One of my very dear friends is being impersonated on Reddit in extremely obscene threads, where her personal information is also being shared publicly. As a result, she has been receiving very disturbing and inappropriate calls and messages.
Based on the Reddit accountâs posting history, we were able to identify someone we strongly suspect is behind this. He is someone from her past whom she wants absolutely no contact with. We connected the dots after finding a Reddit post in which the same user asked how he could claim more work hours than he had actually worked in order to get paid more. Given the city and location details we already knew, the post raised serious concerns and helped us identify him as a likely suspect.
I subsequently messaged him from my own account, and, quite coincidentally, my friend received a phone call from him the following morning. While we cannot independently prove that he is behind the Reddit posts, the timing and surrounding circumstances are extremely concerning. We also found a publicly available court case involving him following an arrest, which adds to our concerns about the situation.
We have already filed a complaint with the police. However, we were told that they could not obtain a warrant or take further action unless the content involved nude images or AI-generated explicit imagery. We also contacted the moderators of the subreddit where the posts are appearing, and they said they would look into it. It has now been over 10 days without any meaningful update or resolution. We reported the content to Reddit as well, but that has not led to any apparent action either.
This situation is becoming increasingly distressing and is clearly escalating, particularly because my friendâs personal information is publicly exposed and she is receiving unwanted calls and messages. It is incredibly frustrating to feel that we have exhausted the obvious reporting channels without getting any meaningful help.
At this point, we are unsure what steps to take next to get the impersonation and personal information removed, protect her privacy and safety, and hold the person responsible accountable through the appropriate channels.