Creeped out as f. Profile copying bot? What's going on?

[Isskald]

Just filled up my profile an hour ago - it had been empty for weeks. Hopped over to Beast Forest, only to find an avatar with literally the same words in their profile as mine. TP-ed away as fast as I could.

What's going on? How did it happen?

Any help, advice, explanation, please?

[Thecla]

A) You were confused and actually looking at your own profile.

B) You copy/pasted some popular quote that they were also using.

C) Too many drugs.

[Isskald]

13 minutes ago, Thecla said:

A) You were confused and actually looking at your own profile.

B) You copy/pasted some popular quote that they were also using.

C) Too many drugs.

Neither.

I'm sure you are a super-cool person but I'm actually looking for help.

[Rowan Amore]

Someone is probably just messing with you.  Ignore them.  

[Love Zhaoying]

Yes, this happens. It's just someone trying to create drama. Some people don't stop at profiles and copy your avatar / look, house, etc. Just block them.

[Isskald]

2 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Someone is probably just messing with you.  Ignore them.  

Why would a random account be messing with me and have an almost word-for-word profile ready just 30 seconds after my arrival to said sim?

[Rowan Amore]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Yes, this happens. It's just someone trying to create drama. Some people don't stop at profiles and copy your avatar / look, house, etc. Just block them.

I met a woman several years ago and we chatted ONCE.   I had mentioned to her at the time that I like what she'd written in one of her Picks.   I see her a week or so later and she's taken several of my picks and used them in her profile...word for word.  My words!  I didn't even bother saying anything to her but I did put a little mention about people stealing things from profiles in my own profile with her name attached.  Quotes are one thing.  Stealing someone's own words is another, IMO.

[Isskald]

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Yes, this happens. It's just someone trying to create drama. Some people don't stop at profiles and copy your avatar / look, house, etc. Just block them.

Thanks. Don't get why. I'm just a random bloke.

[Thecla]

10 minutes ago, Isskald said:

Neither.

I'm sure you are a super-cool person but I'm actually looking for help.

What kind of help can anyone here possibly give you? It's not a technical glitch.

The only person that can help you is the person who's profile you were looking at. If you're certain they copied it, ask them why. Better yet, completely ignore them and go about your day.

[Rowan Amore]

1 minute ago, Isskald said:

Why would a random account be messing with me and have an almost word-for-word profile ready just 30 seconds after my arrival to said sim?

Maybe they had seen you somewhere before?  Maybe they saw you tp in and decided to just mess with you for whatever reason.  People do weird things for their own entertainment hoping to get a reaction.  Don't react.  

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

I dunno but I had someone copy my rl pic from my profile to theirs a few years ago. I wasn't even aware until someone else pointed it out to me. People are fu**ed, just ignore them. 

Edited April 2 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[Isskald]

5 minutes ago, Thecla said:

What kind of help can anyone here possibly give you? It's not a technical glitch.

The only person that can help you is the person who's profile you were looking at. If you're certain they copied it, ask them why. Better yet, completely ignore them and go about your day.

This exactly. Telling me whether this is a known bot activity, or some random ***** getting off on playing a game with me.

[Love Zhaoying]

FYI, in case you didn't know: People "mess with other people" in Second Life just for the heck of it.  (It's often referred to as "griefing", which has many forms.)

In general, "not responding" (acknowledging it) is consensus advice.

 

[Isskald]

6 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

FYI, in case you didn't know: People "mess with other people" in Second Life just for the heck of it.  (It's often referred to as "griefing", which has many forms.)

In general, "not responding" (acknowledging it) is consensus advice.

 

For sure. I'm just someone who isn't online much, don't really have "friends and enemies", so I'm really not a believable candidate for any kind of social revenge. The weirdest bit is that I've read this person's profile practically being the same as mine almost word for word only MINUTES after I've finished writing my own profile. To me, it seems very much like bot activity. I'm simply NOT socially enmeshed enough for it to be any kind of a revenge/joke thing.

