Nicoled

someone that they are/were friendly with

The problem I have with this theory is how incredibly stupid it would be for someone to do this to a personal acquaintance. If you're sharing media that's instantly recognizable as private 2 party communication, the person being harassed knows exactly who to report. I know stalkers are a thing but are they really that stupid? Or is prosecution of these things so awful that they operate with little fear of the repercussions? I have a really hard time believing this scenario but maybe that's being naive.

The more likely thing to me would be someone that is fairly tech savvy trying to harass or extort someone. Maybe "Nicole" is someone who clicked a phishing link from a stalker. Maybe she's hated by whoever is behind the spam. It could be almost anything. We don't really have a lot to go on other than whoever it is isn't actually the person in the pictures.

We do know that they actively monitor either the talk about the spam or the attempts to stop the messages since the messages have changed in reaction to attempts to stop it. There was also mention of a picture that was posted and removed somewhere after someone else was spotted in the picture. Who's behind it all and why is still unclear but we know it's more than just bot traffic. If it's an ARG they could find a less annoying way to go about it.