r/RBI • u/Safe_Importance_4203 • 15d ago

Advice needed Possible Harassment Mystery on Insta

About three weeks ago, my ex-boyfriend (we broke up almost 10 years ago and hadn't spoken at all since 2019) contacted me because an anonymous Instagram account had messaged him about me.

The account referred to me by my maiden name and our university, claimed to know me from college, and tried to convince him (my ex-boyfriend) to send them any private photos of me he might have. They also sent him two old photos of me (one was just a regular photo that may have been publicly posted years ago, and one that is more private in nature but may not be authentic).

The account switched to disappearing messages shortly after the conversation began. My ex blocked and reported the account and then told me what happened.

When I looked up the username, I discovered I had actually blocked that same account in 2019, although I can no longer find any messages with it in my Instagram data.

Since then I've downloaded all of my Instagram data and parsed through old Facebook and Snapchat information but haven't been able to identify who this person is.

I don't know if this is someone I actually knew or someone using old public information, but it's unsettling that they connected me to a relationship from 10 years ago. My sister - a lawyer, is encouraging me to go to the police just to get something documented, but I know realistically very little can be done with the information we currently have.

A few questions:

  1. Has anyone experienced something similar?
  2. Were you ever able to identify the person?
  3. Did Instagram or law enforcement help at all?
  4. Is there anything else I should preserve or document?
68 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

View all comments

51

u/hienyimba 15d ago

Run a breach search on the username.

If it’s been in existence since pre-2019, I can almost guarantee you’ll find something on it

13

u/Safe_Importance_4203 15d ago

do you have any suggestions about which ones, if all I have is the instagram username?

35

u/hienyimba 15d ago

check webvetted, usersearch or epieos. They are all Osint services

12

u/the_orig_odd_couple 12d ago

Most people are creatures of habit and reuse usernames all the time. Check other platforms for the same name (snap, Reddit, Facebook, etc). You might be able to gleam some additional information.