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Isskald said:

Just filled up my profile an hour ago - it had been empty for weeks. Hopped over to Beast Forest, only to find an avatar with literally the same words in their profile as mine. TP-ed away as fast as I could.

What's going on? How did it happen?

Any help, advice, explanation, please?

If you believe a copybot of some nature was involved, report it. Otherwise, there isn't anything else you can do.

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Isskald said:

I'm just someone who isn't online much, don't really have "friends and enemies", so I'm really not a believable candidate for any kind of social revenge.

All of this makes you a perfect target, IF you respond.

5 minutes ago, Isskald said:

To me, it seems very much like bot activity.

Maybe, but either way people would only do this to get a reaction.

[Isskald]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

All of this makes you a perfect target, IF you respond.

Maybe, but either way people would only do this to get a reaction.

Thanks. I didn't react at all, just TP-ed away. When I got back, there was no sign of the account. Based on the responses here - and just gut feeling, frankly - I think it WAS a bot.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Isskald said:

Thanks. I didn't react at all, just TP-ed away. When I got back, there was no sign of the account. Based on the responses here - and just gut feeling, frankly - I think it WAS a bot.

Do you know how to "block" someone? It doesn't hurt anything to do that if it happens again.

[Istelathis]

Is Beast Forest an RPG area, perhaps there is a person there presenting as a doppelganger, or even a bot designated as a doppelganger.  I'm trying to think of a way that SL's scripting could be used to scrape your data, then change the profile of the bot to have the same description, that goes beyond my knowledge but I can't come up with a reason of why SL would have such a function.  Did you check out the rest of their profile, perhaps there is some information there.

Alternatively, it could be a pod person.. you did not fall asleep in this region did you 😜

Regardless, it is pretty interesting. I wonder if it just is a bug in the viewer, if you go to https://search.secondlife.com/ and type in their name, do they have the same profile still?  Is everything the same, such as the real life info, the picks and so on?

[Isskald]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Do you know how to "block" someone? It doesn't hurt anything to do that if it happens again.

Yes, I do know to block someone. The issue here is not that; rather, it's someone impersonating me.

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Isskald said:

The issue here is not that; rather, it's someone impersonating me.

Since you literally cannot do anything about it, that is why I suggested blocking; that way you wouldn't have to see it or participate in whatever their "game" is.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

Is Beast Forest an RPG area, perhaps there is a person there presenting as a doppelganger, or even a bot designated as a doppelganger.  I'm trying to think of a way that SL's scripting could be used to scrape your data, then change the profile of the bot to have the same description, that goes beyond my knowledge but I can't come up with a reason of why SL would have such a function.  Did you check out the rest of their profile, perhaps there is some information there.

Alternatively, it could be a pod person.. you did not fall asleep in this region did you 😜

Regardless, it is pretty interesting. I wonder if it just is a bug in the viewer, if you go to https://search.secondlife.com/ and type in their name, do they have the same profile still?  Is everything the same, such as the real life info, the picks and so on?

That's an interesting thought, if someone scripted a "copy-profile" bot as part of a RolePlay!

 

[BilliJo Aldrin]

47 minutes ago, Isskald said:

This exactly. Telling me whether this is a known bot activity, or some random ***** getting off on playing a game with me.

What is the payoff? How did they know you would look at their profile? Except you did and you will obsess about it. Just change your profile to say something else 🙄

[Pixie Kobichenko]

1 hour ago, Isskald said:

Why would a random account be messing with me and have an almost word-for-word profile ready just 30 seconds after my arrival to said sim?

To quote the immortal Jim Morrison (& later Echo and the Bunnymen) - 

"People are strange."   There's no reasoning why- just an unknowable pleasure that individual received from being creepy.  Or just a really weird coincidence.  Or some weird bot that copies profiles to their own?  Who knows. They can't hurt you past weirding you out.   

[Isskald]

1 hour ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

What is the payoff? How did they know you would look at their profile? Except you did and you will obsess about it. Just change your profile to say something else 🙄

Kind of "EXACTLY!"

Why?