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New Weird LJ Stalking AIM-Bot

  • Feb. 11th, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Yellow Face, Gary Says Alo, Me Blue Shirt, Airplane! Coffee Black, Me Leaning Back, Mozilla Firefox, Simpsonize, Me at the Getty, Grammar, Eric, TAL, More Cowbell
A few months back, I heard about TheGreatHatsby, an AIM-bot which apparently stalked LiveJournal's Latest Posts [Possibly NSFW] page and sent messages to two random LJ users who had recently updated. The bot would start out by saying "I say, old bean, have you seen my hat?" and then send everything one person said to the other, and vice versa... inserting its own screen name in place of the each user's.

Well, just MOMENTS after I made my last post, I got an IM from devourablesalmon. Here's how it went:

devourablesalmon: Hi.
Me: hello?
devourablesalmon: hello
Me: do I know you?
devourablesalmon: who is this?
devourablesalmon: Guess not. Why?
Me: I was just about to ask you the same question. I'm Eric... and you just IMed me, didn't you?
devourablesalmon: No, not to my knowledge
Me: Hmm... that's weird. I've never seen your screen name before, but I got an IM from you 2 minutes ago that just said: "Hi."
devourablesalmon: yeah, that is strange. I've been idle for awhile on AIM now.
Me: A while back, I heard about some random IM-bot that IMs two random people who both have LiveJournals... and sends each person whatever the other person writes
Me: I just moments ago updated my LiveJournal.... so maybe that's it?
Me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheGreatHatsby
devourablesalmon: Wait, how did you know I had a live journal?
Me: I didn't know... I just guessed based on hearing about that Great Hatsby bot
devourablesalmon: ok
Me: I'm guessing we're not even seeing each other's screen names
Me: yours is showing up as devourable-salmon
devourablesalmon: Yours as well
Me: yeah
Me: some people have too much time on their hands!
devourablesalmon: indeed
Me: I'm glad I had heard about that bot a few months back.... otherwise, this would be entirely too creepy. Anyway, nice talking to you... whoever you are.
devourablesalmon: same here :) Later.


Of course, those words weren't from the bot... they were from some other random LiveJournal user. So much for citing my sources, eh? My Academic Writing professor would be very displeased!

Anyway, according to the Riced Out Yugo Hatsby Bot Verifier, devourablesalmon is NOT a Hatsby authorized bot. I guess it's a rogue Hatsby impersonating bot. Seriously? Don't people have other things to do with their time?

  • Mood: amused

Comments

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[info]dan4th wrote:
Feb. 11th, 2008 09:07 pm (UTC)
Ha! I just got a "devourablesalmon" IM as well, and it didn't appear in regular Google search, but did appear in Google Blog Search. Lookit you being all ahead of the curve.

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[info]derspatchel wrote:
Feb. 11th, 2008 09:22 pm (UTC)
Oh, nifty, it's the AIM equivalent of setting up a three-way call between you and two unwitting participants (preferably competing businessess) and letting them talk to each other in an attempt to suss out who the hell called whom and why.
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[info]sloopyla wrote:
Feb. 11th, 2008 09:51 pm (UTC)
you are so lucky.

maybe it's a matchmaker!
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[info]bitterflesh wrote:
Feb. 11th, 2008 09:59 pm (UTC)
Thanks for writing this. I got an IM from DevourableSalmon too. It was quite confusing for a few minutes.
At least it isn't a malicious bot. I got one of those a few months back where they said my private lj entries were published publicly at a link that made my internet browser go crazy.
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[info]rizunotinuse wrote:
Mar. 14th, 2008 11:59 pm (UTC)
Oh, that's what I just got! :D Found this entry via sweet, sweet google. Did it do any lasting harm to your computer/browser? After having ended the process of mine, it seems to be okay...
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[info]bitterflesh wrote:
Mar. 15th, 2008 12:45 am (UTC)
Nothing malicious that I've noticed here on firefox.
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[info]rizunotinuse wrote:
Mar. 15th, 2008 12:56 am (UTC)
Oh, okay, good. <3

I told my friend about it and he IM'd it a few minutes later, and we ended up talking to each other through it. Maybe that means it connects you with someone else based on the next person it talks to? It's amusing anyway, especially if it's not malicious.
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Feb. 12th, 2008 12:17 am (UTC)
Freakish! I just got one as well -- here's the transcript:

2:11:17 AM devourablesalmon: Hey.
2:11:29 AM maradydd: Hi - who's this?
2:11:44 AM devourablesalmon: Aaron. Who is this?
2:12:13 AM maradydd: ...erm, you messaged me, and you don't know who you pinged?
2:12:35 AM devourablesalmon: No I didnt.
2:13:09 AM devourablesalmon: Who are you?
2:14:05 AM maradydd: Wait, so you're saying you received an IM from me? That's pretty bizarre, because I've never seen your screen name prior to three minutes ago.

