As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 165 - Internet Creep Stories

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Today, on the 165th episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast, we have 4 True Chilling stories. These stories come from the shadowy corners of reality, where everyday life takes an eerie twist & ordinary people experience the extraordinary. Today we will be diving into some terrifying Internet Creep stories. So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. Have a Story To Submit? ➤ https://www.astheravendreams.com Or Post to the Subreddit ➤ https://reddit.com/r/TheRavensDream Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video. 'As The Raven Dreams' is a community where we explore the darker parts of human existence through true and harrowing stories. From sinister encounters with strangers and stalkers, to terrifying experiences that defy explanation and unsettling mysteries that linger in the shadows, I am here to tell you the most haunting narratives ever whispered. Much Love, and Sleep Well... ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #GlitchInTheMatrix #RedditStories ➤ Stories include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Viewer discretion is always advised. ➤ ALL Audio of this Podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format, without explicit permission ➤ If you like any of the following stories, consider subscribing! - Dark Web horror stories, creepy lets not meet stories, stalker stories, Glitch In The Matrix Stories, Unexplained Horror stories, Paranormal stories, cryptid encounter stories, Crazy ex lover stories, creepy neighbor stories, quantum immortality, true scary stories from reddit, or any other True horror Stories! ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Time Stamps 00:24 ➤ Story 1 15:28 ➤ Story 2 29:48 ➤ Story 3 42:04 ➤ Story 4 One Midroll after story 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're aboard Via Raii, Embarked and profite. Embarque and celebrate. Rigolet. Publiere. Savory. Admire.

And profite. Viarai, the voice that we love that am. If you have a true scary story you'd like to share with the podcast, go to as the ravendreams.com and click the button to send it my way. Also, if the platform you're on

has the option to rate the podcast or leave a comment, please consider doing so. And as always, thank you. Hey, Raven. I'm usually just here to listen to your stories, and I rarely comment, but I was actually listening to some older videos where you mentioned you used to be in IT, and it made me think about an experience I had that I think is worth sharing. It was pretty terrifying for me, and I think it can also be a good lesson or warning for others. Maybe you'll agree. Back in late 2020, early 2021, I had been laid off and was desperately trying to find a new job, as my savings and unemployment were running low.

I work in IT and have for many years, so I was hopeful that with my experience, I would be able to find something pretty quickly. However, I was getting a lot of interviews with no follow-ups, but then I got an email from someone for someone, by the name of Rose Michelle. I got it in my professional email that I only used for work-related stuff. I had it on my resume. I used it on applications, and it was tied to my accounts

like LinkedIn, Snagajab and whatever else was out there. So while I knew that spam could happen, I was feeling like it could be legitimate if they got my email from one of those sites. She said she was a creative director at a boutique, marketing agency based in Chicago. Her profile looked legitimate.

It had over 500 connections, a work history that seemed to check out, and recommendations from other professionals in the industry. No, I didn't do research on all the people and other businesses, but the sheer amount told me that it had to be real. She said in the email that she'd found my portfolio through a mutual connection

and was impressed with my work. She explained that her agency was expanding and looking for remote graphic designers. But because of this and the salary she mentioned, which was almost double what I'd been hoping for, I was hopeful. But I know what some of you might be thinking. It has to be a scam, right? They hadn't even interviewed me yet and were already talking salary. That wasn't something that normally happened in this field. But this felt different.

There seemed to be way too much proof and backup to support this being a real company. They even had a great-looking website with working links that didn't set off any red flags. We had a video interview where she showed me the agency's current projects, and even gave me the names of other team members, saying that they were who I would directly be working with. The office I saw even appeared real. There was a large window to the side, and I could. could see cubicle walls behind her. Even the way Rose

spoke to me about the company and the job, she clearly knew the industry. So after going over some normal interview questions in the job description, she said that she would pass the information onto her hiring manager, who would then reach out for the second

and more formal interview. To my surprise, they called me the next day, and after a normal sounding interview, I was offered the job. I was ecstatic. I thought they do seem to have a decent-sized following already in the fact that they were expanding. I could really show off my skills here, and everything seemed to be turning around for me. That same day, they asked me about payment methods, and I had to sign some paperwork digitally about agreeing to a background check.

