wouldn't need to be a meaningful message at all if you're just trying to determine the IP of users.

Nah... The point of these messages has always been to get people to go to these URLs. This is probably classic catfishing.

Besides, are the image URLs even unique? Or include the name of the user they're sent to? If not, then it's useless as a deanonymization mechanism.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Fair, I'll take your point as it does sounds reasonable to me as well. But I don't believe the point is to get people to visit the links, the vast majority aren't and those who did report there is nothing on the other end. So, go figure.

As for obtaining IP- I've no idea on how that works, so I can't present you with a counterargument. There are posts discussing that already, has anyone brought that up there?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

If the image in the message is hosted on a server operated by the one sending the message, then the sender's server will have a log showing the IP address of the person viewing the image. Just by opening the message, the sender will know the IP of the person reading it.

However, hundreds of people received the message. So in order to tell which IP comes from which user, the URL of the image sent to each person needs to be unique. It can be as simple as putting their name in the querystring, like http://image.server/girl.jpg?u=CrayonRosary%40lemmy.world

The web log will show that specific URL being requested by my IP address. Every user will receive an image with a URL unique to them.

It could also be more subtle like using a random looking ID and saving username/ID pairs in a table. Like http://image.server/girl.jpg?27639927. And then some table has that number associated to my username. The attacker builds the table as they send each message.

I got one of these messages. I should check if the URL is something like this.

Luckily the attacker can't get my personal IP address because I use NordVPN, the sponsor of this comment. Whether I’m browsing on public Wi-Fi, or trying to avoid deanonymization attacks like this one, NordVPN ensures my personal data stays private and secure. So if you want to stay safe online, go to NordVPN.com/MyTotallyRealPromoCode and get an exclusive deal today!

/s But I do use a VPN. 😄

(I must have deleted the message. I can't find it.)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Since you have a VPN I nominate you to engage with her and find out what she wants.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Ironically, the one time I tried Matrix, I was immediately banned after sending my first message, presumably because I'm on a VPN.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Lemmy supports proxying images though. I read the release notes for the feature and its supposed to work on all image urls:

The setting works by rewriting links in new posts, comments and other places when they are inserted in the database. source

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

what's this?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The Friendica link has a work address. I wonder, now, if it's the address of a person or company they're trying to harm. No way it's actually her real work address.

Turns out it's a grocery store.

Someone should ask on the Google maps Q&A section, "Does Nicole, A.K.A Fediverse Chick, work there?" 😄

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Someone should ask on the Google maps Q&A section, "Does Nicole, A.K.A Fediverse Chick, work there?" 😄

Assuming this is actually a harassment campaign (which seems likely tbh) that would be the worst thing you could do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I could think of a hundred worse things! My idea was a benign question.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago

Fun fact: her matrix server is a cesspool of racist garbage

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

little do they know nobody is going to type out those urls by hand...

Never underestimate the lengths that thirsty bois will go.

And most OSs provide OCR.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Am I the only one who hasn’t gotten one of her messages?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

you probs missed it, the admin of SJW auto deletes the spam messages when caught

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

What is that font up there?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

i installed it from my phone's personalization app but it doesn't seem like a commercial font or anything (no results from google). i just feel like it helps my dyslexia idk

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What's the name of that app?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

its just the built in theme manager for xiaomi

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It looks like a dialogue tree from the 16bit Fallout games.

brb, off to get a GECK from Poland.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Were there 16 bit Fallout games? Was Fallout 1 that early on Windows?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

It was a crude way to express an "era" for when it was released, because I couldn't be arsed googling for a release date.

It appears as though Fallout is an early 1997 game. Windows 3.x seemed to still be the dominant OS (or at least MS-DOS) at 52% of the market with Win95 accounting for 32%, so I would imagine that the game would still be built with 16-bit architectures in mind.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Does it? I'm not a font guy but to me it looks more like comic sans.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

I was wondering what happened. I haven't heard any updates on her recently.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

How is there not a bot that auto reports her yet?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

What are "pre-health" sciences anyway?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

IDK. But If I had a gun to my head, I would say a category of undergraduate major before going into a doctoral or a graduate in the medical field.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I figure it's like pre bio chem.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Something like that yes

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