OK, does anyone know whose photos are being taken and spread all over the Fediverse?

I wish I did. Whenever I get a Nicole message it's been a different picture. I've ran all of them through several reverse image search engines but came up with nothing. There's a slight motion blur in the pictures so it's likely they're screenshots of various video calls, which would explain why the reverse image search engines couldn't find the original pictures. Some of the smarter catfish will use this method to evade detection.

I agree, if this comment is true, then this all might be more messed up than I thought. (I also thought it'd be "just" a romance scam)

Yeah, the possibility that this is someone being doxxed is something that’s bothered me as well. I’m not sure what the objective would be, to get the person pictured in trouble with their school/employer? Incite others to call and complain about them? The photos and details given aren’t particularly embarrassing or something that would whip up a mob, which is why most everyone is just confused about it. Maybe I’m missing something obvious.
- Some doxxers will share personal information in a way that looks innocuous even though their intentions are not good, since a portion of the definition of doxxing involves sharing that type of information with malicious intent. Perhap by repeatedly spamming the Fediverse they are hoping that people will unknowingly take their anger out on the person the accounts are impersonating by contacting her workplace.
Same. If this is the case then they seem particularly obsessive given the sheer number of accounts they've made along with their time spent spamming so many members. The workplace mentions could be a means of inviting harassment.

I feel weird for even having to bring this up but to add on to what you said, another member mentioned one of the Nicole accounts posting a picture of a buttplug, and in the reflection there was an old white man who was bald. When this was pointed out, the Nicole account in question deleted the picture.
- So nobody saved a copy of our only lead in this case? Don't servers keep deleted images stored for a while?
The one I got, and blocked, had a gofundme in it.
- I just checked all the ones in my inbox, none of them had a GFM link. Did the GFM have similar details to the spam message?
I'm new to Lemmy. Can I get a quick summary?
- Most likely, you will get the spam message yourself one of those days. Here's one recent example from my reports (reported by myself, lol):
  
  Basically, this has been making the rounds for a while now, and it has become a meme - and a bit of a mystery - here on Lemmy.
Wow that would be crazy! I assumed "Nicole" is a fat neckbeard in a basement somewhere

When did this all start?

bout a month or so as far as i can tell
1-2 months ago? Mine DMs are gone now 😞
The first DM I got was from the beginning of February, but it might have been happening a few days or a week earlier.

What's the link/source of the photo? Any chance it could be one massive IP grabbing scheme?

It might be an AI generated image. If it is, it’s really convincing.

If not for the fact they've used multiple pictures of presumably the same person, I would have guessed it could have been from www.thispersondoesnotexist.com
i hope so or else how terrible would it be to the real Nicole!