People Break Down The Scariest Things To Happen To Them Online

There's no denying it, the internet is a dangerous place.

Who hasn't fallen down a "rabbit hole" of sorts, where they find themselves clicking one link after another, going from one extraneous website to another.

If this is the worst thing that happens to us on the internet, however, we should consider ourselves lucky.

As some people have found themselves in actual physical danger, all thanks to one ill-advised click.

Redditor Samisweet was curious to hear about people's most dangerous internet experiences, leading them to ask:

"People of reddit, what's the scariest thing that'd happened to you online?"

Always Beware Of Strangers

"This was AOL instant messenger, around 1999 or 2000."

"I accepted a message request from someone whose screen name I didn't recognize."

"I opened the message and the message read that In 10 seconds, my computer was going to get hijacked."

"Around 10 seconds later, the hard disk drive lit and was making all kinds of noise."

"I panicked, turned off and unplugged everything."

"I turned the computer back on later and everything seemed fine."- ay1mao

You Never Know Who You Might Meet

"Out of the blue someone on steam messaged me,'hi [insert full real name]'."

"And a story how he took his time to link a whole bunch of random information and match my interests (steam, reddit, other forums) to figure out who I was, where I was from, what I did."

"This took him weeks apparently."

"Why?"

"Just to tell me how easy it was to track someone down."- tokke

...Thank You?...

"When I was 15, my friends and I went into the deep web and downloaded some PDFs and videos about Python programming, and another bullsh*t things that I can’t remember."

"The files were all empty."

"The next day, my friend (we were using his computer) said his entire workspace had been deleted."

"Three days later, he told us at school that everything on his computer came back."

"And on his desktop wallpaper, there was a message:"

“'We checked your whole computer'."

"'You seem like a nice guy, just trying to learn Python'."

"Here’s the material."

"Be more careful when using the dark web”

"And all the missing files were placed on his desktop."- Libertadores_

Data Coding GIF by DataCamp Giphy

Careful, The Things You Post

"I was ACTIVELY stalked by a guy on all imaginable social media when I was 18, at some point I even thought he would show up at my door and hurt me."

"He would make random people (girls too) message me and tell that he's around my area and that I must meet up with him immediately if I don't want any trouble."

"I had to delete all my socials and become a literal recluse to escape his a**."- pubic_hair_cake

ALWAYS SAVE! (...And Avoid Pirated Videos...)

"WannaCry."

"Lost all my data."

"All my self-made music, all photos of activities with friends and family of over 10 years."

"All my uni stuff, including my thesis."

"I was too naive back then and watched a bunch of TV shows online (mostly because I wanted them in English, not the shoddy German dubs), and used various sites for that with way too little protection."

"Did this for years, and then one day, one of the damn ads they showed immediately hit me with WannaCry."

"I took ~5-10s to realize what happened and yank the cord, but it was too late."

"I was fairly certain that I had burned some of that stuff on some CDs at one point, but wasn't able to find anything."

"One day, after I moved I finally took a weekend to sift through the hundreds of CDs I amassed through the years to finally clean them out."

"Most weren't even in a case, just stacked raw and in a box."

"When I had yet another stack of ~30 in my hands, inspecting for labeling and looking on the underside if anything was written on it, there was this one completely unlabeled one, filled roughly 3/4."

"Something in me told me to slide it in to check, and I cried for probably half an hour."

"It was almost ALL my photos and music I've been missing for years!"

"That was honestly one of the happiest days of my life."

"Found my uni stuff as well in that box."

"I now have two NAS each with mirroring storage and the NASs mirroring each other, as well as a third copy on my PC, and a USB drive I should probably update soon."

"Make backups, people!"- Medium9

Doesn't Work On Everybody..

"Someone tried to blackmail me."

"I told them go ahead, I have no modesty."- Furious_Belch

I Dont Care Who Cares GIF by LookHUMAN Giphy

Number 1 Fan...