They said they would go ahead and start the onboarding process and would just have a talk with me if anything turned up from it. but I knew that it wouldn't. I provided them with my bank information for direct deposits and my address so they could send me the work laptop and whatever else I needed. To my surprise, I received a package two days later that was dropped off at my apartment. There was a pretty simple shipping label on it with my address and name but no tracking numbers, and the return address had the name of a business and an address in Chicago. clearly it had to be my laptop.

I opened it up, and I was honestly surprised to see the shell was scuffed up. It was missing one of the rubber feet on the bottom, and the screen was really dirty. I wondered if maybe it was damaged during shipping, but I couldn't explain why the screen was also dirty. Either way, I booted it up to see if it even worked, and I got the screen that was asking for the BIOS password. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to figure that out, so I emailed Rose asking if I could call, and she called me. I told her about the laptop and its condition. She apologized and said that with their expansion and reorg, they were lending out refurbished laptops from previous employers, and were planning on getting everyone who had a refurb unit a new one the following year.

However, she said that it should have been at least cleaned beforehand, and that she would pass the information along. It made enough sense to me, so I moved on to the bio's password issue, and that's where she seemed confused. She said that I should have received an email with all the login information. While she was on the phone, I scoured my email, even the spam folder, and I didn't have anything. I even checked my personal email just in case, but I didn't get anything. She seemed upset about this and apologized again making a joke about how disorganized they seemed to be.

And she said they were usually much better than this. I told her it was fine and even mentioned how new hire work is always so daunting, so I understood. That's when she suggested a, quote, temporary solution. And she said if I was okay with it, I could install their proprietary design software on my personal computer, while IT got back with us about the laptop. She even offered a $500 bonus on my first paycheck for the inconvenience of having to use my personal equipment. She explained that it would be active by user sessions,

so once I got my work laptop set up, it would be deactivated on my personal system and I could then uninstall it. Looking back, I realized that this was one of the moments I should have known something wasn't right, but once again, the bonus offer in mentioning the one person slash login per session made it seem real. She sent me a professional-looking installer package and walked me through setting it up over video chat. I was nervous about installing unknown software. I'm not a genius when it comes to technical and security stuff.

I know some things, but not enough. I'm better at making your website look pretty. not securing it, if you know what I mean. Anyway, she stayed on the line the entire time, explaining each step. The program looked legitimate, too, with the professional interface and everything. Then she had me speak to one of their IT guys who helped me with the session number and some keys for it. Afterwards, he said that it would take about eight to ten hours to complete the setup, since they still had to activate my ID on their end anyways.

So he said that it should all be ready for me by Monday morning to begin work. This all took place on a Friday. So I left my laptop open and on as he instructed, and finished up my night with dinner, whatever else I did, and then I went to bed. Thinking a lot of my anxiety then was probably just from starting a new job. Sadly, I was completely wrong. And the next day, my entire digital life imploded. I woke up to multiple alerts from financial accounts,

and missed calls from those same banks and financial institutions. The text started as alerts for information being changed on my accounts. There were a few charge alert texts, and when I called the bank, they said that my accounts were completely locked down due to a bunch of risky activity. My address and phone number were changed. There was a request for checks in a new debit card. Tons of changes were being made.

And there was even an application for a credit card and a personal loan. Unfortunately, because of the amount of activity, they couldn't do anything over the phone other than assure me that the accounts would actually remain closed until I went to a local branch with my ID to clear it all up in person. I started getting ready to head to the bank when I saw texts from friends and family too. They were asking me if my accounts, like social media, had been popped. I tried logging in and nothing was working. One of my friends sent pictures of the Facebook, Insta, Snapchat, and even Discord,

where I was posting link after link of crypto scams and other similar things. That's when it hit me. It had to be my laptop. I ran to my office, and my stomach dropped. I thought I was going to be sick. There on my screen was this horrible box that I'd seen in the news, on posts, etc. It was ransomware. They had everything.

