This is going to sound a little strange, but hear me out.
About 2 months ago I was backpacking America- hitchhiking, camping, hiking the national parks etc.
Well, in California I was passing through this campsite by myself and this strange man drives up to me and stops his car alongside me. He looked about 40 or something. He says I'm beautiful and would like to take me on a date.
Well obviously I'm freaked out and just want to get away, so I politely say 'thanks but I'm not interested' or something like that, and begin walking away. He drives alongside me for a while, asking things like 'where are you going?' and 'do you need a ride?' I turn him down each time and don't answer his questions but I'm starting to get pretty concerned about my safety. I have pepper spray in my pocket and I've got my hand on it just in case.
The questions continue for a few minutes as this guy hounds me, and eventually he gives up and just says 'can I at least have a photo of you, please? It's not every day I see a girl like you backpacking the states by herself.'
Now, I'll admit I was stupid in this situation. I should have said 'no' and run away but I was feeling intimidated and frightened and I thought that an innocent photo was a small price to pay to appease this creep and get away from him- so I agreed. I frequently had my photo taken whilst i was travelling, so it wasn't exactly an unheard of request. What harm can a photo do?- was my mentality in the few seconds I had to respond to the request. I stood there awkwardly and let him take a picture on his phone from his car. Afterwards, I just got away as fast as I could. It was dumb to allow him to do it- but I was panicky and alone and I was afraid of pissing the guy off...
2 months later, I'm back home, and yesterday I had a friend request on facebook from this creep. He didn't know my name, my country of origin (I have an Australian accent but I live in England, so the accent would've thrown him), he knew nothing about me except for that one picture. How could he have found me? I was even wearing a baseball cap, no makeup and my hair tucked away when he took the picture- so I didn't even look like myself and especially nothing like how I look in my fb profile picture.
I'm just really baffled and a little disturbed by this. He must have somehow used the photo to trace me but I'm wondering how that's possible when I literally could've been anybody in the world?
I'm not naive, I know that by putting information about myself on facebook, I'll be made public to the world and anybody could find me- but this just seems so insane. He found me through some blurry picture that doesn't really look like me and nothing else? Not even my first name? It seems sketchy, and I'm just looking for somebody to explain how he could've managed it?
I know I was stupid for letting him take the photo, so I'd really appreciate if people didn't lecture me in that regard. It was a frightened mistake I made in the hopes that it would make him happy and send him on his way, leaving me unscathed.
Put the internet to work for you.
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