Lessons I learnt from a Cyber-Bully

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LESSONS I LEARNT FROM A CYBER-BULLY 


Though it gives me chills, this account of friendship is quite weird and unique. It was a late summer evening when I had just come back home from my daily jog around Central Park. Ads I entered the house and my FitBit connected to the household Wi-Fi, I received a strange notification on my FriendZone account. It was a friend request from a person name Sally Meyers. This should have been my first clue as I did not know anyone by that name. But, being a socialite by nature, I decided to accept the friend request of this complete stranger.

Lesson #1: Never accept a friend request of someone whom you have never spoken to or even seen

The following day, I received a message:
“Hey! How are you?”
I know that being a socialite means that I need to be more outgoing and extroverted. But, this person was definitely swift in her outspokenness (if I may term it that way). Being a simpleton myself, I replied to it almost instantly.

Lesson #2: Think before you act. Don’t reply to strangers as it could land you in trouble

 At that time, it didn’t seem like I was in for trouble and so I continued my conversation with this complete stranger. She seemed to know the details of some of my friends though they were not virtually mutual friends.
Lesson #3: Most of the time your account can be accessed by others making it easy for them to fish out information about you

 Filled with excitement I believed that I had struck a good friendship with this ‘virtual pen-friend’. We began sharing information with each other and I felt that we were really connecting. However, she always acted mysterious whenever I asked her if I could meet her in person. She would come up with various excuses so that she could dismiss the proposal. Though I did find some of her excuses a bit absurd, out of thoughtfulness, I began to accept all her excuses to be real.
My final clue that Sally could not be trusted came from my colleagues at work. A few weeks after I befriended Sally, some of my friends at work began sending me cryptic messages. I thought of confronting them ask them for some clarity on their recent messages. But, I decided to be silent thinking that if I did confront them, it would just be the revelation of a prank they were trying to play on me.

Lesson #4: If most of your friends’ account are suspected of being victims to hackers then watch out for your own account.

My turn to face the music came exactly a month and a half later. Sally, who I began to trust more than my friends, started demanding a sum of money that would take me years to get. She said that if it was not paid to her, my ‘virtual’ image would be tarnished. She revealed that it was she herself who was responsible for the cryptic messages sent through my colleagues’ accounts. Though I had been trapped by a cyber-bully I learnt my final lesson that put me on guard whenever I surfed the internet then. It is a lesson that I now believe and live.

Lesson #5: The friends you make in reality can be more trustworthy than the friends you make virtually.

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