Latest news with #4Chan
Metro
12-05-2025
- Metro
After 10 years we unmasked our mystery stalker - we couldn't believe who it was
Madison Conradis was idly flicking through Facebook on her phone in bed one morning when she received a chilling message. An old high school acquaintance that she hadn't heard from in years had got in touch to ask whether she knew nude images of her were being posted online. Shocked, Madison asked for more information and the contact, who admitted to being embarrassed about knowing where the content could be found, signposted her to 4Chan and similar websites where women's images were posted against their knowledge or consent and with information about their names, work and whereabouts. 'It was the first time I realised websites like that even existed,' Madison tells Metro over Zoom from her home in Florida. 'It was scary. I had no idea where the pictures were posted or who was doing it. In my opinion it was worse than pornography sites, because it was alongside illegal stuff, such as non-consensual porn, child sexual abuse images, invitations to harass women and images of dead people. 'I was looking through revenge porn and harassment forums to try and find the images and there were things there that I saw that I don't ever want to see again,' adds Madison, who works in marketing. Eventually, she found two images from a photographer's proof gallery that had been taken six years before at a modelling shoot when she was 19. To this day, she doesn't know how the images were obtained – whether there was hacking or a software malfunction. 'When I found the photographs, I had that sick feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach. The anonymity of it was distressing. If I had known who was doing it, it would have been bad enough, but not knowing who was trying to harm me was the scariest part of it,' she remembers. Alarmingly, the poster had written alongside the pictures: 'Here is Madison. Here is her social media, her address, and her phone number. Go: Harass her.' After her initial shock, Madison, now 36, called her twin sister Christine before deciding to ignore the post, expecting it to fizzle out. But it didn't. She started seeing several posts on various seedy websites across a few hours, which would ramp up to hundreds daily. Some photos were sent to her dad's Instagram page, others to her clients' addresses and former work contacts. If you googled Madison's name, the image would be the first thing that popped up. 'It was terrifying. I didn't know who it was. It could have been anyone: a family member, a friend, the person walking behind me, a receptionist at the dentist's office… I had no idea,' she says. Madison is currently sharing her story on The Girlfriends: Spotlight, a podcast from Novel, where she recalls: 'I had a recurring nightmare where a masked person with a hood in all black was hovering over me. I couldn't see their face. It was so realistic, and I would often wake up in the night, jump out of bed and scream. It was because of the person harassing me, stalking me and not knowing who it was.' Unbelievably, the poster started requesting more images as Facebook users registered under fake names, even sending her direct messages demanding that she send new, explicit photos, or else they would further spread the already leaked photos. She changed her phone number, email address and deleted most of her social media, and occasionally things would quieten down. 'For a long time, I was second-guessing everyone around me. It really affected my trust in people,' Madison tells Metro. It was years before she went to the police because she assumed the poster would get bored and move on, but Madison also knew the police may be unable or unwilling to do anything about it, and she was proven correct. When she did make a complaint police told Madison they couldn't do anything. However, her sister Christine, a lawyer, was furious and went back to the police station with Madison to file a report. They opened a file, but nothing happened. '[Sextortion] was a fairly new crime at that time. It was just starting to be codified in police law. Education for police officers wasn't great at the beginning. They had bigger fish to fry, and that's probably why we didn't have much luck,' Christine tells Metro from her home in Florida. In 2015, Christine also fell victim to the anonymous poster when professional images from a boudoir shoot that she had sent to her husband were put on the internet, along with her name. With the police case seeming to go nowhere, the sisters decided to turn detective themselves and start their own investigation with the meticulously collected evidence and digital logs gathered since the first post a decade before. They set up a digital breadcrumb map, similar to a pinboard murder map seen on crime shows, examining all the clues and evidence they had from their stalker. Among them was a strange way of typing using spaces between ellipses. Examining his posts, they also discovered he had other victims, one of whom had been disturbingly posted in her catholic school uniform. 