Any logins I've ever used? Social media, banking, cloud, any documents like taxes? All of it. Hell, I had sent them a picture of my... my ID, my social security number, and I gave them my bank account information for direct deposit. I tried to contact Rose by phone, but of course the number didn't work. I couldn't log into my email, so I tried finding her or the business on LinkedIn. She didn't exist whatsoever, and neither did the business.

How does a business with hundreds of interactions and connections just disappear? I tried Googling the company and found a very similar one, but the name didn't end in ink, like the one that I had been working with. Now it was making sense. They were trying to look like a real, reputable company, which clearly worked. Just like that, they were gone, and so was all of my money, my security, and my identity. I spent the next week in a nightmare of going to banks, calling places, freezing credit, filing police reports,

and trying to regain control of not just my accounts but my life. I tried taking my computer to both a professional and a friend whom I call a computer genius, and they both told me the same thing. You can try to wipe the computer, but that was about it, because there was no way I was going to give them more of my money. When I filed the police report, the detective that I spoke to,

told me how he had heard very similar situations plenty of times. The person that I spoke to was most likely the most real person there, or the face of the scam. He said they would change up their looks to look completely different from the last person and use a completely different name. He explained how these scammers would install a remote access Trojan, also known as a rat, which gave them complete access to my computer and files.

and when they got what they wanted, would insert ransomware. The one thing he was surprised about was that I actually received a laptop. Unfortunately, whoever dropped it off knocked once, and they were gone by the time I got to the door. I was also living in an apartment, so I didn't have anything like a ring camera to capture anyone. I did bring in the laptop in the box that had came in, and looking at it more made me feel like even more of an idiot.

The shipping label was obviously fake. It was like a copied one, and it had a random number for tracking because it didn't exist. And when we looked up the address for the, quote, company, it went to some FedEx in Chicago. But speaking to someone at the actual company, which wasn't entertaining call on its own, they told me they didn't do anything through FedEx either. The laptop itself looked like it was clear. clearly someone's computer, but was it one of theirs? Was it a victim that was scammed or maybe stolen?

They asked to keep it for evidence, and I didn't hesitate. I honestly didn't want it in my house. My friend wanted me to keep it so he could mess around with it, and while I was curious, I would rather give it to the police if there was any chance that it could help them. He did, however, set expectations, telling me the odds of finding these people were, pretty much zero.

But he was hopeful that they would catch one of them someday. It's been four years now, and I'm still dealing with the ripple effects. I get calls about suspicious attempts on my accounts. My bureaus are all still frozen because I still get the random attempts for applications, hence even a car loan one time. I got most of my money back, but there was still a lot of irreparable damage. that I will most likely always live with. Don't worry.

I've never fallen for anything like that again. And I did finally find a real job with a real company, but I've definitely learned my lesson. If you're ever job hunting, be smart about it, be wary of recruiters that reach out to you unsolicited, and do heavy, heavy research on the company. And under absolutely no circumstances, should you download anything from someone that you don't know? No matter how legit it seems or how much money they promise you.

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As if being a small startup business wasn't hard enough, I quickly learned that there were more difficulties involved than just inventory and upset customers. I have a small candle and essential oil business. I also make lotions, incense, and other small items, but my candles and oils are the big sellers. I'm quite proud of what I have, as I did it all on my own. I do okay for myself, but as I made more and more sales, I quickly learned that I needed a better system than my little Facebook page. I set up an Etsy page so that orders could be

placed through there, with little to no interaction from me. Paid through the site, and then I could get the orders and put them together quickly. It worked out much better for me, and I was enjoying the organization. But then I had an order that changed everything for me. I got an order from someone by the name of Marcus for my best-selling lavender meditation candle. Nothing unusual. I got dozens of orders every week, and that one was.

usually included. I packed the order as I usually do, included my thank you, and please leave a review card, and a freebie. A week or two later, I got a review from a Marcus, that also left a photo of the candle and a freebie that I gave. And the review was a great one. It was detailed, and he raved about how fast it was shipped and the quality of the item. He even made a comment about how the woman who owns this business

must be beautiful because her work is extraordinary. A little cheesy, but also kind of cute. And I appreciated the reviews that were more than just five stars smells good. I replied thanking them for the kind words, and that was about it. But the next day, I got an email from Marcus. My email is on my Facebook page, because if people had a customized order, I asked them to email me with additional information.

