A Calgary woman stopped answering her door after a stream of unannounced visitors, as many as eleven in one day, arrived on her doorstep.
Clarissa Rayner says she started receiving unusual text messages in late November followed by an appearance at her home by a man she did not know. Rayner was at work at the time but she was able to converse with the stranger through her doorbell.
“I asked what they needed and he told me he was from POF (Plenty of Fish),” said Rayner. “I told him ‘I think you have a wrong number. They gave you the wrong address’.” The man left without incident.
After a few days of silence, Rayner began to receive more text messages and more men began to show up at her home, all indicating they had been in contact with her through the dating website Plenty of Fish. “One of the guys, thankfully, said ‘Yeah, I can send you a picture of the profile’.”
The profile included old photographs of Rayner from her LinkedIn and social media accounts but the profile did not include any of her contact information. Users who messaged the person behind the profile were given Rayner’s address, phone number and a scheduled time to arrive at her home. “They seemed to have someone scheduled every half an hour.”
Rayner says a lewd photograph sent to her suggests what the person operating the fraudulent profile was offering. “I have a pretty good idea of what they were promised when they showed up at the address,” said Rayner. “I don’t know who these people are. I don’t know if they’re going to get upset because they’re being rejected and cause harm to myself or my child. It’s scary.”
Her partner wasn’t home at the time and he became concerned for her safety. “He was like ‘What am I supposed to do. I’m not home and I can’t protect you guys’.” Rayner says she sent her daughter to stay with a grandparent for the day and she barricaded herself in her home, unwilling to open the door for anyone.
Rayner notified Plenty of Fish of the fraudulent profile and it was eventually removed from the dating site. Her and her partner also attempted to report the matter to the Calgary Police Service but the couple was told that, unless they knew who was responsible, there was nothing police could do.
The cyberattack is known as doxxing and Rayner believes she is being targeted as she says she doesn’t share any of her personal information online. “Obviously it’s someone that I know,” said Rayner, who doesn’t think the offender is an ex-boyfriend. “I was a teenager when I started dating my partner so that would be a really long grudge at this point.”
The text messages have since stopped and Rayner has not received any visitors from POF in days.
With files from CTV’s Alesia Fieldberg
