Sigh. I was slightly suspicious of the first comment, but it was very different from the usual spambot bullshit, so I stupidly gave them the benefit of the doubt :/
Anyway, reported and blocked.
So, there’s a common thread I’ve noticed among certain strains of scammers on both Tumblr and AO3. I got this DM yesterday—see if you can spot what I’m talking about:
Did you get it?
They never specified what photo they like. One might assume they meant my banner image, but I’ve gotten similarly vague DMs and AO3 comments before, so I simply asked which one they were referring to.
And surprise surprise, they cannot give an answer. The first DM says ‘the photo’ and calls it inspiring, while the second one suddenly switches to using any photo that captures my personality. Which like, creepy. But they even mention my pfp—something that is 1) not a photo, and 2) so small that if you haven’t seen the original image I painted, you can barely tell what’s going on besides maybe some smooching. My banner image and pfp are also completely unrelated, so it becomes very obvious that there’s no rhyme or reason to what is so 'inspiring’ to this bot.
Of course, you can always look at the bot’s blog or their profile on Tumblr to confirm your suspicions. The creation date of the AO3 account will be quite recent, and the account won’t have any works or bookmarks. They may have a profile, in which case, it will list their discord handle or email address, because they’re trying to get you away from AO3 and into a private conversation. Easier to scam you that way! I’ve seen a little more variety on Tumblr—sometimes, the account will have some random art reblogs and likes, and sometimes just likes. But they don’t usually follow more than 30 or so people.
Anyway, there’s no reason to reply to these because it’s just some bot seeing the answer, but sometimes I can’t help replying before I report the DM as spam.
getting scambot messages from random accounts that clearly used to be normal active blogs is sad enough. you know that there used to be a real person on that blog until they were tricked into handing their password to the digital fae.
but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.
and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.
RIP to the blog that used to DM me to tell me they liked my new chapters. Their last known words spoken before being turned, 17 hours ago: "Ggs!" They were praising someone's deadlift.
the message they tried to get me with is probably the same message that got them, so for anybody who hasn't already been warned about the signs of a zombie account:
ALTif you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."
whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,
it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.
they got one of my treasured followers, and they can get you too. don't fall for their tricks. know the signs.
I see the scammers are being particularly disgusting today.
Needless to say, I reported the spam and blocked the account 🙄 Love to see people taking advantage of horrible events just to milk money from gullible people who almost certainly don’t have funds to spare…
Date Posted: February 8, 2026
A wave of spambot guest comments claiming to be AO3 volunteers has recently been made across the site. They claim that there has been a data breach and that fraudulent password reset emails have been sent out. In addition, the harassment spambots are now accusing users of being sex offenders.
These claims are not true. These comments are not being made by real AO3 volunteers or users, and AO3 has not experienced a data breach.
These comments copy existing AO3 usernames in order to make their accusations seem more legitimate. They may also try to lure people onto other platforms, similar to the art commission scam.
AO3 volunteers will never communicate with you through guest comments on your work. All important communications from AO3 about your account will be sent via email. More general announcements will be posted on our official social media accounts or published as news posts on AO3 or OTW.org.
If you want to make sure you're doing everything possible to protect yourself and your accounts, our Policy & Abuse volunteers published a news post earlier this year with advice about internet safety best practices: Protect Your AO3 Account.
As always, we recommend that you do not click on any suspicious links or give your contact information to scammers. Instead, simply mark the comments as spam or report them so that Policy & Abuse can remove other comments left by these spambots.
If you aren't sure how to mark guest comments as spam, learn how to handle them below the cut!
I just got. The single funniest dm I've ever received in my entire life
Characters in media fighting back against the mind control:
I got another spam comment today on AO3, and I want to share it as a PSA. But before I do, I want you to understand that you SHOULD NOT DO what this comment is asking. Ok? Ok.
ALTSee that bit at the bottom? Don't do that. Insert ParamedicGuy.gif going "Don't."
Other malicious spam comments I've gotten seemed designed to make an author question their writing, or outright encourage them to delete their stories from AO3. This one is different, in that it tries to get you to destroy the work on your own computer.