or if they had any questions. I have something similar set up on my Etsy page, but they also have better options for custom orders, so I got less emails from my Etsy orders. Anyways, Marcus emailed me, thanking me again for the candle, telling me how the scent helped with his anxiety and seemed to be the only thing that helped him sleep. Again, it just seemed like a very satisfied customer,

and as a small business, they were nice to read, so... I replied thanking them for their kind words. A week later, he ordered two more candles, this time asking if it was possible to make them extra strong. I made these myself, so I was happy to do so. When he received his order, he sent me another email with a long message about how he had been struggling with insomnia since his wife passed away, and my candles were the first thing that brought him peace.

He genuinely seemed lonely, and as someone who had just lost my father a few years prior, I sympathized. He was the one that pushed me to start my business and to do what made me happy, so the fact that I had this kind of impact on someone else who needed help, it meant a lot to me. But unfortunately, that was where I made my first mistake. We started exchanging messages through email about grief and healing. He ordered candles weekly, always leaving glowing reviews on Facebook. Sometimes he would even request custom scents, describing memories of his late wife,

her favorite flower, the perfume she wore, her favorite cake that she baked and how it made the whole house smell like a bakery. It felt meaningful to help someone through their grief, and it challenged me to try new scent combinations. But then, he asked me more about the perfume. He said he couldn't quite place what the scent was, and asked if I could make a custom candle or oil based on it. I told him I would be willing to try it, and he offered to mail me the perfume so I could use it, and insisted that I'd keep it as a thank you gift,

because he had a feeling that I would love it too, claiming that I reminded him a lot of his wife. Once again, in my feelings, I accepted. I had a PO box that I used for my business, and as the return address, so I told him he could just send it there. Once I received it, I was surprised to find out that the perfume was the same one that I wore. At the time, I thought it was a crazy coincidence. I would wear the same perfume as his wife, and now my candles help him sleep.

Based on the ages and years he mentioned, I assumed that he and his late wife, were probably in their 50s or 60s. I was 29 when this took place, so there's a pretty significant age difference. It was still possible that his wife wore the perfume, though, so I had no real reason to question it. I did tell him that it was the same perfume I used, and that, coincidentally, I had been trying to replicate it because I wanted a matching candle for it. At the time, I didn't notice that he wasn't surprised by this, but... Rather, he just asked how long it would take to make it, since I had a head start. I worked more on my candle, now having a reason to focus on it, and when I was pretty satisfied with it,

I sent him one for free, wanting to make sure he also agreed that it was good. I didn't want him to pay for it if he wasn't satisfied with the scent. He said that it was great and thanked me for it. But then my happiness slowly changed to paranoia. as his emails continued and seemed a bit too close to home. He started requesting candles based on other things that reminded him of his late wife. He mentioned how she loved making homemade breads and how her favorite was sourdough. A few days later, he emailed me about how she grew an herb garden and their little green room always smelled like rosemary.

He even mentioned how she collected vintage teacups and used them as flower pots. All of these seem normal and sweet, and I would agree, except his emails would come the day after I posted about the exact same thing. I made a post about how I had started getting into making my own breads, and how sourdough had been the most challenging but fun one to do. I made a post about my little herb garden that I had on my back patio and the money saved being able to grab what I needed from my backyard. I even made a post about the vintage teacups I had just found at an antique store and was contemplating using them for pots or displaying them on a shelf. It was getting close to Valentine's and I got a lot of orders around then, so when I started getting more and more of his emails, I started feeling overwhelmed.

My friend was over one day helping me pack orders, and that's when I brought up Marcus. I told her previously about the perfume, and we both thought it was just a crazy coincidence. But when I was venting about all these other custom orders, she became curious. She asked to see his order history, and I showed it to her. Then she pulled out her phone and showed me what she found. This was when I saw the connection of his requests with my Facebook posts. Every single memory of his wife was actually a detail for my person. personal life.

