Hello everyone, excuse my english. I am writing to tell you my story after a long time, with the hope of being a good testimony for everyone and to seek further reassurance from the staff.
I was scammed ten years ago. I should point out that at the time I did not know this site but I received help from another site in my country that recommended the same steps that you recommend.
In summary, the scam took place on chatroulette, then skype and finally the video shown directly on skype. The scammer (Moroccan) had not added me on Facebook, but from the skype username equal to my real name he found my profile and pasted some of my friends' names into the skype chat. The first thing I did was deactivate my Facebook profile, then he gave me a payment ultimatum (it was the weekend so we had to wait until Monday) but in the days that followed I did some research and under the advice of the site in my country (now closed unfortunately) I blocked all contact with him without ever hearing from him again. I never paid.
To date I have not had any news from my acquaintances, I do not know if he tried to communicate on Facebook with some of my friends (I never had the chance to find out since I no longer had an active profile), but no one contacted me saying they had received anything, nor did I (due to too much shame) warn my friends of this fact.
In the following months, being a paranoid person, I searched (to the best of my ability) for the video on many sites (youtube, dailymotion, blogspot etc), I checked periodically with a fake profile if any suspicious profile with my name appeared on Facebook. I stopped entering the email that was linked to the Skype profile so that it would be automatically deleted (it was not possible to delete it immediately), I did it to be safe, even if in the months immediately after the fact I never received anything (it was probably not visible on Skype and and he never knew about this email). The email linked to the Facebook profile, on the other hand, I do not think he ever discovered it, I never received anything there either but to be safe I modified it and changed the domain after a year. I also put some google alerts with my name, and my name followed by some words that usually serve as titles for the poor victims.
After about a year and a half I wanted definitive confirmation that all this was over and that no one was looking for me anymore so I reactivated my facebook profile with a changed surname, changed url and without a my profile picture, I kept it active for about three months and then deactivated it again. Later I created a new facebook profile with my real name and a photo of myself, I also kept this active for about three months and then deactivated it. I never received any contact from either profile. So I decided that it was all over, I deactivated facebook forever and never came back.
Over time I calmed down and understood that this thing was now behind me. However, in the last few weeks some strange things have happened that have brought back a terrible fear. I would like to talk to you about it to ask your opinion and to understand if they are all coincidences or if my scammer has come back to look for me. You have more experience than me on this and at the moment I am so terrified that my ability to think is affected, and everything brings me back to that bad story.
A few weeks ago I went into the old email (which I no longer use for obvious reasons, but I go in sporadically to do a quick check) with which my Facebook profile was associated and nine months ago I received a request via email from Facebook (
security@facebookmail.com) to reset my password. I must admit I was a little scared. So I reactivated the profile, there was nothing strange, I changed the password and deactivated it again. Before deactivating it I checked the emails associated with the account, I didn't realize I had left the old email, that is, the one I had subsequently modified and changed the domain. So I deleted it and left the modified one on which the request to change the password had arrived.
Since I received this email I started to think about that story, wondering if there could be a connection between things. If the scammer had learned about that email and if he had tried to enter my profile. Rationally I recognize that it is a forced reasoning, if he was aware of that email I think he would have contacted me immediately but I thought I would ask you who are more experienced if this hypothesis is possible.
Furthermore, being paranoid as I told you, I also checked the recovery email of the one to which the Facebook profile is associated; it is a Microsoft email made after that bad story, but in the access activities I found access attempts from different parts of the world: United States, Indonesia, Algeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, South Africa, China and unfortunately also Morocco. Searching on the internet many people have encountered the same problem and I myself have encountered this phenomenon even with other emails that have nothing to do with this bad story. However, anxiety and fear make you lose a bit of lucidity and everything seems magically connected to the scam. Obviously I took measures to remedy the situation, changing my email passwords and activating 2FA.
