#Bot warning

[raccoonhusband]

Heads up to followers

There's a scambot going around under the name of laumi-narry asking to be mutuals. Instead of the usual scambot tactic of a topless selfie lady or asking for money with a sob story, at first glance they seem like any other fandom blog with modern interests that just wants a new friend:

Nope, 100% bot that just wants your credit card info. Evidence shows up by searching their username. Block and report if this shows up in your inbox! Or block preemptively if you want.

Anyway, times being how they are, it never hurts to remember the rules of the wide wide world of web:

Don't send money to randos

Don't click links or download files in a DM unless you asked for them

If anyone cold calls you, google them!

[nw39]

Warning yall. New bot running amok.

@shandoratheexplorer @goodgirlgonebard @dramatiquechipmunk @dr-acula121 @deadly-diminuendo @arafel0194 @alwaysmauria @strixamans @verbenaa and anyone else im forgetting cause brain is fried

[crunchybeards]

Your work got reposted by a bot :/

https://www.tumblr.com/openlyhauntedspy/781819258666614784/front-and-back-underwear-types-yes-he-wears?source=share

Well.

Rip😔

But seriously thank you for the heads up!

For anybody who sees this post or this bot or any other similar bots, simply report and block. DON'T CLICK THAT LINK, it's most likely a virus or some form of phishing link, don't go looking for it. It's, unfortunately, very common for bots to go into popular/ trending tags and to repost/ steal other people's posts. I knew this would happen to me and it can definitely happen to you, it comes with the territory of posting online. The best course of action is to weed them out by reporting and blocking so that there is no insensitive to continue doing so. Mass report this bot and any others like it.

I'll also say that I have no issues with reposts so long as I am asked first and credited with the repost having a visible link/ @ to my socials. I post man tits and other bs but I'm still proud of that and I'd like my digital boobs and writing to be credited. My main issue is that it's a bot that has malicious intent.

And I've made my stance clear on Ai. Fuck bots and fuck ai.

[cosmickid-inmotion]

SCAM WARNING!!!

So, this is the second time this happened to me on ao3. Both have been on x-men works. (Both having to do with kurt but im sure thats a coincidence)

The first one had me fooled for a minute because they actually mentioned details about the story.

After a bit of a back and forth with the first person/bot, I tried to explain that while they are welcome to make art of any piece I write, I do not wish to commission at this point. I was accused of not supporting artists, which I didn't really appreciate since at the time, I was sitting in the waiting room to see a doctor uninsured with like. $50 in my bank account and having lost hours from being sick.

If y'all know me you know I really try to be a community player and try so hard to not be rude but this interaction was uncomfortable, spiked my anxiety. The other thing was both of these pieces had very little interaction. Which is fine, considering what I'm writing. but it was disheartening to think i got a comment only to find it was this shit

Then today I got this. I knew right away it was BS bc frankly, the story was just pretty simple Logurt angst lol. it really wasn't anything special.

Turns out, it wasn't just me. This is a reoccurring issue on AO3 and fanfiction.net. I don't know if they are bots, because like I said the first one I got made it seem like they actually read the fic, but this one above is more general.

However, if you do commission a piece, they return with AI GENERATED "art". I do not need to explain to you why that is bad, I hope.

Do not fall for it, but more importantly DO NOT GET PRESSURED INTO DOING IT! I know saying no is hard for a lot of us, but you are not being a bad fandom member for not commission fake art that was cold called to you. Please do not waste your money, delete the comment, move on with your day.

Please reblog or warn others word of mouth.

[gj340]

watch out for possible bots in the konami tag

as of late, there has been a butt-load of posts in the konami tag that contain very suspicious links to some yucky stuff, and if you see such posts, do not click the links, but do report the post as spam, then block the poster.

in the meantime, have a look at reiko bomber instead of falling for those fake links.

[livewiregoth]

Be careful of this user

Just wanted to warn people to be careful of sophiaeli22, they’re going around pretending to be a new user trying to interact with people but they’re possibly a scam bot

This started with them messaging me out of nowhere with just “Hi”, I don’t really like being messaged out of nowhere by strangers saying “Hi” without saying why they’re messaging me(had spam/scambots do this in the past) but for some reason took a chance.

Thought they were some new person & they even had some reblogs when suddenly they asked me about art today. I asked them about it & they sent me three pics.

These are the images

I got suspicious due to the different art changes & the last one felt familiar for some reason. The first image is traced, going to guess the second is traced or stolen & edited while, last one is likely the same.

