They’re trying really hard to make their AI-plagiarized slop “news” site happen. You’ll see posts linking to primestories24 [dot] com but they’re AI slop regurgitating likely legit news articles. Every “reporter” has some generic profile that is most likely the system prompt used for everything they “write”.

If you see a post to that domain, report it as spam. The accounts all look similar to this:

  • @Bellar36@beehaw.org
  • @Belinda42@lemmy.wtf
  • @tatyana43@piefed.ca
  • @Graham43@sopuli.xyz
  • @Belinda43@fedia.io
  • @belinda35@piefed.social
  • @PrimeStories247@lemmy.ca (First ban-evasion alt)
  • @PrimeStories24@sh.itjust.works (Original account)

This list isn’t comprehensive.

Update: They are now using sockpuppet alts to vote/boost their posts. Just found @Babrah28@ttrpg.network that way and, surprise surprise, it was registered the same time as the latest batch.

Note: Technically the above is violating rule 7 if you consider spambots to be members. I don’t, but if this is a problem, let me know, and I’ll remove that part.

The domain was registered in May of 2026 and is roughly when these accounts started popping up.

   Domain Name: PRIMESTORIES24.COM
   Registry Domain ID: 3105727536_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
   Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.web4africa.net
   Registrar URL: http://hostafrica.com/
   Updated Date: 2026-06-19T10:01:29Z
   Creation Date: 2026-05-31T12:16:00Z
   Registry Expiry Date: 2027-05-31T12:16:00Z
   Registrar: Host Africa (Pty.) Ltd.
   Registrar IANA ID: 664
   Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@web4africa.net
   Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.6465850088
   Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
   Name Server: DAN1.HOST-WW.NET
   Name Server: DAN2.HOST-WW.NET
   DNSSEC: unsigned

Admins, I’m aware Lemmy is severely lacking in moderation capability, but one thing it does have is domain blocking. That prevents posting to those domains and it now seems to prevent links to those domains from federating in.

  • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Wouldn’t be the first to succeed with trash. There used to be a German news aggregator site, shortnews.de, where some asshat was also permanently submitting links to their own site (and somehow the mods let them despite linking to your own sites was not allowed per the site rules), and while shortnews is long gone, that idiot and their trash site actually made a carreer out of it and they are still around :(

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    5 hours ago

    OP, you can pull more WHOIS data from the whois.web4africa.net WHOIS server for that domain. You only did a single-level WHOIS lookup to the North American WHOIS server; whatever WHOIS client you used doesn’t default to recurse.

    The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
    Registrars.
    Domain Name: PRIMESTORIES24.COM
    Registry Domain ID: 3105727536_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
    Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.web4africa.net
    Registrar URL: http://www.web4africa.net/
    Updated Date: 2026-06-19T10:01:30Z
    Creation Date: 2026-05-31T12:16:00Z
    Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2027-05-31T12:16:00Z
    Registrar: Web4Africa Inc.
    Registrar IANA ID: 664
    Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
    Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
    Registrant Name: Olawale Ashorobi
    Registrant Organization: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
    Registrant Street: 32 Glory Drive   
    Registrant City: Port Harcourt
    Registrant State/Province: River State
    Registrant Postal Code: 503101
    Registrant Country: NG
    Registrant Phone: +234.8032156631
    Registrant Phone Ext: 
    Registrant Fax: 
    Registrant Fax Ext: 
    Registrant Email: waleswale13@gmail.com
    Registry Admin ID: Not Available From Registry
    Admin Name: Olawale Ashorobi
    Admin Organization: 
    Admin Street: 32 Glory Drive  
    Admin City: Port Harcourt
    Admin State/Province: River State
    Admin Postal Code: 503101
    Admin Country: NG
    Admin Phone: +234.8032156631
    Admin Phone Ext: 
    Admin Fax: 
    Admin Fax Ext: 
    Admin Email: waleswale13@gmail.com
    Registry Tech ID: Not Available From Registry
    Tech Name: Olawale Ashorobi
    Tech Organization: 
    Tech Street: 32 Glory Drive  
    Tech City: Port Harcourt
    Tech State/Province: River State
    Tech Postal Code: 503101
    Tech Country: NG
    Tech Phone: +234.8032156631
    Tech Phone Ext: 
    Tech Fax: 
    Tech Fax Ext: 
    Tech Email: waleswale13@gmail.com
    Name Server: dan1.host-ww.net
    Name Server: dan2.host-ww.net
    DNSSEC: Unsigned
    Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@web4africa.net
    Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1-646-666-9664
    URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
    

    This does fit with the other material I commented here referencing an “Olawale Israel Ashorobi”.

