I know AI is bad but check out this Kagi Assistant report. It will be the only time I'll ever post something like this.
What the live account data showsPulling the account straight from Mastodon's API (rather than relying only on the screenshots) gives a clean picture [1]:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Handle | @[email protected] |
| Display name | Liane Massie |
| Account ID | 116779337766174368 |
| Created | 2026‑06‑19 (shown as "Jun 18") |
| Followers / Following | 11 / 110 |
| Posts | 8 |
| Bot flag | false (self‑declared, meaningless) |
| Profile fields | none |
| Avatar / header alt text | empty |
| App used | "Mastodon for Android" |
That 110‑following / 11‑followers ratio is the signature of a follow‑back spam account, not a person with an audience.
The bio and posts are the tellThe bio — "A woman who believes in kindness, resilience, and continuous growth… meaningful conversations… people who value authenticity and respect…" — is generic LLM‑flavoured filler with zero specifics (no location, job, links, pronouns) [1].
The 8 posts break down as [2]:
- Six boosts of unrelated real users' posts (a Father's Day post from @dansup, a BBC period‑pain article, a Guardian Brexit story, a Warhammer miniature, a Spanish sunset). This is padding to make an otherwise empty timeline look "normal."
- One original text post — the "The older I get, the more I realize that life isn't about having all the answers… kindness costs nothing, honesty matters…" wall of platitudes (4 favs, 1 boost). Textbook AI life‑wisdom copy.
- One unsolicited reply:
@elborro Hey👋 can you put me through.— sent as unlisted, to a real infosec professional, with no preceding conversation.
That last one is the payload. A stranger replying "Hey 👋 can you put me through" to someone they've never spoken to is the standard cold open of a romance / "pig‑butchering" (investment) scam, not normal fediverse behaviour. The generic bio + stock‑looking photo + padding boosts + one weird opener is the exact template.
It's not a lone account — it's a clusterThe following list is the most damning part. Alongside normal accounts, it contains several throwaway/new accounts created in the same window with near‑identical AI bios [3]:
@johnryanwatts(created 2026‑06‑14): "I'm someone who believes in honesty, kindness, hard work, and building meaningful connections with people from all walks of life… life, technology, business, current events, and personal growth."@gregmendo(2026‑06‑29): a dating‑profile bio — "Looking for someone who laughs easily… ready to create our own little adventures together🥰"- Fresh empty shells:
@Guy_489,@hawkmoth,@lastquarter,@ChristWilliam,@sayk— all made within days, most with no posts or no avatar.
Same template, same "kindness/authenticity/meaningful connections" language, same time frame = one operator running a batch of sock‑puppet profiles, not organic users who happen to share a writing style.
Notably, it followed @elborro and @onuSBonus — i.e. it is deliberately scraping and targeting the infosec/tech crowd specifically, which is why it landed on the user's radar.
The individual posts show 0 replies / 0 boosts / 0 favs for the spam replies [2], so the "engagement" the account appears to have isn't coming from real interaction — it's manufactured:
- The 11 followers are almost certainly bot/reciprocal accounts from the same network (the follow‑back farming), not genuine readers.
- The 110 following is the mechanic: mass‑follow real people (like the target) hoping some follow back, which inflates the follower count and gets the bot into timelines.
- The profile screenshot's "Follows you" badge is that mechanic working — it followed first, then replied to open a conversation.
Everything points the same way: this is a fake, AI‑assisted scam profile (likely a "pig‑butchering"/romance‑fraud front), part of a small coordinated network, that mass‑follows infosec people and opens with a nonsensical "can you put me through" DM‑bait line. The stated hypothesis is correct — it's fake, and the "engagement" is synthetic.
Practical handling:
- Don't reply or DM — engaging confirms the account is live and moves it toward a conversation funnel.
- Report it to mastodon.social (report the specific unsolicited reply as spam/harassment, which is more actionable than "this profile looks fake").
- Block it, and check its follower/following list for the sibling accounts (
@johnryanwatts,@gregmendo, the empty shells) and report those too. - Anyone receiving a "what do you do / can you put me through" opener from a generic new account with a stock photo should assume scam and not click any links.
One caveat: the attached screenshots couldn't be inspected pixel‑by‑pixel here, so the image‑specific observations (e.g. the exact banner/avatar content) are based on the account's live media files and the API, which are authoritative for the profile data and post history regardless.
References
