Buzz
That spooky abandoned house on the corner of your street really gives off an eerie vibe. Remember that creepy tale your older cousins told you? Something about a man with a hook for a hand calling the babysitter from inside the house? (Or something like that – you were too terrified to catch every word). These are the real-life creepy occurrences. But what about the digital world?
Seriously? Are you joking?
In a sea of mid-2000s cat video compilations, zoomers lip-syncing to brief snippets of pop songs (showing just how doomed we are), and that notorious Scottish guy belting out a sea shanty, there's also some of the creepiest, most bizarre, and downright disturbing content out there. And you don’t need to dive deep into the dark corners of the web to find it – it’s right in front of you. The boundary between the internet and reality has become almost indistinguishable.
Here are 10 of the creepiest things you can find online.
10. Left Out in the Freezing Cold
Russian YouTuber ‘Stas Reeflay’ (real name Stanislav Reshetnikov) was primarily focused on gaming content. Struggling to make an impact in the field, Stas resorted to increasingly questionable livestreams. These streams involved disturbing acts for donations, such as pepper spraying his girlfriend or forcing a friend to drink oil. But on December 2nd, 2020, one of these streams crossed a dangerous line. A viewer offered $1000 for Stas to beat his girlfriend, Valentina, and lock her outside in the frigid cold.
This occurred in Moscow, during winter.
Stas followed through with the viewer's request – locking Valentina outside in freezing temperatures, drenched in water he had poured on her. She pounded on the door for hours, her desperate cries going unheard as the viewers continued to donate.
When Stas finally brought her back inside, she was unconscious, her skin turning a bluish-grey. He set Valentina up on his couch but, when he failed to revive her, he kept streaming and accepting money.
She was pregnant.
After Stas finally called for medical help, paramedics arrived and instructed the YouTuber to stop filming them. He ignored the request, leaving his 1500 viewers to keep watching.
And donating.
He is currently awaiting trial.
9. r/ControllableWebcams
Many of the creepiest or most shocking threads on platforms like Reddit will leave you questioning, 'Is this really true?' A lot of these posts are just creepypastas or ARGs (alternate reality games) disguised as genuine stories to boost engagement.
Not the case on the Reddit board ‘r/ControllableWebcams’—a space where users are fixated on streaming feeds from hacked cameras. The shared links provide access to random webcam streams. Sometimes it's a parking lot. Other times, it’s a workplace. Occasionally, it’s a bedroom. Welcome to a real-world deep web creepypasta.
Moderators have made efforts to control the situation, but there’s only so much they can do (unless they decide to shut it down completely).
This disturbing and invasive breach of privacy happens more often than you'd expect—take a moment to check your Nest or Ring camera setup!
8. Nizamul Khan
Another well-known YouTuber has found himself on the wrong side of the law, this time in India. Nizamul Khan, a popular creator known for his motorbike stunt skits often featuring his girlfriend, was planning to propose to her. However, her brother, Kamal Sharma, strongly opposed the relationship and forbade his sister from seeing Khan, even going so far as to take her phone away.
On October 28th, 2020, Khan and two accomplices followed Sharma on his way home from work. The three men rode alongside Kamal as he stopped his bike at an intersection, before shooting him in the back, leading to his death. Nizamul Khan and his co-conspirators are awaiting trial.
7. 112Dirtbag
Maury Murray disappeared after abandoning her crashed car in a snowbank, seemingly to avoid the police who were called by a passer-by. If you want to dig deeper into the mystery of her disappearance, check out the video above.
In 2012, eight years after Maura went missing, a lead emerged seemingly out of nowhere. A video uploaded to YouTube by a user named ‘112Dirtbag’ showed a middle-aged man staring directly at the camera and laughing before ending with a wink and the message 'Happy Anniversary'. The username and the message suggested that he might know something about Maura’s disappearance, if not directly being responsible. The name referenced a quote from Maura’s father, speculating that a 'dirtbag' on 'route 112' might have abducted her. The video was posted exactly eight years to the day of Maura’s disappearance, making the final message all the more chilling.
It turned out that this individual was merely trolling. Alden Olsen, a Massachusetts resident, was cleared of any involvement in Maura Murray's case. He has since started a blog discussing the case, seemingly aiming to contribute to its resolution. It seems we can assume Olsen was trying to draw more attention to the case by posing as the perpetrator.
Although he has been definitively cleared of suspicion in Maura Murray’s case, one can't help but wonder why people like him, in this and other tragic cases, engage in such stunts that only serve to deepen the anguish of the victim’s family and loved ones.
Just stop.
6. Hungry?
Marked with a clear NSFW warning, this post on Reddit’s ‘r/IAmA’ board should also come with a YMV warning – ‘You May Vomit’.
User ‘u/IncrediblyShinyShart’ lost the use of one of his legs after a motorcycle accident. He endured severe pain, with doctors recommending amputation. When he inquired about what would happen to his severed limb, he was told it would be cremated and discarded in a landfill. Displeased with this outcome, he took the amputated leg home after it was removed below the knee. Initially, he considered freeze-drying the leg, but the high costs led him to decide on having a cast made instead. The real question remained—what to do with the leg?