Was it possible that she had the same hobbies and interests? Absolutely. But I still didn't like the odds. I also didn't know where to go with this information. I didn't feel right accusing him of following me or something because it was entirely possible that he was telling the truth. Maybe something about me did remind him of his wife, and that's why he was so attached. And since I couldn't exactly confront him about this, I

I just blocked him on Etsy and filtered his messages, so I didn't see them. I was already overwhelmed and the custom orders he was wanting were becoming more and more obscure, and I wasn't going to be able to complete them. But then I started getting new order requests from very similar accounts. To explain, his account was listed as Marcus James, and these new accounts would be Marcus J, James M, things like that. At first, I was going to just fulfill his orders because it was for my normal inventory, but then he would send me an email about his specific candle helping him sleep after his wife passed.

But the candle wasn't the lavender one that he told me the first time. So was he lying? Was he trying to be a different person? And why? He wasn't getting anything from me other than his orders, so what was his end goal? I ended up refunding and canceling the orders, wanting nothing to do with it. But then I got a message on my business Facebook page from a James Marcus, asking me to make a candle based on a soap that his late wife used. I responded to that one and addressed him as Marcus, saying I could no longer help him and suggested a few other candle places to try.

That was apparently the wrong response. I got friend requests from one Marcus account after another, each profile having very little on it like it was just recently created. All of these accounts then would post on my business page, leaving angry messages about how people shouldn't use me because I lead people on, and ruin their lives. So many people started reacting and commenting to these, family, friends, returning customers, and new ones.

all asking what was going on. I tried blocking them all and making a post about how it was a situation with one particular customer that I had become uncomfortable with and they blew up, but it seemed like he just kept going. I was feeling drained. I tried to focus on my orders and forget about it, trying to weed out all the fake accounts as they came around. But it all came to a head when I went to the post.

post office to drop off some packages. When I pulled up, I saw a middle-aged man standing outside the doors. I assumed he was waiting for someone, so I paid no further attention to him. He held the door open for me, and I thanked him, and that was it, until I was leaving. As I was walking back to my car, I heard someone say my name. I turned around, and that same man was walking towards me. I was confused. How did this man know my name?

Stupidly, I waited for him to approach me, and when he did, he grabbed my arms near my shoulders and started shaking me, demanding to know why I wouldn't talk to him anymore. It had to be Marcus. I screamed to let me go and he squeezed my arms tighter. Finally, someone came out of the building and yelled at him too, which finally got him to release his. grip. The guy asked if I was okay and said that he was calling the cops, and the other guy that I assumed to be Marcus left. We still waited for the police because now he had gone too far. He had stopped me in person and hurt me, and I was not letting that go.

Thankfully, the police took it seriously as I explained everything about this guy. I went over the emails, my posts, and his requests. how I had to block him, all of it. They made a report and the other guy gave a statement as a witness. Bless him. And then I went home, scared as hell, that he may have followed me somehow. But there's one more piece to this that makes it even more confusing. I was also in this small local business group on Facebook and had posted about Marcus, explaining what all happened,

wanting to warn others if he showed up. To my surprise, I got several responses from other female business owners talking about how they had a similar experience. The guy would go by Marcus or James, and he always talked about how his wife, mother, or daughter died, and their products helped him grieve. One of them had posted about it a few years prior, which made sense as to why I hadn't seen it. But the others said they never shared their experience because they thought it was just them being targeted. at it. It was insane to see how many of us had similar experiences. I no longer felt bad for what happened. I no longer felt like this was a situation of someone being really lonely and me just overreacting. This guy was making up these stories and playing on our emotions to replicate our

life in his own home. It was creepy, to put it nicely. None of us could put together why he was doing this either. But much like the others mentioned, they either involved the police, filed restraining orders, or sent a pretty mean email back to them, and they never heard from him again. I didn't hear or see him after the day that the post office, and I received no other emails, posts, or reviews from him. I am thankful that it stopped, but I've always become concerned that he only found a new girl to target. When one of my favorite games came out back in 2016, I became obsessed with everything about it. I even joined Facebook groups to share my experiences, the good and the bad, get the heads up on possible leaks, and maybe even find some others to play it with.