Finally, one last thing happened that is scaring me to death. My old Facebook account that I had deactivated (after changing the password and activating 2FA) reactivated itself without me knowing anything. Here's how I found out: since the last time I deactivated it, I had saved the link that led to the profile, I periodically pasted it on the internet to make sure it was closed, every time I pasted it a Facebook page opened that reported the words "This content is currently unavailable" confirming that the profile was unreachable because it was deactivated. Yesterday, after having done yet another check with a positive result, from that same page I logged in to Facebook with a fake profile (I wanted to do other checks, yes as I told you I'm very paranoid). Once the login was completed, my old profile appeared, which until a moment ago seemed deactivated. I checked my email and my cell phone, I hadn't received any notification that warned me of my return to the social network, nor authentication codes for access. So I logged in to the old profile, this time I received the 2FA code on my phone and an email notifying me that I had logged in. This last email made me think a lot, because usually Facebook sends a welcome back email when a profile is reactivated, in this case instead I only received an email notifying me of the login, as if the profile had already been reactivated previously, but no email about it has arrived in these days. So I checked my profile and messages, there was nothing strange, everything as before. I checked the devices from which I had logged in and there was nothing strange here either. I changed the password again and deactivated the profile, but now I have a very strong anxiety.
For days now, due to these strange phenomena, I have been thinking back to that story with a bit of fear, so I would like to ask you if:
- The steps I took immediately after the scam were sufficient. Unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to consult your guide, requesting it now would be difficult because I don't remember any useful data to fill out the form. However, I have read you a lot over the years and have always followed your advice. I would like confirmation from you that everything that had to be done to be safe was done well on my part.
- Is it possible that the scammer is requesting a recovery email for my Facebook profile? That email is torturing my brain. I don't think he knew the email associated with the Facebook profile, but perhaps there are systems to discover it that are unknown to me, so I am asking you.
- What could these access attempts (never successful) from all over the world mean, can I rest easy?
- As for the reactivation of the Facebook profile without my consent, which is the thing that scares me the most and makes me doubt that the scammer has returned. Is it possible that the scammer has these computer skills? I can't understand how something like this is possible. Have you ever come across similar cases that then showed a real return of the scammer? If it was really the scammer why behave in this way? If he managed to get into my Facebook does it mean that he also got hold of the associated email (even the phone number), wouldn't it have been obvious to send me a threat through these channels? Now that I think about it, a few days ago I received a call from a French number (which my phone later defined as spam), but these calls have happened to me often over the years (I'm thinking of you too), from all over the world, probably call centers or similar. But in any case why call me, at most he would have written to me, sent me the video and asked for a ransom.
I am truly sorry if I have been long-winded, I wanted to be as precise as possible so that you can understand the situation I am in to receive from you the most correct judgment possible.
This bad story returned in a not very happy period of my life, this perhaps exponentially amplified my fears and altered my capacity for rational thought. In fact, everything seems connected to that story, as if it wanted to torture me. The only thing that calms me a little is the thought that ten years have passed and that it seems truly absurd to return now after all this time. As you advise, I had cut all ties with the scammer and in fact, in ten years I have never received any message or other type of direct communication with him, not even now with these strange events that recently occurred. But all these strange things make me doubt that I have done something wrong, so I ask you if it is all in my head or if I should be worried. Thank you very much for your patience. I am truly sorry if I have been long-winded, I wanted to be as precise as possible so that you can understand the situation I am in to receive from you the most correct judgment possible.
This bad story returned in a not very happy period of my life, this perhaps exponentially amplified my fears and altered my capacity for rational thought. In fact, everything seems connected to that story, as if it wanted to torture me. The only thing that calms me a little is the thought that ten years have passed and that it seems truly absurd to return now after all this time. As you advise, I had cut all ties with the scammer and in fact, in ten years I have never received any message or other type of direct communication with him, not even now with these strange events that recently occurred. But all these strange things make me doubt that I have done something wrong, so I ask you if it is all in my head or if I should be worried. Thank you very much for your patience.
