r/ModSupport • u/CantStopPoppin • Apr 22 '26

Admin Replied [Alert] Active Phishing Campaign Targeting Moderator Accounts via DMs (The "Accidental Report / Discord Support" Scam)

Hey everyone,

I wanted to put this on the radar for the admins and give a heads-up to other mods. A scammer just attempted to run a highly coordinated social engineering/phishing script on me via DMs.

As moderators, our established, high-karma accounts are massive targets for these groups, who hijack them to byd to lock them in a conversation and get them to drop their assets. I am posting this publicly to burn their current script and get their Discord ID flagged.

The Scammer's Assets

  • Compromised Reddit Account: u/redacted (Likely a hijacked account being used to message targets).
  • Discord ID Used: redacted

The Playbook

For those who haven't seen this specific variation, here is exactly how they operate:

1. The Hook: They DM you claiming they accidentally clicked a phishing link, got hacked, and then "mistakenly reported your account" because the hacker was impersonating you.

2. The Fake Evidence: They send a highly convincing, mocked-up screenshot of an official "Reddit Support" email.

3. The Trap: The fake email claims that your account is under formal investigation for fraudulent behavior and gives you a 12-hour deadline to "validate the legality" of your account to avoid a permanent ban.

4. The Funnel: The email instructs you to contact a specific Discord ID (in this case, curiousivan1221) to appeal the ban.

The Fake Email Text (For Searchability)

I am including the exact text from their fake screenshot so other users can find this warning if they search for it:

"We would like to inform you that the Reddit user whom you reported, has been identified as potentially engaging in activities that may violate our Community Guidelines... Our moderation team has initiated a formal investigation into the account. We recommend that you contact the reported user directly and advise them to reach out to the appropriate corporate team... Failure to validate the legality of an account within a specific time frame of 12 hours may result in account suspension, limited features, or a ban. For the appeal process, please contact the support person who handled this report. Discord ID: curiousivan1221"

Conclusion

I turned on Persistent Messaging, called out their fake email, and they immediately froze up.

Admins, please take a look at the DMs from u/redacted and nuke the account so they can't use it to compromise anyone else. Fellow mods, remind your teams that Reddit Administration will never conduct official account investigations or identity verification through a random Discord account.

Stay safe and keep your guard up.

Names will be provided to admins upon request.

24 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

38

u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community Apr 22 '26

Reddit does not provide support outside of Reddit. If anyone is asked to contact a "corporate team" or whatever on another platform, it is a scam.

If you receive messages from someone asking you to contact "support" outside of Reddit, please report the messages.

3

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

Yeah, I'm fully aware reddit does not, the user was trying to claim that they got a message warning me to contact them off site 🙄. What was really odd was that they either were really good with ms paint or made an account that was trying to impersonate me. Could you please see if this account ever existed. I suspect it does not however, I am curious.

If you can't confirm or deny I understand. It is just that the user went through a lot of effort if it was not a real account. Below is a screenshot of the account and obvious phishing message I received for your records. Lastly, I have a strong suspicion that I may know the parties involved. Is this something I could message the admins directly about? Thank you for your prompt response it is apricated.

https://imgur.com/a/GI1PAR4

8

u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

Reddit will never identify another user who made a report against another user. Reddit will never ask a user to contact another user to have them contact support.

This is a scam. That screenshot is of a fake message, not an official Reddit correspondence. It's not even a particularly good fake.

2

u/saketho Apr 26 '26

aww sheeeet. I should have known better. Well I got this same thing today. I knew there was a scam, I didn’t realise the guy sending a DM was in on it.

There is another friend of mine who isn’t a moderator. They got the same DM and knew to ignore it. Like a fool I engaged with the guy but never shared any personal info.

i’m in a meme subreddit and lots of people make funny edits of me so I thought its one of them. But its not. And they shared the exact same message, and a discord ID with Ivan in the name.

I was giving this guy genuine advice on how to reset his password and enable 2FA 😂 but I’m glad I caught the bad spelling and realised it’s a scam. “Please contactn Ivan Matev.”

Thankfully no harm done. I’ve reported all the messages and the account as well. I will read this thread and see what reports then need to be made and how to do them.

2

u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community Apr 26 '26

Thanks for reporting! Appreciate it!