While watching a streamer who played the same game, I learned from people in the chat about a community Discord server dedicated to the game, and I thought it would be fun to join too. Everyone was cool there. I even recognized a few people from the chat, and one of them that regularly posted in the Facebook group that I was in. It seemed very similar, except the Discord was definitely more organized, so you could ignore certain parts of it, like those that took the game way too seriously, or the, quote, angry room,

where they just constantly complained about the game. I actually quite enjoyed checking it out. This is also where I met Trevor. It's not his real name, I'm sure, but it's what he went by. He seemed normal at first. Funny, good at the game, quite active in the server, and always willing to help newer players improve. We actually played in the same group for about two weeks before he sent me a friend request, which I accepted, without really thinking about it. It was on Discord, so I knew I could just remove him.

No problem, if I had to. But he really didn't act weird. He never said anything that could be remotely misconstrued as off-putting, so I had no problems with it. We started chatting privately about different games, music, and other normal daily stuff, like our pets. He told me that he was 28. I was 26 at the time, and where he worked, which was just a few hours from where I lived. He seemed genuinely interested in my life, but never pushed for personal information,

which also made me feel comfortable talking to him. After about a month of regular gaming sessions and talking, Trevor mentioned how he was going to a work conference in my city, and asked if I wanted to meet up to get coffee, since he wasn't familiar with the area, and that we should since we'd become such good friends. I remember thinking, we just play some games together. You know my cat's name in the city I live in.

I wouldn't consider that to be a great friend, but I was nice because still he wasn't being weird. I just politely declined saying I prefer to keep my gaming stuff online, at least for right now. I also didn't want to feel like I was leading him on or anything. I'm not straight, so I know I wasn't showing. any interest in him. Anyway, he seemed to take it pretty well, saying that he totally understood, and I even gave him

a suggestion on where to get some good local coffee. But while I thought we both handled that well, things started changing. The next day, he had messaged me about a weird coincidence. He'd found my Instagram account. He claimed, through mutual followers. I hadn't told him anything. past my first name or any of my socials, those I kept

for people I knew personally. Yes, I followed some people on Insta and was involved in some Facebook groups, but I also didn't have my Facebook and Instagram connected. He also specifically called out Instagram, not

Facebook, so it wasn't the gaming group that I was in. My name on Instagram is also a play on my middle name, so not even my first name. My only thoughts were that he had to be purposefully and actively looking for me. I couldn't really get behind the idea of it being a coincidence. So this definitely set off some minor alarm bells. I was honest and to the point, and told him that that was quite the coincidence,

but that I didn't accept any follow requests for people I didn't personally know, and even mention that it was due to a weird random follower situation. He once again said that he understood, and we dropped it. But then, a few hours after that, he sent me an invite to join him on Snapchat. He followed it up with, if I wanted to talk outside of Discord. At this point, I was a bit irritated. This was the third attempt to talk to me outside of the server, and I have declined the other offers. I understand he may have just been.

being friendly and even friendships can cross boundaries but that still does not make it okay. So I confronted him about it. I told him I wasn't interested in talking outside of the server and that I was uncomfortable with all of his attempts. He took a while to finally respond and when he did, it was a simple apology saying he didn't mean to send the snap request to me. I honestly did not believe him, but that's fine. If he claimed he didn't, then it shouldn't happen again anyways, now that he knew how I felt, right? Instead of accepting my feelings and wishes, however, he doubled down on the creepiness. He started sending me messages about specific places I had been to recently, places that I never mentioned in a public setting. He asked me about a

restaurant that I went to and would always phrase it as if he had no idea. Hey, I saw this Thai place around X Street. Do you know if they make this? Or when I stopped at a small market near my work. The farmer's market at this intersection has awesome streetcorn. He worked a few hours from me, so I assumed he also lived that far from me. Why would he be shopping around in places near me? The conference was one day, so I didn't understand.

