The fake Facebook profile industry
Using a throwaway account to keep things private<p>Last year I was &quot;sex-torted&quot; on Facebook but not by a ring of French criminals. Instead, it was by someone I had chatted with on the internet years ago (while we were both still teenagers)<p>She had recently gotten divorced and contacted me after many years away. We spoke about intimate things (I never shared intimate images, though she did) and were getting closer and closer to each other.<p>She eventually asked me for money to cover an expense for her daughter, but I didn&#x27;t send it fearing I was being scammed. In exchange, she took screengrabs of the most intimate parts of our conversations and shared them to all of my professional contacts via LinkedIn as well as friends , colleagues and family on Facebook.<p>The experience haunts me to this day, I discussed <i>consensual</i> kinky stuff with her and she used this to paint me as a freak and deviant. The only people who understood it were those who had been in a similar situation or those who were in the &quot;lifestyle&quot; as well. Strangely, most of the support I received after the fact were women who have been similarly extorted. Men in my entourage just whispered and snickered.<p>To this day, I still feel shame in certain circles because of what is unsaid. The police have done absolutely nothing even in the face of evidence (reports filed with local police and FBI) but it&#x27;s simply not a priority. Facebook won&#x27;t even pull the posts because no intimate images were actually shared and it doesn&#x27;t technically violate their &quot;guidelines&quot;<p>Net result: I&#x27;ve deleted my social profiles. Every last one of them (and feel better as a result). However, the damage is done and I&#x27;m totally still feeling PTSD as a result of the ordeal.<p>I consider myself very tech savvy (engineer, infosec background, on the internet since the early 90&#x27;s) and able to smell a scam. However, it&#x27;s really really easy to fall victim to something like this. Be careful.