I’m 20 now, but it still lingers with me to this day. At 15, I met this community of people on the internet who I found out later we self proclaimed “hackers”. Their community was centered around blackmailing and social engineering rich people for their bitcoin wallets essentially. I met these people through social media, and became friends with them before knowing what I was getting myself into. One of my biggest regrets is letting these people into my life. I was a naive and innocent 15 yr old, with no concept of the extent these people could go with your information.
Once they got my last name, they doxxed me and had all of my personal information including my address, school, and families information. These kids were known to consistently call the SWAT team on people who didn’t follow their orders. I had nothing to offer them, and I did nothing to make them upset. One night they forced me onto a call and told me to get on camera and do inappropriate actions such as expose myself and more. If I didn’t follow these orders, not only did they threaten to SWAT me, sim swap me, but they also threatened to share these videos with people I know irl. I followed their orders, and I guess their hacker friends found out about this, and they also made me get on camera.
This happened about 3-4 times. For the next year, I had no choice but to completely wipe my name off the internet. I still would receive calls and they’d manage to find me.
To this day, I receive some attempt of contact from them. Because of this, at 16, I developed full blown Anorexia, but I also attempted to take my life twice. I lost all of my friends, I distanced myself from family. I completely shut off the world. There are about 3 people who I’ve told about this, I was always too embarrassed and ashamed to tell my family. I remember sneaking to my room during family events, because the guys were threatening me again - so I had to do what they said to do, and go back to family after like nothing ever happened. It was the most traumatic experience I’ve ever had in my life.
I would never wish this on anybody, I continue to live in hiding. They took my innocence away from me, which was something that was never theirs to take.