But the fact that he would ask these questions after, I would leave these places made me feel like he was intimidating me. Like he was trying to prove a point. It was such a strange thing to do and I hated it. We started out just talking to each other and sharing mutual interests in a video game, but now, somehow, he knew where I was throughout the day. And at that point, I was no longer comfortable going to places I would normally go. So, I ended up just leaving the server, and removing him as a friend on Discord, and then blocked him.

I wanted nothing more to do with him. However, I then started getting friend requests on Discord from new accounts with no mutual servers or friends. And when those were all declined, then I got more follow requests and friend requests on Facebook and Instagram. I declined all of those too, but he was persistent. One day, my sister showed up at my place unannounced and was asking if I was okay. Confused, I told her I was fine and didn't know what she was talking about. She said that she got a message on Facebook from some guy named Trevor, claiming to be a work friend. He told her that I had been acting strange and that he was worried about me, asking if she could check on me since I had.

hadn't been to work in a few days, which prompted her to rush over. My confusion quickly turned to pure anger, as I asked her to show me the message, and sure enough, it was the same guy. His PFP was of himself in some cosplay, and several of his Instagram and Facebook pages had similar pictures. I knew it was him. So, I told my sister everything that was happening, and she was worried that he was following me. I definitely had a feeling that that was happening, because how else did he know where I went daily? But I had no way of proving it, really.

The messages, maybe, but that was it. And I wasn't aware that he would be around or didn't think about it when I was out, so I rarely looked for him. But as we considered this, something told me to look outside. I live in an apartment with my place facing the parking lot out front. I looked around and spotted a car in the parking lot that was running, and I saw him, sitting in the car, looking around left and right. I knew it was him.

If he'd been following me to those places previously, there was a high chance he followed me home, too. So he probably knew the building I was in, but maybe he'd been following me. didn't know which apartment. What if he had lured my sister to my place to watch and see? I was livid. I wanted to storm out there right at that moment and chew him out, but my sister stopped me. She suggested that I'd call the police instead. Ultimately, I knew she was right, and I did call.

I was surprised by how quickly they showed up, and with the way they pulled in, because I gave them a description of his car. They blocked him so he couldn't even try to leave. We watched from the window as they asked him to step out. They patted him down and were then talking to him. One of the cops came up to my apartment, and we went over all the details again. I was smart.

I took screenshots of all the conversations on Discord before I blocked him so they could see his picture too. It was small, but the cop I talked about, said he was confident it was the same guy. We waited inside for a bit until another cop came up, the one that was previously talking to Trevor, asking again for my side of the story. That's when he told me what Trevor had told them.

He claimed to be waiting there for a friend, but when they asked for the friend's name and unit, he seemed to be trying to think of answers off the top of his head. He said that his friend lived upstairs. but couldn't give the exact units or even floor. There were four floors. I gave them a description of some of the people in the building that I knew, but after checking with the front office,

they confirmed that no one lived there by the name that he had given. After all was said and done, he was actually arrested, because he apparently had warrants. But I was given the option to file a protective order, and yes, I did just that. why would you stalk someone when you have warrants? When someone could easily call the cops on you? None of this made any sense.

After this event, I didn't get any more messages from him. Friend requests, nothing. So maybe he got the hint. Maybe whatever his warrants were for kept him busy. All I know is that he ruined something that was really fun for me. I did stay in one Facebook group, but removed myself from any other ones and just stuck with the friends I had made previously. I had tried to put myself out there more, and that was obviously a mistake. I still don't know what his true intentions were, and I guess it's best that I never know,

so long as he is never able to achieve them, whether it's with me or someone else. I felt compelled to share this story after listening to the abundance of strangers relay their own odd and quite creepy stories. Mine's a rather short one and flashes back to when me and my best friend, Casey, both female, were around 13 or 14. For context, we're both currently 30,

a number that is hard to type and even harder to comprehend. To give some background, my friends and I were silly. and loved to create our own fun. By fun, I mean, we really enjoyed messing with people in more harmless ways. We would take walks around my Maryland neighborhood and pretend to get into odd-looking fights, just to get the reactions from not-so-well-known neighbors.