Thanks to suspicions I made a comment to see how they reacted. This person claimed these are “OCs from a client”. Client? You don’t have any images posted on your account. Also given this is tumblr I’m slightly surprised they thought Loona from Helluva Boss was someone’s OC.(Made worse by the fact the first pic is traced from an official image of her)

Here’s the messages before & after these images

This person is suspicious & I’m not going to talk to them anymore. Should have seen this coming as I dealt with similar spam/scam bots on Twitter. I have yet to get a response so might update later.

[humanmaybe]

Check your followers, I just got hit by 50+ spam bot accounts

Literally had to go thru and report and block every single one 💀 I was shocked bc out of nowhere my account jumped waaay up and I haven’t gotten anything in my activity saying that many people followed me at once. Sure enough, it’s yet another tumblr bot spam problem. PSA I guess

[theshadowpiramid]

[sylvies-chen]

THE GODDAMN BOTS ARE BACK everyone send your troops to the outer perimeter of your blogs we’re under attack

[theoldwhisky]

Those scam "donate" accounts are going wild again on tumblr, remember to always just report and blog them.

Don't trust them, don't click on links, don't repost to drag your followers into it. Don't.

Usualy they just send "mailbox" messenges but now they also start to mass tag people underneath their posts.

Those are bots and scammers.

[theshadowpiramid]

[mashounen2003]

I wonder if these BS messages they're sending on Wattpad are from the same person/people who started this trend on FanFiction.net:

It started almost a year ago, with either guests or newly created accounts sending reviews to random fanfics where they said a bunch of dumb empty compliments with tons of flowery language and then offered to make fanart of those fanfics for money. Those reviews with sudden "fanart offers" initially included a link to an ArtStation account, as mentioned in the title of this forum thread I've just linked.

This seems to have become much more widespread over the last couple of months (around the time the OP posted this warning about bots on AO3 accusing random authors of using AI to write their stories, but I'm sure this totally is a coincidence...). In their current form, these reviews include either the link for an Instagram account or the name and code of a Discord user to send them a DM, and they specifically offer to make comic adaptations of fanfics.

Sounds familiar?

PSA

Just a heads up, there are bots going around on AO3 accusing people of using AI. Considering the timing, this is likely AI bros' retaliation for AO3 users calling them out for scraping their work. Examples of what you might be sent:

Screenshots from here.

If you get a comment like this, just report for spam and delete.

[spaces-art]

If you were real you would look at my website instead of auto posting on every single thing I post

Beware of bots folks

[moofuuu]

Hey guys, just want you guys to be aware, the reason I don't post the asks asking about the Palestinians stuff going on is because... well I'm starting to think some of these are just malicious bots!!!!

Just. . . Be aware that I don't want to be political as much anymore either as I just want to focus on my own mental well-being.. it's crazy how I was just ranting to a friend earlier that I don't post these anymore because I'm scared that they're just bots like the p*rn bots that still come on Tumblr!!!! So.. again just a fair warning to why I posted and then deleted some of my previous stuff too.

[fan-of-random-bs]

Fucking bots. I think this one works for Amazon. Uh, keep your eyes out for it.

[les342]

I’m not a writer,l. Just passing this along for those of you who are.

Yet another AO3 bot situation - please spread the word!

Hi, it's me again, the person who wrote that viral post about fanfiction plagiarism! Today I'm here to warn you about abuse perpetrated by bots who have stolen AO3 usernames.

There's currently an epidemic of bots going around leaving (apparently random) horrible, hateful comments on people's fics. This isn't the first time bots have invaded AO3, but the big problem with this wave is that they're using real AO3 usernames to do it.

I learned about this when another writer contacted me after receiving the following comment on their story:

Now, while that is my username, I DEFINITELY did not leave this comment (and anyone who would leave something like that on a fic should be slapped! What an awful thing to post). This fic is in a completely unrelated fandom that I have never participated in, nor has that author participated in any of my fandoms, so the probability of it being some intentional fandom drama thing to make me look bad is also low.

The writer whose fic the comment was left on enlisted the aid of some friends and tracked down other guest comments with unrelated usernames attached, which is pretty strong evidence that they are being left by bots at random.

The TL;DR: If you receive a cruel comment from a (Guest) with an actual AO3 username attached, it's most likely from a bot. Please do not lash out at or dogpile the AO3 user who owns that name, and who in all likelihood has no idea that their name has been hijacked for evil.

If finding this kind of comment on a fic, even left by a bot, is likely to upset you, I would recommend changing your comment settings so that only users who are logged in can leave comments. To do this, edit your story settings, and under "Privacy," select the radio button that says "Only registered users can comment," as shown below.

Please spread the word to other AO3 users! And if you see mean guest comments on other fics, maybe let the author know that it's probably from a bot and not a real person who thinks their writing is bad.