Reposted: i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?
So I got an IM from what I thought was some random user. The message was this:
"i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?"
The user was thegreathatsby
I messaged the user back when I got home from work that day, where I met with a lot of confusion from the person on the other end. After a few minutes and a screenshot, I figured out what was happening.
The IM I received was from a relay bot. It scours LJ and records the listed AIM names of users. Then, it IMs two users with the message:
"i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?"
Both users see the message as coming from the relay bot (im my case, "thegreathatsby") and when the users respond, they see each other's messages.
Example:
UserA sees this -
thegreathatsby: i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?
UserA: I haven't seen it.
thegreathatsby: Huh? Who is this?
UserA: Um... you messaged me.
thegreathatsby: No I didn't.
UserA: Yes you did. Look.
UserA: thegreathatsby: i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?
thegreathatsby: I've got this... UserA: i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?
UserB sees this -
thegreathatsby: i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?
thegreathatsby: I haven't seen it.
UserB: Huh? Who is this?
thegreathatsby: Um... you messaged me.
UserB: No I didn't.
thegreathatsby: Yes you did. Look.
thegreathatsby: UserB: i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?
UserB: I've got this... thegreathatsby: i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?
The relay bot sends the same message to two users, then translates any entry of "thegreathatsby" (or whatever name it's using) into the other user's name, creating confusion and annoyance between the linked parties.
It took a little while to figure it out, but that's the way it works. I don't yet know who has done this or why, but that's what's happening.
Check the community's userinfo page for a complete bot listing.