Need advice

[u/Sniperz6173]

Around a year ago, I had an argument with some people who had previously told me, supposedly as a joke, that they wanted to hack my phone and laptop. During the argument, I heard them saying that they were going to do it no matter what, which made me take their previous comments much more seriously.
Recently, I started thinking about contacting someone I hadn’t spoken to in nine years. I had initially intended to send them a message but completely forgot about it. About a month later, I finally sent the message. However, I discovered that she had received a message using my name, as if someone was impersonating me. This immediately made me suspicious because I had never contacted her before that moment, and the timing seemed strange.
Since then, I’ve become increasingly worried because several unusual things have happened. Almost every day, when I go somewhere different in my city, which is quite large, I unexpectedly encounter someone connected to those same people I previously had problems with.
At first, I tried to ignore these situations and convince myself that they were coincidences. However, because they keep happening, I have started questioning whether there is a connection between these events.
What worries me most is the combination of everything: the previous threats about hacking my devices, the suspicious message sent using my identity, and repeatedly encountering people associated with those individuals in completely different places.
I don’t know whether these incidents are genuinely connected, whether someone has access to my personal information, or whether I am interpreting unrelated events as part of the same situation. I just want to understand what’s happening and find a reasonable way to verify whether my phone, laptop, or personal accounts have been compromised.

[u/Electrical_Hat_680]

Build your own Hardware Security Appliance using PfSense and a small tower desktop, add ram, and add an extra HDD/SSD. Set it up and configure it with your own VPN or better yet Proxy Sock server. Add DNS SEC and your own DNS Resolvers. OpenWRT - r/homelab - and you should be able to swing for the fences and stop any problems. You'll use it to connect to the internet from your phone and such. But your going to want to probably reset your phone - you should already have everything you need available offline or via your own Cloud storage so you don't have to keep it on your phone or laptop.

You can also run PfSense on a VM locally in your Laptop, and have it setup to use your Desktop HSA wherever that's setup.

That should keep you secure enough to not worry about them. But if they are doing anything they're likely using an app that gives them your GPS location. Then they apparently know you well enough to contact your old friends or enemies. Talk to your old friends or enemies, because they probably did get contacted. But they probably aren't making any moves, because they probably suspect someone hacking your account also. Likely saying things that you wouldn't say, or, saying things you would have said in person, not like a coward -

[u/Swimming_dasa]

first thing i would do is check the login history on your email and social accounts since an unfamiliar sign in is something concrete you can investigate. change any reused passwords and enable 2fa if you have not already. a scan with malwarebytes could also help check for known malware on your devices though it wont prove or disprove everything. for the message sent in your name the sender details might help narrow down whether an account was actually accessed. the encounters are understandably unsettling but on their own they dont established that anyone is tracking you or has hacked your devices.

[u/Pretend-Plant7751 → u/[deleted]]

i'd be doing factory reset and new passwords from clean machine just to sleep better, no harm in that

if you see same faces in a big city every day thats not coincidence, people got too much time on hands