  • PineRune@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Just in general I’ve noticed an uptick in posts that link to a news article of sorts without having anything else included in the post. Just a clickbait title and a link, likely to draw traffic to their website. I’m getting really sick of finding an interesting post just to be met with a “Subscribe to view article” message instead.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      3 hours ago

      probably the same kind of spammers that also does this on reddit. i was a forum where they have discussing driving traffic through the site by using methods to just spam on multiple threads/instances.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    5 hours ago

    The primestories24.com HTML source and page text contains multiple references to a “ZWadTech” and to a support@zwadtech.net.ng email address.

    Google’s AI Overview on that domain — no idea what data they pull from for it, so I’d take it with a grain of salt:

    ZwadTech (also known as ZwadTech I.T Solutions) is a Nigerian-based digital technology and branding agency. Founded by Olawale Israel Ashorobi, the company specializes in website development, custom software, digital marketing, and corporate branding.

    Core Services

    Web Design & Development: Building business, e-commerce, and organizational websites.
    IT Training & Solutions: Coaching on web development, computer engineering, and digital business creation.
    Corporate Branding: Creating logos and printing custom merchandise such as T-shirts, face caps, and mugs.

    Connect with ZwadTech

    CEO/Founder: Olawale Israel Ashorobi
    Platform Hub: Selar Storefront

    This “Selar Storefront” page also references the same name:

    Your Health is your wealth, like they say without your health in good shape no man can thrive Excellently in his or her career, goals, Profession or Vision… My name is Israel Olawale A. I create and also Sell Ebooks On Health, Motivational & Inspirational contents, self discovery and How To. Whatever makes you a better Person, Encourages you and set you up for a Greater End.

    EDIT: As I said above, I’d be inclined to take the above Google AI summary with a grain of salt. While the Mastodon StoryLands account is directly associated with primestories24, and posts Christian stuff, and there is an Olawale Israel Ashorobi who has a Christian book out, it looks like there are a number of "Olawale Israel"s out there, and I have no idea what sources of information Google AI combined to generate the above; it may be merging multiple people.

    EDIT2: Also, because I kind of feel that it’d only be responsible to mention this if digging up information like this: remember that identities may be real, but that people can also potentially steal identities. Those of you who recall the Nicole saga here…someone apparently was attempting to impersonate a real person, pretending to be a “Nicole”, and then spam many users with direct messages. I understand that some of the admins on the Threadiverse looked into it, and believed that this was an attempt to get users here angry and harassing that person, who was not actually the person sending the messages. While I rather doubt that that is the case here, I’d suggest that going and trying to make this Nigerian guy miserable via attacking him or his stuff may be counterproductive. I’m posting the stuff because it could help filter spam stuff out, not as a call to arms.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    7 hours ago

    You might also consider:

    • @Tracy65@nord.pub
    • @Teresa39@belgae.social
    • tal@lemmy.today
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      7 hours ago

      There were various Reddit automod bots that went after these, but then you had people trying to evade them by using one of the zillions of link shortener sites out there, so then you also have to ban link shorteners or try to resolve all the links (which may be a good idea as well, but saying that it’s a more-complicated problem than initially meets the eye).

      Also, I was banned in a few communities by an automod bot on the Threadiverse, and given that it happened when I posted some comment linking to a number of sites, I assume that one of the URLs must have tripped some automod list, so I’m a little irritable about bots running permabans on blacklisted sites, as users can inadvertently link to them.

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgOP
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      9 hours ago

      URLS, no, but it can disallow specific domains. So it could work against specific spam domains but not against a bunch of accounts spamming, say, a Github repo, unless you want to block links to all of Github which isn’t ideal.

      There’s a list of disallowed domains that can be configured in the admin area. Until relatively recently, it would only prevent users of that instance from posting to them, but somewhat recently it now prevents inbound federation of anything linking to those. If something links to a blocked URL (post, comment, user with that in their bio, etc), Lemmy will reject it.

      I don’t know why more admins don’t look at the spam that gets modded and add the domain to their URL block list other than it being tedious work lol.

      • flamingos-cant (hopepunk arc)@feddit.uk
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        4 hours ago

        URLS, no, but it can disallow specific domains.

        It does work on URLs. The https part gets stipped out because of how the regex is built internally, but you can absolutely block a Github repo. I have a Discord invite link in the feddit.uk one.

        Until relatively recently, it would only prevent users of that instance from posting to them, but somewhat recently it now prevents inbound federation of anything linking to those. If something links to a blocked URL (post, comment, user with that in their bio, etc),

        It always worked on federated content? It was added in response to a Mastodon spam wave (source: I added it).

      • village604@adultswim.fan
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        8 hours ago

        I don’t know why more admins don’t look at the spam that gets modded and add the domain to their URL block list other than it being tedious work lol.

        Seems like scripting that wouldn’t be a super heavy lift.

  • 0ndead@infosec.pub
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    12 hours ago

    Yup, I’ve noticed this over the last few days too. Reported and blocked each account I’ve found.