How Do You Survive a Cyber-Stalking Cult?
5/23/202654 min
In 2018, sci-fi writer Patrick Tomlinson posted a Tweet that attracted the attention of a group of far-right internet trolls. As their harassment escalated, Patrick called the police, who did nothing. Now, nearly eight years later, Patrick’s life has been upended via a campaign of doxing, swatting and relentless terrorising. On this ep, he explains how this nightmare can happen to anyone.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Julian Morgans· Host0:15
[bright music] SuperReal.
Patrick Tomlinson· Guest0:20
They are a dedicated, experienced criminal cyberstalking cult. These are people with actual legitimate deep-seated psychological issues. They have 55 times now committed a crime called swatting. What swatting is, you deliberately make a false call to the police saying, "Hey, there's a hostage situation," or, "Hey, someone has just been murdered," deliberately trying to get the police to show up with maximum force. So that has happened to our home 55 times. I've been dragged out of my house naked at 1:00 in the morning. We, my wife and I have had pistols and assault rifles and shotguns shoved into our faces half a dozen times. So when I say they've tried to murder us, I'm not exaggerating even a little bit. They have almost succeeded several times, and they don't, they just don't stop. They, they can't. They can't stop themselves.
Julian Morgans· Host1:22
Hey, I'm Julian Morgans, and you're listening to What It Was Like, the show that asks people who have lived through big, dramatic events