Weird ghost journals

[catsittingstill]

I keep getting notices from Dreamwidth that someone has subscribed to my account, and going to their journal and finding nothing.  No entries at all.  Just a picture of a pretty woman.  Once or twice might be actual people who just want to read and comment, but this has happened like six or eight times.  People who just want to read and comment wouldn't all be pretty young women.

I assume these are some kind of scam?  Does anyone know more about what is going on?

Comments

Ghost accounts

[coffeeteaandme]

I assume it's someone watching. I am pretty sure you can dump and block them, and I recommend doing so. Even if they're not bots or creepers, I think it's against the spirit of an online journal to read other peoples' lives while sharing none of your own.

Re: Ghost accounts

[catsittingstill]

I haven't seen an easy way to do this yet, but maybe I should go looking...

[danceswithlife]

Hi Cat.
Just in case I'm one of the people you see subscribing to your DW, but with no posts of my own, I just wanted to say I remember you from my filk convention days, and enjoy what you post in your DW account. But, no, I don't have any recent posts. Mostly I interact on Twitter these days.

Not trying to be creepy.

Lola

[catsittingstill]

No problem; I remember you!

[gorgeousgary]

I get that sort of thing more on Tumblr than DW. Either way, if there is absolutely no indication the person is fannish or otherwise why they might be interested I assume whoever is behind the account has nefarious purposes and block them.

[catsittingstill]

I can ban them from commenting, and I can take my whole account circle only and fail to add them to my circle, but DW doesn’t seem to have any means of blocking a specific person from an otherwise public post.

[tigertoy]

It sounds quite fishy (maybe phishy). A real used might not post any entries but they would almost certainly have some sort of a profile. DW is such a small community that it seems unlikely that any sort of disinformation network would be trying to establish legitimacy for future operations. I would expect that it's some random scammer hoping that you will reach out to ask who they are and start a conversation that could give them an opportunity to try to con you. It's not much harder than blindly sending out a badly worded email and somebody might think they might get a higher response rate.

I can go to a user's profile, mouse over their profile picture, and "ban user" is the last thing in the popup menu. I assume that means they won't be able to see my posts. I wouldn't bother if all they did was follow me, but if it makes you uncomfortable, that's where the option should be for someone who doesn't have any other presence.

[catsittingstill]

Thank you; that is very helpful to know!

[technomom]

Hi! I keep forgetting to update my DW journal, but I like reading folks' journals. I'm one of your musical fans.

[catsittingstill]

Oh, no problem. I basically go to the user profile, and if there's anything at all posted (that makes sense and isn't objectionable) or if I recognize the person in the picture, or recognize the username, I am okay with being followed by the person. You have posts up, and sometimes comment, so you are fine.

It's just when I go to the user profile and it's a picture of a young, pretty woman, and they have never put up a post, or made any contact with me, and I have no idea who this person is, that I am banning people.

Weird Ghost Journals

[coffeeteaandme]

Yup, definitely fishy (or phishy:) dump and block, and maybe report to DW, I think they take that sort of thing more seriously than others.

Really like their recent support of their Russian subscribers.