"Back in the day, I had a stalker who would follow me on different social media and would make new accounts whenever I blocked her."

"We never met in person except in passing."

"When I was in marching band she'd be in the stands and shout my name to try to get my attention."

"She kept stalking me until I was like 23."- SemiHemiDemiDumb

And They Thought It Was Only A Game...

"Getting doxxed over Minecraft."- Toru4

Parental Control Exists For A Reason!

"Unfiltered internet access as a kid led a grown man I did not know coming to find me."

"I did not give him my address, but he showed up to the house next door and asked for me by my full f*cking name."

"They did not redirect him to my house, but told my parents the next day, and I got in big trouble."

"Glad I got in trouble instead of getting taken."

"I was like, 12 or 13."- peachysdollies

Doom Patrol Hbomax GIF by Max Giphy

Gone In A Flash

"When my online bank account got hacked. In just a seconds, everything was gone, my savings, my peace of mind, all wiped out before I could even react."- urasianbella

SCAM ALERT!

"I once got an email sent from my own email that someone has my password."

"They even wrote the password in the email of the email, saying has access to all my contacts and social media and that has made a compilation of the porn I watched while masturbating and it'll be send to everyone if I tell the police or anyone, he/she/they whoever wanted some chunk of BTC to be sent in a crypto wallet address."

"I panicked and later on I found out it's some sort of a scam."- SubjectLoose8766

Taking Bad Bosses To A Whole New Level...

"I used to be Admin of Minecraft server."

"Owner owned a HUGE ddosing site."

"It's shut down by the FBI already."

"But when I left the server and resigned as an Admin."

"The owner got all my personal info and was mailing home threats to me."

"He also ddos'ed me offline for 3 months straight."

"Nothing happened since."- flakzpyro

Not Everyone Takes To Criticism...

"I commented on a car's thread and said something was mid trim level, and the guy went off on me."

"Saying how I could never afford an $110k car and how I should stay in the kitchen where I belonged."

"He took it a step forward a couple hours later and said that I shouldn’t be talking about cars and things I didn’t know about and how I should be watching my two children (he named their names)."

"He then messaged me a street view of my house."

"Went to the cops, started a case, got a restraining order against him."- kkleigh90

Always Pick A Public Meeting Place...

"I am a University professor."

"I met someone off of here and we hit it off pretty quickly."

"She seemed a little too eager for the wrong reasons, so I tried to end things."

"I never gave her any of my personal information."

"She showed up at my lecture."- Equivalent8314

Viruses Have A Way Of Sneaking Up On You...

"Back in the early 00’s, I was running Windows XP and Zone Alarm security suite, which was a firewall/traffic monitor."

"I had an external HDD with everything on it."

"Music, personal information, banking stuff, home pictures, and video."

" It was my catch-all."

"Anyways, one day I’m chilling there and I notice my out traffic spike through the roof."

"I wasn’t doing anything to trigger that, and I panicked."

"Started digging in and couldn’t find which program was causing it."

"Disabled my Ethernet port, and it instantly stopped."

"Plugged it back in and within a minute it came back."

"Unplugged my external drive, and it stopped again."

"Took my computer offline for several hours while I dug in."

"I had a Trojan backdoor virus which was dumping all of my data from my E:."

"I don’t know what or how much they got before I interrupted it, but I reformatted and put up additional safeguards after that."

"Thank God I had ZA installed or I would have never even known."

"I would like to add that I had a very reputable Anti-Virus installed with updated definitions, not Mcafee or Norton."

"As well as Spybot S&D."

"Don’t know when or how I got infected with the TH."- ohpickanametheysaid

Quarantine Virus GIF by Feliks Tomasz Konczakowski Giphy

It seems like people spend more time on the internet these days than off of it.

And there's no harm in a bit of surfing every now and then.

Just always remember, a password can only offer so much protection.

And if a link looks suspicious, don't let your curiosity get the better of you...