fedi PSA, spam, mutual aid scam

PSA: there's a new spam campaign hitting fedi, this one claims to be raising money for insulin and usually has a banner saying "black lives matter" or another progressive slogan.

You can recognize it in the usual ways:
1. Brand-new accounts doing nothing but ask for money.
2. Cold-messaging strangers with personal requests for a boost or donation.
3. Identical or near-identical accounts appearing all over fedi, primarily on open-registration instances.

If you see these accounts or get pinged by them, don't panic! Just report the profile and let your moderators handle it. The image below is an example of what to look out for.

Update: the spammers have adjusted their format a bit, see these posts for details:
-
https://en.osm.town/@thibaultmol/114744923583539270
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https://en.osm.town/@thibaultmol/114745221813651432

Update 2: This particular round of spam also has a new trick, which is immediately blocking remote instance staff after they create an account. Fortunately, this does not prevent them from being reported! Just continue to report as usual, and moderators can view the content through their report UI (on Mastodon / Akkoma) or by switching accounts (on Misskey / Sharkey).

Screenshot of a profile for Loy (transloy@mstdn.social) that is 10 minutes old. The profile is a dark-skinned woman wearing a face mask, glasses, and a flannel shirt. The bio reads:
BLMβœŠπŸΏπŸŒˆπŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ KHAEMBA NEEDS HELP FOR INSULIN TO SURVIVE($105/$300
:
:
I'm very grateful for everyone who has interacted and donated so far and I hope to raise the full amount today so I can administer my insulin as time is running out I'm calling for a community aid to help me get insulin because the healthcare system failed me😒
:
DONATION LINK πŸ‘‡πŸΏ 
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=KRT2K8R55XNYW
0

If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://enby.life/notes/a9de58bd33 on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)