If you ran that command, it basically locates your Documents folder, then deletes everything in it, including all subfolders. It also does it without any prompt, so you have no chance to second guess your actions.
This is just fucking trolling.
Coincidentally, we just did training on a cyberattack similar to this, called a ClickFix attack. You can read about how that works here.
As a general rule, if ANYONE or ANY WEBSITE tells you unsolicited* to do anything in Powershell, CMD RUN, command prompt, shell command, or something similar, DON'T.
*There are legit reasons for running commands in PowerShell or the command prompt, but in those cases you are likely seeking out a solution to a problem you are already experiencing. Don't just run random commands on your computer as recommended by some unlogged-in guest on a fan fiction site.
Always think and consider before taking action, and get a second opinion from a trusted source. When I got this comment I was pretty sure what the command would do, and it took me about three seconds of googling to confirm it.
Be safe out there!
every day I learn bot comments on ao3 are stooping lower and lower
anyway if you get a comment like this, chances are that they are bot and their goal is to do whatever it takes to get you to delete your work, most certainly (from what I’ve heard) it’s because they want to “safely” steal your work, use it to train their ai without you being able to rightfully claim ownership of your work since “there’s no proof that the work was stolen/was posted elsewhere first by you” because the original source has already been deleted.
THEY ARE ALL BOTS. at first it was “ao3 is deleting fics and your entire account will be affected unless you delete the fics yourself” then it was “this work contains contents that are illegal and they have already reported you and your fic to the police” (yes, that’s how desperate these bots are), and now it’s this.
report their comments to ao3 for spam—in this case, specifically, I think you may be able to report them for harassment too—and don’t pay attention to them, most importantly don’t delete your works, don’t feel discouraged by their comments. remember that they are bots and they mass comment something like this on people’s works at random to get people to delete their works. (or even if they’re not bot, they are still pathetic bullies who don’t deserve your time or attention.)
MORE ABOUT BOTS AND SCAMS PLAGUING AO3’S COMMENTS SECTION HERE
love them the AO3 spam bots leave comments like this on fanart
Ugh, so much for being excited to see several AO3 emails in my inbox 😑 I got FIVE comments from the same scam account on various fics. Here's one of them, from tinaka60 (link to the user if you want to block them):
Okay this one from today actually made me cackle though:
I’m glad the scammers like my wanksgiving smut 🤣
Ugh, so much for being excited to see several AO3 emails in my inbox 😑 I got FIVE comments from the same scam account on various fics. Here’s one of them, from tinaka60 (link to the user if you want to block them):
Date posted: November 12, 2025
AO3 has recently seen a rise in guest spambot comments making false accusations about work creators or other users. For example, they may claim that a particular user is discriminating against minorities, trying to hide the fact that they use AI, or are at risk of having their works stolen or deleted.
These comments often copy existing AO3 usernames in order to make their accusations seem more legitimate. They may also try to lure people onto other platforms (similar to the art commission scam), or use fake links that actually lead to pornographic images.
As always, we recommend that you do not click on any suspicious links or give your contact information to scammers. Instead, simply mark the comments as spam or report them so that the Policy & Abuse committee can remove comments left by these spambots.
Learn how to recognize them and what to do below the cut!
Date posted: November 12, 2025
AO3 has recently seen a rise in guest spambot comments making false accusations about work creators or other users. For example, they may claim that a particular user is discriminating against minorities, trying to hide the fact that they use AI, or are at risk of having their works stolen or deleted.
These comments often copy existing AO3 usernames in order to make their accusations seem more legitimate. They may also try to lure people onto other platforms (similar to the art commission scam), or use fake links that actually lead to pornographic images.
As always, we recommend that you do not click on any suspicious links or give your contact information to scammers. Instead, simply mark the comments as spam or report them so that the Policy & Abuse committee can remove comments left by these spambots.
Learn how to recognize them and what to do below the cut!
Spammers getting so lazy smh 😔
Oh look, the scammers are trying the ol' Steam and Discord scams on Tumblr now 🙄 This is basically the exact same garbage as the one I got on Discord several months ago.
If you get DMs like this, just mark them a spam and block the fuckers.