'There were posts soliciting someone to rape her. We zoomed in on the photograph, and Christine's husband Dana helped them sharpen the photo. He could read the school location. It was terrifying. If we could find her, any creep on the internet could,' Madison tells the podcast. Then they found a connection; all the women had a Facebook friend in common: Chris Buonocore, a former college friend of Dana's. And further evidence came when Madison went on holiday to the Florida Keys in 2016, and she posted a picture on her Snapchat showing nothing more than a beachfront sunset. 'Almost immediately, I looked down and had an anonymous message saying: 'That's a beautiful sunset that you just saw.' I knew the only place I had posted it was Snapchat – only 39 people had seen it,' she remembers. The last person who saw the post was Chris Buonocore, a fraternity brother of Christine's husband who had been to their wedding. Following almost a decade of paranoia and extortion, they had found the culprit. 'It was really shocking, but eventually made sense. He was an outcast, a little weird and creepy,' Christine tells Metro. 'There was relief to finally put a face and a name to it. It was like a huge weight off my shoulders,' adds Madison. 'I could trust people again. And I was weirdly excited; we had worked so hard, countless sleepless nights working 'til 3am working on this stuff.' They had enough evidence to take him to court and press charges. In court, documents showed that, over a seven-year period, Buonocore used fictitious phone numbers, text messages, and social media accounts to harass, intimidate, cyberstalk, and attempt to extort six women, including a minor. 'I felt very emotional. Having to speak in court about the impact of his actions was scary, and to think one judge could decide the fate of what you have worked so hard to do – put him in prison,' Madison tells Metro. The judge was on their side and sentenced Buonocore to 15 years in a federal prison. His harassment campaign had involved posting thousands of sexually explicit and nude images of the victims to the internet, as well as the victims' personal identifying information, including phone numbers, addresses, and social media account identifiers. More Trending Buonocore also solicited individuals on the internet to contact and harass the victims, including, at times, enlisting those individuals to attempt to extort additional sexually explicit images from the victims and other times encouraging these individuals to rape a victim. Seeing her stalker go to prison marked the end of years of stress for Madison, which had taken its toll on her career, relationships and physical and emotional health. 'You have ups and downs of depression, and physically I had major health problems due to high cortisol, a stress hormone,' she explains. 'I wasn't sleeping well, I was stressed, burnt out and suffering from nightmares for a long time.' And to this day, Madison still doesn't understand what motivated Buonocore to commit such a heinous crime: 'Some people are just sick in the head. A criminal is a criminal, I guess.' ● From Novel and iHeartPodcasts, Madison and Christine tell their story on The Girlfriends on 12 May, available wherever you get your podcasts. MORE: We're living every parent's worst nightmare after bullies left our daughter suicidal MORE: 'When my mum took her own life I discovered her secret battle' MORE: My 'best man' was a woman – my male friends were shocked
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Yahoo
Kidnapped US pastor Josh Sullivan rescued in South Africa - and 'miraculously unharmed' in deadly shootout
An American pastor abducted by armed men in South Africa has been rescued - and was "miraculously unharmed" in a deadly shootout. Josh Sullivan, who is originally from Tennessee, was kidnapped by four men as he was delivering a sermon to a church congregation in Eastern Cape province last Thursday. The gang stole two mobile phones from worshippers, seized Mr Sullivan from the pulpit, and drove the pastor away using his own pick-up truck. Officials said the Toyota Fortuner was found abandoned a few hours later, and a multi-agency taskforce launched an urgent investigation to find the 45-year-old. By Tuesday night, detectives suspected Mr Sullivan was being held at a house about a 20-minute drive away from the church where he was taken. A shootout began when suspects in a car parked outside fired at officers - and three unidentified men were killed. "The victim was found inside the same vehicle from which the suspects had launched their attack," a police statement added. Lt Col Avele Fumba said Mr Sullivan was "miraculously unharmed" and found to be in an "excellent condition" after being assessed by medics. Read more world news:Peru's ex-president jailed for 15 yearsIs this the end of the notorious 4Chan forum?Protesters tasered at pro-Trump town hall The missionary had been based at the Motherwell branch of the Fellowship Baptist church since 2018. Mr Sullivan has a wife and two children - and has now been reunited with his family. Police data shows the number of kidnappings across South Africa has surged by 264% over the past decade.
Sky News
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Is this the end of notorious 4Chan internet forum?