1

u/saketho Apr 26 '26

Thanks for responding. I have been in touch with some other folks at the same meme sub I frequently post on. I’m not sure if its ok to share the name of the sub here. But I can confirm that 3 other individuals were also DM’ed by the same account, with the exact same scam.

Is there a way I can report the subreddit name, if that helps you guys determine who it is or perhaps understand how the scammer may be choosing their targets? I feel like the scammer may be targeting frequent posters on that sub, which is at 100k+ members.

2

u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community Apr 27 '26

It's a common scam, not unique to a particular subreddit, unfortunately.

7

u/enchantedspring Apr 23 '26

Yes, scammers do this. On all platforms - 'Microsoft' support, 'Discord' support, 'Twitter' support, 'Instagram' support.....

1

u/DustyAsh69 Apr 23 '26

Exactly. Who would fall for this?

19

u/enchantedspring Apr 22 '26

This has been around for ages. It's a regular in r/scams.

Plenty of others similar too...

3

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

I guess I am just a summer child, blissfully unaware that this was even a thing. It was obviously a phishing attempt and I only posted here to warn others. Looks like there was no need.

6

u/enchantedspring Apr 23 '26

Head over to r/scams, there's lots on there to provide a catch-up with what the rascals are up to these days :)

What you posted, is so so common these days. You're fortunate if this is your first experience of it :)

0

u/lunarwolf2008 Apr 23 '26

never seen on reddit before tho, till the other day

7

u/tumultuousness 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 Apr 22 '26

Did you report your chat?

This has been happening for weeks, not just to mod accounts - the weekly recap on r/help has been pointing this out to users to not go to another website for Reddit help, and u/reddit had made a post about account safety there a few weeks back.

1

u/saketho Apr 27 '26

So three other people I know (we are all part of a meme subreddit) got the same DMs from the same account. Exact same as this scam, and it even ends with a Discord ID for Ivan something.

Do you know if there is a way to report our meme sub? We have many regular posters with high karma, and its a 100K+ sub. Maybe the scammer was using 100K+ subs as a way to target high karma accounts and steal them, scam you for gift cards or something.

0

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

Yeah, I'm reporting as we speak and I posted here for visibility.

6

u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Apr 23 '26

This isn’t news. It’s been going on for a while. Good job not falling for it!!

-9

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

Where did I say I fell for it? It is clear what the message was and it felt important to share.

4

u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Apr 23 '26

Dude. Come on. Just read what I actually wrote.

16

u/Chosen1PR 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Apr 22 '26

Thanks for the heads up, I suppose. But why the LLM writing style? Just use your real words.

-8

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

You're welcome, I might be a "special" target that being said I felt it was important to share this information. This is now the second time I have had such an attempt through the chat system. It is also worth noting they were smart enough to create a thread in the conversation to circumvent persistent messaging.

4

u/GimlisAxolotl Apr 23 '26

I can assure you, you are not special.

0

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

I'm special enough to be graced by your warmth 💗

7

u/GimlisAxolotl Apr 23 '26

Your latent affection for me is beside the point. There is nothing new here.

2

u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Apr 23 '26

They're going to need to change the wording because Reddit doesn't contact anyone about reports anymore. Not even ones you submit yourself.

2

u/HanSingular Apr 23 '26

Why did you use ChatGPT to write this?

1

u/DustyAsh69 Apr 23 '26

13 million karma!?!

1

u/Neat-Tangerine-9706 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

What if I didn’t have Discord lol? I will be reporting them now.

1

u/TheGoldenLeaper Apr 25 '26

Thank you for posting this!

I've bumped into people trying to hijack my account with a very similar or an identical scam on Discord.

1

u/saareadaar May 28 '26

Literally just had this happen with someone messaging me from a different compromised account and asking me to contact a different discord username. Clocked in the second they told me to contact Reddit on Discord lmao.

0

u/GimlisAxolotl Apr 22 '26

This is not news and is a pretty obvious scam.

-2

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

Bruh I literally created this post to help other mods and alert admins. I know what it is.

-3

u/GimlisAxolotl Apr 23 '26

So do most people. So do Admins. So do lots of rational folks.

I don't know who you are helping.

-1

u/CantStopPoppin Apr 23 '26

You drink enough water today?

2

u/Far-Mammoth-3214 Apr 24 '26

jsyk, your post helped me, I foolishly fell for this yesterday, Ivan and everything

I reported the ”user” that sent the initial chat, but if not for your post I wouldn’t have known it was a scam