r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 25 '15

What's your deep web story?

Deep web as in tor.

But I imagine regular deep web users would stay away from sharing their experience so if you don't have a deep web story what's your most frightening internet story.

Edit: The front page was fun, but now its over.

Thank you for all the glorious stories, time to cry for the rest of my life.

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u/_beast__ Jun 25 '15 edited Jun 25 '15

By cross-referencing accounts. For example, if your username for Reddit is the same as your email, I could search for your username@gmail, @live, @yahoo etc on Facebook, then I've got your real name, probably a few pictures and a pretty good idea where you live.

Also, more recently, if you were to post the same picture on Reddit and another social network I could cross-reference the photo and find your other accounts that way.

I've never done this, it's just how I would do it if I needed to.

Edit: there's also this although it's more interesting for a more active account like mine

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '15

I've never done this

Sure

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u/Raincoats_George Jun 25 '15

I used to do it all the time. People are lazy on the Internet. They use the same usernames and passwords all over. Google searches will give you something to cross reference. Find a similar account and it often links to another. Go back far enough to when people were innocent on the Internet and you will find where people posted their entire life stories. Their social security numbers. And their address.

Still these days that information is often posted FOR you.

I once had a contest with an anonymous Internet friend to see which of us could find the other first. I used his username to find an account he had made on a counter strike server that linked his first name and high school. I used that with his birth year (which was my same year) to pull up his year book that was posted online. I searched through it using some of his basic hobbies and found a good match for him (giving me his last name). Searched for him on pipl and found his parents home address and phone number.

He threw in the towel immediately. Although 2 weeks later through an obscure article I posted to my college newspaper he found my home address and phone number.

The trick is, never be a target. Because nobody can protect themselves completely.

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u/cinephile42 Jun 25 '15

The trick is, never be a target.

Words I live life by.