And that was it; whatever was on the other end didn't respond past that. I passed the other user the link to this post, but didn't get any other response.

I think I shall try eliciting the bot's contact again with wireshark open, just for fun.

Edited at 2008-02-12 12:25 am (UTC)
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[info]agent139 wrote:
Feb. 12th, 2008 06:44 am (UTC)
i'm always harassed by the aim bot "hatticusfinch." it took me a little while to realize it wasn't a caffeine-addled 13 year old, as for a while i used to get a lot of those randomly IMing me.
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[info]covetous wrote:
Feb. 16th, 2008 02:21 am (UTC)
That explains "Sandwornsalmon", huh. Thanks for the info.
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[info]xkesshoux wrote:
Feb. 16th, 2008 02:30 am (UTC)
Just today I received messages with the names "AwkwardSalmon" and "smolderingsalmon". A friend of mine pointed me to the Hatsby bot LJ comm, and I found this entry of yours through Google in a search for AIM bots including the word "salmon". Apparently it, like the Hatsby bot, isn't just limited to one screenname.

I was really weirded out by this, but now that I know what it is I feel kind of silly for overreacting. Glad to have run across this entry!
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[info]dyingscene wrote:
Feb. 16th, 2008 10:24 pm (UTC)
I got it too and Googled the s/n. Thanks for the information. Here's my encounter:

ArmoredSalmon (5:11:47 PM): do i know you?
OMG a l i c e (5:12:15 PM): apparently not. you're not on my list.
ArmoredSalmon (5:12:25 PM): then why did you im me?
OMG a l i c e (5:12:42 PM): copy and paste what i sent? maybe i have a virus.
ArmoredSalmon (5:12:55 PM): ArmoredSalmon (4:17:26 PM): Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free. You are a pirate!
OMG a l i c e (5:13:23 PM): if i sent it, why is your sn in front?
ArmoredSalmon (5:13:51 PM): ...i just send you what it says
ArmoredSalmon (5:14:30 PM): w/e
OMG a l i c e (5:14:33 PM): http://buttercupsmiles.livejournal.com/43706.html
ArmoredSalmon (5:14:34 PM): you got a virus
ArmoredSalmon (5:14:42 PM): and you just send me a link
ArmoredSalmon (5:14:44 PM): enjoy it
OMG a l i c e (5:14:51 PM): yeah of you doing the same thing to other people
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[info]egoiste wrote:
Feb. 17th, 2008 12:06 am (UTC)
HA! I was just a victim of this too. I'm quite sardonic so it didnt go so well.

armoredsalmon 5:55 who are you?
egoistetx 5:55 i am the only gay in the village
ArmoredSalmon 5:56 ok, bye

FYI "I am the only gay in the village" is a reference to Daffyd on Little Britain. Youtube it =]
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[info]soujiro_seta wrote:
Feb. 25th, 2008 01:16 pm (UTC)
I found this by Google search. So that's what Dog-Eared Salmon and Favored Salmon were all about! Dog-Eared Salmon was none too happy to talk with me, and Favored Salmon asked if I was a bot. Now I know why. :) Thanks for this post!
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[info]blankraven wrote:
Feb. 28th, 2008 09:18 am (UTC)
I got "NumerousSalmon."
It said "I do believe you misspelled 'nigger faggot' in your most recent post."
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[info]rizunotinuse wrote:
Mar. 14th, 2008 11:56 pm (UTC)
I just got an IM from "section823areas", that just said, "Your private and friends-only posts have been stolen", and with a link. It hasn't said anything since then, and the link seems to have really screwed up my Firefox. It was okay after I ended its process, but... that's really worrisome. o_o

I searched 'aim livejournal virus', and here's were it brought me. ;_; (I did, actually, just update my journal.) I know it's not the same thing, but maybe there's a connection? Pretty weird, anyway.
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[info]liviapenn wrote:
Apr. 13th, 2008 08:51 am (UTC)

I just got one the other day from "WeaponizedSalmon." The salmon seems to be getting stronger as it goes!
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[info]netsearcher wrote:
Apr. 22nd, 2008 03:27 am (UTC)
Getting them via quirkysalmon - I finally found your entry on a search after the third time it happened.

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[info]jestercard wrote:
May. 8th, 2008 07:59 am (UTC)
I just got sensiblesalmon as a random AIM. I think it's kinda neat myself. Connect two random users. Unfortunately, so far they've all seem quite perturbed instead of wanting to just talk.
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(Anonymous) wrote:
May. 9th, 2008 07:39 am (UTC)
Nice quote

Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?
-- Charlie McCarthy


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