The wall
Stories, in their own words
Every account here was shared by someone who has been through it. Read them to feel less alone, or to recognize the warning signs before they reach you.
A fake PS1 game download installed malware and cost me my Steam account
“I got hacked! A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to download a PS1 game to play through an emulator. I've been doing…”
I lent my phone hotspot to a stranger at the airport
“I was sitting at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali, just killing time before my flight back. This guy walks up to me pretty…”
A fake alert inside my crypto app cost me $28,000
“I'm still reeling from this, but I need to get the story out there because it’s honestly terrifying how easily it…”
One dodgy download and someone was in my accounts by morning
“I’ll just come out and say it: I’m an idiot. I downloaded a file I knew was dodgy, and the internet gods punished me…”
My friend found a Facebook page full of AI deepfakes of her
“last night, i woke up to my friend spam calling me, and when i answered, i immediately heard sobs from the other side.…”
I pirated a game and my PC started opening PowerShell on its own
“Last week I tried to download a pirated game. Shortly after, my Discord account got hacked but I caught it immediately.…”
I clicked a fake Fair Work email and my account emailed our suppliers
“Honestly, I still feel like a total muppet over this. I was the restaurant manager of a massive buffet in Sydney CBD.…”
My data was in the Qantas breach and I was too embarrassed to ask
“I was just informed by our cyber team that my data is part of the Qantas breach. I honestly have no idea what to do or…”
My retired uncle sent 1.5 million shillings to a woman who did not exist
“My uncle just retired from customs and this still hurts to think about because he’s not even someone who uses the…”
A game mod from Discord turned my PC into a spam machine
“This one still messes with me because it started with something that felt harmless. I joined a random Discord server…”
Someone posted to my Instagram even though I had 2FA on
“I'm writing this to explain an incident that happened today morning. I live in India. I had my 2FA enabled on my insta…”
Ransomware locked our clinic out of every patient chart
“I am a doctor for a non-profit clinic. I remember sitting in my office at 3AM in the morning not knowing what to do…”
My mortgage was denied because someone else is living as me
“I’m posting this here because I don’t know where else to go. I just got denied for a mortgage because of a "delinquent…”
A video call on Snapchat became a $500 blackmail demand
“i’m literally shaking right now. i met this girl on bumble and we moved to snapchat and things got... heated. we did a…”