Member-only story
Warning! The New Bot Trend On Medium Is Concerning
At first, I thought I had been hacked.
Today, I logged in and saw something that made my heart drop. It looked as though I had been replying to my readers’ comments with spam messages. I immediately thought that I had been hacked. Luckily, that was not the case. Instead, it seems as though there is a new and concerning bot trend that is picking up.
The account making the comments in question had my exact username and profile image. At first glance, it looked as though it was me. When I clicked on the profile, it was empty and clearly had been made just recently. This was a level of impersonation that I had never seen before here on Medium, and it immediately set off alarm bells in my mind.
Not only did it look like I was spreading spam under my own articles, but it was impossible to tell that the account was fake at first glance. This has the potential to sour our readers as it looked as though I was using my position to spread spam.
- The account had my exact name.
- The account had my exact profile picture.
If you pay attention you can tell if the commenter is the actual author because it will have a little tag next to their name identifying them as such. Also, I am a Friend of Medium so my account has that…
