Stormy Weather Ahead

Had an idea I sketched out SO fast, but I'll come back to later. Don't mind how messy it is. Haha. And it could have been worse.... (Spoilers below)

WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO SPOT THEM

okay, I thought I should make this post since there has been an influx of scammers plaguing AO3 comments section and people are falling victims to them. so here it is;

WHAT THEY ARE

so far, there are three main types of these scam bots

bots that tell you AO3 is deleting works, and that you should delete the works yourself because your entire account will be affected if your works get deleted by AO3

bots that tell you your works are terrible

bots that tell you they want to draw comic panels from your works

ALL OF THESE ARE SCAM WITH MALICE INTENTIONS

bots that tell you AO3 is deleting works, and that you should delete the works yourself because your entire account will be affected if your works get deleted by AO3 are just trying to get you to delete your works, most certainly because they want to steal and/or use your works to train their AI and, once you delete your works, it becomes extremely difficult, almost impossible for you to claim ownership of your works when the original works have been deleted. AO3 IS NOT DELETING ANY WORKS.

bots that tell you your works are terrible are also just trying to get you to delete your works, most certainly because they want to steal and/or use your works to train their AI and, once you delete your works, it becomes extremely difficult, almost impossible for you to claim ownership of your works when the original works have been deleted. (more examples here and here)

bots that tell you they want to draw comic panels from your works are trying to hack your password, personal data and credit card information (they will say they see potentials in your work and are interested in drawing comic panels from it, and then they will ask you to discuss this with them on discord where you will have to pay/commission them for the “comics” you will never get, but you will get your password hacked, personal data and credit card information breached and stolen instead, do not fall for them).

HOW TO SPOT THEM

what all these 3 types of bots have in common is that;

most of them (keyword, most, not all) are guest users or empty accounts that have just been recently created.

their comments are all the same copied and pasted scripts that they mass leave on lots of authors’ works at random.

they will ask you to contact them outside of ao3 by giving you their discord, or instagram, or other social media handle.

their comments are all vague, in the sense that there will be no mention of any specific characters’ names, no mention of any specific scenes or events from your works (granted, they need to be vague because they are bots, they never actually read your works, and they have to be able to use the same comments on other writers’ works too).

EDIT: I’ve been told they got “smarter” and are now mentioning characters by names and also specific scenes from the story. Most definitely because they ran your fic through AI and let AI write comments for them. So basically, if a comment, from someone you don’t know, ends in something along the lines of “I’d like to draw a comic panel about this”, “can we chat on discord (or anywhere outside of ao3)” or anything that’d require your email or other personal information, always assume that it’s 90% a scam.

report them for spam then delete their comments when/if you get them.

please spread this if you can. us writers gotta look out for each other. stay safe, everybody ♡

EDIT (Dec 10, 2025): NEW TYPE OF BOTS WHO THREATEN PEOPLE WITH LEGAL ACTIONS

EDIT (Dec 15, 2025): BOTS IMPERSONATING LEGIT USERS, WITH REGISTERED ACCOUNTS, BY USING THESE LEGIT USERS’ AO3 NAMES AS THEIR GUEST-USER NAMES IN THEIR GUEST COMMENTS

EDIT (Dec 22, 2025): BOTS PROMOTING THEIR APP/PROGRAM AND ACTING AS AN AD (WHICH I BELIEVE IS AGAINST AO3’S POLICIES) ON COMMENTS SECTION

EDIT (Jan 16, 2026): BOTS TRYING TO PASS FOR GENUINE COMMENTS BUT FAILING AND ACCIDENTALLY MENTIONING NAMES OF RANDOM CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT PRESENT IN THE FICS OR THE FANDOMS

EDIT (Jan 18,2026): BOTS TRYING TO ACCUSE INNOCENT WRITERS OF USING AI, BY COMMENTING ON OTHER WRITERS' WORKS AND TELLING THESE OTHER WRITERS THAT 'THIS WORK BY THIS SPECIFIC WRITER IS AI'

I'm not sure if I seen any posts going around discussing the recent VERY DETAILED (and honestly kind of poetic in how vitriolic they are) AI generated spambots on AO3.

I feel like I just need to spread the word, because these guys are NASTY. But they aren't real! You can tell that by the fact that they don't mention a fandom, a character, or anything even remotely about the fic itself.