Fortunately, the newly legless user had a friend who was a chef—and this friend, along with a group of his friends, had often joked about whether they'd be curious to taste human flesh if it were ethically acceptable.
And so, they did. They made tacos with the leg, adding some Mexican-style vegetables and seasoning, topped off with a dollop of tomatillo sauce.
“It had a very distinct, beefy flavor. The muscle I sliced was tough and chewy. It tasted good, but the experience wasn’t ideal.” Later, one of the guests reached out to IncrediblyShinyShart—“hey, just so you know, I pooped you out. Sorry.”
5. Weird Stores
On the r/TooAfraidToAsk subreddit, users can ask questions that are often considered too embarrassing, taboo, or just silly to ask in real life. In July 2019, one user, ‘u/icemanthrowawy123’, took a different approach – he posted, ‘Twelve identical and strange stores opened on my street. What is going on?’. The post quickly gained traction, standing out from the usual ‘I shat my pants in public’-type posts typical of the average redditor.
He explained that these ‘shops’ only sold outdated, rotting Walmart food and only accepted cash. He also described the signage on all these shops:
'The names are nearly identical, like {townname MART} or {Market of Townname}, and they all clearly purchased their signs from the same place, with identical fonts, colors, sizes, and shapes. These stores don't seem to attract any business that I've observed, yet they have large staffs and are lasting far longer than the previous businesses that closed down on this street.'
Could these stores be a cover for money laundering or food stamp fraud? Some users speculated, but others questioned the truth of the story. The poster hadn’t provided any photos or evidence, despite promising to do so. Since late 2019, there have been no updates, and it seems like this was just a creepy post created for attention.
But who knows, maybe 'they' got him.
4. What Happened to Om?
Om Sayf, a Syrian refugee in Turkey, rose to fame with her PUBG livestreams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLhUu-4LyRM). Her popularity soared until January 10, 2021, when she uploaded a video announcing her departure from YouTube. She also vanished from social media. Was it due to creator burnout? Perhaps a new job? Sadly, that was not the case.
It seems something far darker and more immediately threatening may have been happening to Om. At the end of her ‘farewell’ video, she made a hand gesture that appears to be the new universal symbol for domestic abuse (https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/secret-hand-signal-allows-domestic-18387107).
3. Hell IRL
A key principle of the internet era is that ‘The Internet is not real life’. However, it’s important to remember that real people with real lives use the internet. The clash of these two 'realities' can be unsettling. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the tragic case of Brandi Worley and her husband, who sought advice on reddit under the username ‘u/Jasoninhell’.
In 2016, a man reached out to the site for advice on his troubled home life – he was dealing with a deceitful, manipulative wife who had cheated on him, even scolding him to be more considerate toward the neighbor, with whom she was having an affair. Taking the advice of the reddit community, Jason decided to file for divorce and pursue custody of their two children.
Just three days later, Jason's wife waited until he was asleep, as he was in the basement, out of her reach. She then murdered their children, stabbing their 7-year-old son Tyler and 3-year-old daughter Charlee before attempting to take her own life. She was later convicted for their murders and sentenced to 120 years in prison.
In 2018, Jason made a return to reddit to provide an update. Despite still being in mourning over the loss of his children, he shared that he was slowly starting to heal. He also offered some valuable advice, urging people to always express their feelings to their loved ones and to make the most of the time spent with them. He concluded his message with the following:
“Always make sure they know how much you love them. I was fortunate that the last words my children ever heard from me were, ‘I love you, good night. I will see you in the morning.’”
2. Getting Proof of UFOs, One Leak at a Time
‘At last!’ cheered the devoted UFO enthusiasts when this footage surfaced. However, let’s not jump to conclusions. This isn’t definitive proof of alien life, folks. It only shows that the U.S. government is aware of and actively studying UFO phenomena, though it’s clear they have no idea what’s truly going on.
For UFO enthusiasts, this is the closest thing to proof they’ve ever had. You’ve got to admit, skeptics, it’s certainly intriguing. So, keep your eyes on the skies… (Yes, that’s a nod to The Simpsons).
1. ‘Ubisoft says goodbye to Steamworks and always-on DRM’
Back to the strange and perplexing world of Reddit, a user named ‘YAYVIDEOGAMES’ posted thousands of incoherent, disjointed messages, all variations of the phrase, ‘Ubisoft goes Steamworks bye bye always on DRM’. Each post was distinct, incorporating bold, italics, and various other formatting styles, making it clear that each message was typed by the same user, u/YAYVIDEOGAMES. Among these posts were numerous unsettling images, including one showing a handwritten version of the phrase hastily scrawled on a piece of paper. All of this occurred in the span of just a few hours.
What was this all about? Was it an elaborate prank, a person slowly unraveling, or a sophisticated new bot? Nothing made sense—this was a true enigma.
After some top-tier detective work from the Reddit community, the mystery was finally unraveled. It turns out that YAYVIDEOGAMES had been bedridden, battling chronic pain and the lingering effects of delusional paranoia. In his attempts to manage his condition with medication, including opiates and antipsychotics, he made these repetitive posts while staying in a secure facility, possibly influenced by an altered state or to cope with his intense pain.
The explanation may not be as mysterious, but it remains deeply unsettling all the same.
