Did anyone else receive a menacing message in their OSM inbox?

CENTSOARER · 2022-12-02T19:21:15.240Z

Hi guys.

Today, I just received a rather disturbing message in my inbox titled “I’m going after you all” (in Spanish: “Voy por todos”). This message contains some text that writes “I know who you all are, including charqueño” (originally: “Ya sé quienes son, incluyendo charqueño”). Since I live in Mexico, and violence is no game here, I wanted to write this message to the community of OSM in general, since the message is written as it is directed to a group of people.

I am truly sorry for this, I will be happy if it’s just a spam attempt, but as I said, I have to take this seriously. The message was written by a user named UlisesDanielMaciasFlores and I just reported it. The name does not ring a bell to me, I don’t even know what is a “charqueño”, seems like it is a last name. If this is something common in OSM, let me know, also, if anyone received a similar message, please let me know. Thank you for your understanding.

Mateusz_Konieczny · 2022-12-02T19:29:40.548Z

There was a wave of porn scam spam in PMs some time ago.

In general any messaging system will result in some people abusing it - and thanks for reporting this message.

I would suggest to assume that it is a pure trolling, unless you have some indicators (like specific threats mentioning private data that was not made public) that it is a real threat.

CENTSOARER · 2022-12-02T19:36:36.323Z

I guess sometimes they hit the pot with their random messages. I don’t know. This sounds different from what I would expect from a spam bot of porn. Let’s see what else emerges from this.

dcapillae · 2022-12-02T20:05:08.327Z

No responda a esos mensajes y denuncie al usuario. Su cuenta será suspendida rápidamente por los administradores del sitio por enviar contenido no deseado e inapropiado.

No se deje perturbar por esos mensajes, son solo spam. No es algo habitual, pero a veces ocurre. Denuncie y siga a lo suyo. Los administradores lo resolverán de la forma más efectiva.

Mateusz_Konieczny · 2022-12-02T20:51:23.640Z

It can be also trolling by someone trying to get reaction from people.

CENTSOARER · 2022-12-02T20:55:08.881Z

Eso es lo que hice. El uso de la palabra “charqueño” fue algo que tocó un poco cerca. No sé qué significa eso, pero conozco un lugar de cuyo gentilicio podría ser “charqueño”. La verdad fue muy perturbador, pero creo que ya estoy más tranquilo con el asunto.

En fin, muchas gracias por atender este mensaje, gracias por su apoyo.

Mateusz_Konieczny · 2022-12-02T21:59:33.063Z

Well, there are some individuums who as entertainment post detailed threats of violence to random people.

They should be banned from OSM and will be after being reported.

Also, reporting someone through OSM report interface reduces how many PMs they can send.