Online attacks · Online shaming · Leaked data · Threats
Are you being exposed online? You do not have to face it alone.
Anonymous groups and accounts run real hate campaigns: they post photos, defamatory accusations and personal data, look for the addresses of families and threaten relatives. Here you can find out how to recognise this organised harassment, what to do right away and who to turn to.
For people living in Italy and Switzerland
Choose your situation
- 01I am being shamed onlineChannels and groups expose you to contempt with photos, insults and false accusations.
- 02My personal data has been leakedAddress, phone number, family members or documents published to expose you (doxxing).
- 03I or my family are being threatenedMessages or calls with threats of violence, including against your relatives.
- 04Intimate images are being shared or threatened to be sharedIntimate photos or videos, real or fake, attributed to you.
- 05Someone is using my nameFake profiles in your name, or your name used to accuse others.
- 06My website, my accounts or my phone are under attackThreats to take the site down, stolen accounts, a phone being spied on.
How they work
Online harassment campaigns look alike. If you recognise more than one of these signs, it is probably not an isolated quarrel but an organised attack.
- Shaming channels
- Groups and channels with your name or your photo, where images, videos and insults appear. They often target several people with the same pattern.
- Defamatory accusations
- They pick the most serious accusations, such as sexual offences or offences against minors, because these isolate the victim and push others not to defend them. A repeated accusation is not proof.
- Personal data
- They circulate documents with names, numbers and family ties, often full of mistakes. They say they already have the address or have asked some service for it.
- Threats to family members
- When the victim does not give in, they move on to relatives: messages to the mother or siblings, threats of violence, calls from foreign numbers.
- Throwaway identities
- New accounts, names that keep changing, foreign or virtual numbers. They talk about VPNs and hacking to look untouchable.
- Other people’s names
- They present themselves under someone else’s name, often that of a previous victim, so that the complaint ends up against an innocent person.
- Intimate images
- They share, or threaten to share, intimate images, real or manipulated, attributed to the victim.
The first 48 hours
What to do right away
Make sure people are safe
If there are threats of violence, warn the family members involved and go to the police today. Screenshots of the threats are enough.
Stop replying, but do not delete anything
Every reply feeds them and can make it look like a quarrel between two sides. Mute chats instead of deleting them, and do not block anyone until you have saved everything.
Keep the evidence
On Telegram Desktop, export the chats in JSON format: the file contains the numeric ID of the accounts, which does not change when the name or username changes. Take screenshots with the date and time visible and save the links to the channels.
Report to the platform
Report messages, accounts and channels from the app. Save the evidence first: once the content is removed it may disappear.
File a complaint
In Italy, with the Polizia Postale (the Italian cybercrime police) or any Polizia or Carabinieri station; in Switzerland, with the cantonal police. You can file a complaint even if you do not know who they are: only the authorities can ask platforms and operators for the data behind an account. Some offences have deadlines (for defamation in Italy, as a rule 3 months), so do not wait.
Block the spread of intimate images
StopNCII creates a digital fingerprint of the images without uploading them, and participating platforms block them. In Italy, if you fear they will be shared, you can make a preventive report to the Garante Privacy (the Italian data protection authority). If the material involves minors, do not forward it to anyone: report it only to the Polizia Postale.
Protect your accounts
Turn on two-step verification everywhere, hide your phone number on Telegram and WhatsApp, make your profiles private for a few weeks and check what comes up when you search for your name.
Ask for help
Lawyers, IT experts and psychologists at associations help for free or at a reduced cost. Being the target of online shaming takes a toll: talking to someone is part of the defence.
A log that is actually useful
Example of an evidence log (invented data). One row for each piece of evidence, in time order: this is what investigators need.
| # | Date and time | Platform | Account | What it contains | File |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 12.03 22:14 | Telegram | ID 5xxxxxxxxx | Threat to family members | export_chat.json |
| 02 | 12.03 22:31 | Telegram | channel @esempio | Photo with a false accusation | screenshot_02.png |
| 03 | 13.03 01:05 | +00 000 000 0000 | Voice message with a threat | audio_03.opus |
What not to do
So you do not make your position worse
- Do not publish the names of people you think are behind it: they often use other people’s identities, and you risk accusing an innocent person and being reported yourself.
- Do not try to unmask them on your own with search services or traps: evidence gathered this way is rarely worth anything in court.
- Do not pay and do not negotiate: whoever pays once is targeted again.
- Do not forward or repost intimate images, not even to report them.
You are not the only person affected
The same groups target several people. The more victims report, the easier it is for the authorities to link the cases. Tell us what is happening to you: we do not publish anything.