We would do prank calls to our teachers, would purposely have fake, weird, and shocking conversations amongst each other out in public, just to have some laughs between ourselves later. The year would have been around 2009, and during that time, chat rooms were more of a popular thing, or at least seemingly so. We were having a sleepover one night, although we didn't sleep much during those nights. We tended to be night owls, either pulling all-nighters or staying up to the wee hours of the morning. We decided to enter a chat room in attempt to talk to a random person in an attempt to mess with them slightly.

again, in such a fashion that we just make ourselves look like fools. I don't recall the website, but it was just a basic chat room. We started chatting with this one guy who will call Joe. He was normal enough, as we asked roundabout questions. As we messaged back and forth, we attempted to answer in the most peculiar way, perhaps like an old English lad, or pretending we didn't understand a very common word or phrase, just acting a bit foolish.

After some time, Joe started asking odder questions. At my age now, of course, I wouldn't enter a chat room to talk to a random person. You just never know. But at a young age, it doesn't always seem threatening. He started asking too personal of questions. inappropriate questions. We ourselves started to feel creeped out. It wasn't until he asked,

Do you feel scared? And am I weirding you out? It's fuzzy now how the exact conversation went, but it started as some laughs to feelings of dread. The questions this Joe guy was asking, we felt threatened enough that we quickly ended the chat and turned off the computer. Some time had passed, and we were still on edge about how the conversation quickly escalated with Joe.

At this point, it's probably two or three in the morning. I noticed lights seeping into the front of the house that isn't usually there. Casey and I go have a look, and we see a car sitting idling, with its headlights on, sitting right at the end of our driveway. I lived with my parents in a neighborhood, but all the houses were slightly spread out. out, with a decent amount of land in between. There weren't too many houses down where we were at the end of the street. So for a car to even be driving, let alone parked in front of our driveway, it was not in any way usual. We lived tucked back in a neighborhood, in a more rural area.

It couldn't be someone lost. There were no main roads near us. Everyone in the house besides ourselves were asleep. We were thoroughly scared, and we cursed ourselves for even entering that chat room. The car continued to eerily sit there with its beams directly facing the house. We had 911 dialed and ready to call on our phone. We hung out blankets over the top of the windows and the glass-lighting door that didn't have curtains. I desperately wanted to get my parents,

but then would have to admit my guilt of talking to a creepy man on the internet for fun. The car sat there for a good 15 minutes at least. We were truly terrified and weren't sure what to do. It finally began to slowly back up. It just circled and slowly left. To this day, I don't know who it was. All I can tell you is that we were convinced it was the chat room creep Joe. I'm not a tech-savvy person, and I don't know how it would be possible to locate someone's location from a chat room, but what I do know is, we were the ones to get played that night, and yet we got so lucky.

Needless to say, we have not entered a chat room since. Hey there, friends. I hope that you enjoyed this collection of scary stories on this episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. If the platform you're on has the option to follow podcast and you enjoyed my work, please do consider doing so. Also, leaving ratings and reviews are super important for the algorithm to support the growth of the podcast.

I'm just one guy doing this. I don't have a team. It's literally just me doing everything. So any support like that is greatly appreciated. Never expected, though. So if you go above and beyond with that, I do appreciate it. Some platforms also allow you to leave comments, and if you feel inclined to do so, please do.

I would appreciate that. I do have a Patreon in a merch store that you can also check out if you want to support a little further. The Patreon side of things get you early access to all of my content. It is formatted differently as it goes in line with what my YouTube channel is, but it is the same stories, just different collections. There is also a website astherravendreams.com, where you can check out pretty much everything about me,

my social media platforms, fiction stories I've written if you want to read those, as well as submitting your own stories, which there's a big button on the front page you click to do so. And those stories basically keep the podcast alive, to be honest with you. So, yeah. All that said, friends, I do hope that I see you again here very soon, until then, remember that you are loved, that you are valid, that you are important.

You're the best you that you can be. Don't forget it. And until next time, much love and sleep well.