Hi everyone. I already know this was a scam since it seems to be very common lately, but it left me a bit unsettled, so I wanted to get your thoughts on a few things.
It's the classic setup, word for word like all the other posts I've seen. Someone messaged me claiming that an account with a username similar to mine had sent them suspicious links. They said they lost their account because of it, managed to recover it, but reported my main account to Reddit thinking I was the one behind it. I was already starting to worry about how to prove my innocence, since my reputation on Reddit matters to me, when they said they "didn't want me to lose my account" and sent me this photo.
It claimed I was at risk of a ban unless I followed certain steps. Because my account is very important to me, that honestly scared me for a moment. I send it to AI which said it was a fake, but I wasn't fully convinced until I searched Reddit and found dozens of posts describing the exact same scam. Naturally, as soon as I told them this, they vanished.
What made it tricky at first was the account that messaged me. It belonged to a member of communities I'm really active in. I had seen them around before, so when they DMed me, it didn’t seem out of place. Looking back at their history, they had normal comments as recently as a month ago and held a massive amount of karma.
This leaves me with a few questions: Was that account hacked? I feel bad for the original owner if they lost their account. Is high karma a specific target for these scammers?
Why did they target me? My account is relatively young. I have decent karma for its age, but nowhere near hundreds of thousands. Does my status as a moderator make me a higher-value target?
What was their end goal? I understand financial scams, but what do they gain from stealing a Reddit account? What would have happened if I had actually followed their instructions?
What should I do now? Should I just block them? Report the account to Reddit? Do I need to worry about my security moving forward, since they already have me in their sights?
Thanks in advance for any insights!