4Chan, an online forum notorious for its extreme right-wing content, appears to have been hacked - in a development some believe could spell the end of the controversial messageboard. The concept of 4Chan is simple: anonymous users share pictures and text in forums. Moderators monitor conversations, but the forum is infamous as a place for gory videos, non-consensual pornography and extremist views. The website got mainstream attention in 2014 during Gamergate - a harassment campaign against women in gaming that resulted in bomb threats, death threats and women fleeing their homes. The harassment spread on 4Chan before the discussions were banned and moved to other similar message boards. On Monday, a message appeared on parts of the site with the words: "U GOT HACKED", according to Wired magazine. As the website went down, reports began circulating saying the hackers were a rival internet faction and were releasing the personal details of moderators. "What we're seeing looks like a classic case of cybercriminals turning on each other - a digital turf war," Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point, told Sky News. "This isn't new. Just as organised crime groups fight for ownership, power, and control in the real world, online gangs splinter, clash, and compete for status and influence." 1:22 Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybercrime monitoring company Hudson Rock, said the claim of a hack "looks legit" and cited screenshots purporting to show 4chan's backend infrastructure. "What makes this dangerous is that these internal battles can be just as disruptive as external hacks," said Mr Stewart. "When a splinter group goes rogue, it's not just reputation at risk - credentials, communication logs, and access to systems can all be thrown into the fire." The fact that people's identities are reportedly being leaked could be a particular concern for 4Chan moderators. Emiliano De Cristofaro, a computer science and engineering professor at UC Riverside, told Wired: "There might be some 'high profile' users exposed as moderators - traditionally, 4chan users hate them, so they might be targeted." Although the site appears to be slowly and stutteringly coming back online, it may have suffered fatal damage, according to Mr De Cristofaro. "It might be hard or at least painfully slow and costly for 4chan to recover from this, so we might really see the end of 4chan as we know it," he said.
Express Tribune
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Is Elon Musk secretly posting on 4Chan as ‘The Antichrist'?
A massive data breach at 4Chan has sparked online speculation that tech billionaire Elon Musk may have secretly used the site under the pseudonym 'The Antichrist.' The anonymous message board, known for its provocative and often extremist content, was recently hacked, leading to the leak of its source code, administrative data, and user emails. A post on the subreddit r/LeaksandRumors has sparked claims that Musk may be behind a long-running 4Chan account known as 'The Antichrist.' The account has posted content aligning with tech evangelism and far-right politics, often using cryptic language like 'You use my tech every day' and 'This is what happens when a billionaire reads Revelation and builds rockets.' It also once claimed to be testing popularity without using Musk's name through a 'smurf account.' The theory took a darker turn due to several antisemitic and white supremacist posts allegedly made by the account, including disturbing statements like 'Hitler was the beta version. I am the release candidate,' and 'Without the white man, there would be no first world.' These posts have led many to believe the account was designed to provoke — or possibly impersonate — someone high profile like Musk. Despite the viral speculation, We Got This Covered emphasises there is no direct evidence linking Musk to the account. While the billionaire has previously referenced 4Chan culture and memes, the platform's long-standing history of trolling makes it more likely that the user was deliberately baiting attention. For now, the theory remains speculative and firmly within internet conspiracy circles. Musk and his representatives have not issued any public comment regarding the matter.
Express Tribune
15-04-2025
- Express Tribune
Thousands report 4Chan down, speculation over leaked data and suspected hack
Thousands of users reported outages on 4Chan as the controversial site went offline early Tuesday, with reports suggesting hackers may have leaked internal emails, chat logs and even the full database. Controversial message board 4Chan is experiencing a widespread outage, with Downdetector receiving over 1,200 complaints by 4 a.m. ET. Users across the United States and the United Kingdom reported being unable to access the site, prompting panic online. Speculation of a major hack began circulating on social media soon after, with some users claiming that hackers had "dumped the entire database." Others alleged that lead admin and janitor emails, contact information, and chat logs had been leaked. One user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, 'Emails and contact info leaked,' while another raised concerns that if the site's source code has been compromised, it could result in unrestricted access to user IP addresses. The incident has sparked renewed attention on 4Chan's security infrastructure. 'Badly formatted – bring back Moot!' one user quipped, referencing Christopher Poole, the site's original founder who left in 2015. Others blamed outdated software for leaving vulnerabilities open to exploitation. Downdetector data shows 71% of reported issues relate directly to the website, with continuing updates indicating the problem is ongoing. The platform has long been at the centre of online controversies, including the 2014 leak of intimate celebrity photos, known widely as "The Fappening," which included images of actress Jennifer Lawrence. There is no official word from 4Chan's administrators at this time. Users are being advised to monitor trusted sources for updates.
