What to Do If You Get Doxxed: A Step-by-Step Plan

The first hour: your safety, then the evidence

1. Check that you're safe. If there's a credible threat to you or anyone at your address, call local emergency services now. Everything else can wait.
2. Don't respond to the person who posted it or the people reacting. Replies, quote-posts and arguments usually spread a post further.
3. Capture everything before it disappears. Take screenshots that show the post, the account name, the date and the full web address, and paste the links into a document.
4. Write down who you think is behind it and why: a recent argument, an ex, a chat that ended badly. This helps platforms and police connect the dots.

Doxxing help from platforms and search engines

Most major social networks, forums and hosting services forbid posting someone's private information without permission. Use their report tools and pick the option for private or personal information, or harassment if that's the closest choice.

• Report every copy, not just the original. Doxxing posts are often reposted and screenshotted.
• No report button? Look for a contact or abuse email address in the site's footer, help pages or terms.
• Mention threats clearly in your report. Many platforms treat threats of violence as urgent.
• Ask search engines to drop results. Major search engines accept requests to remove results that show personal contact details, such as your phone number, home address or email, even when the page itself stays up. Look for the personal-information removal request in their help pages.

If intimate images were part of the leak, follow the dedicated steps in how to get intimate images removed online.

How to stop doxxing from spreading: lock things down

Your accounts

• Change your email password first. Email is the key that resets everything else.
• Turn on two-step verification, ideally with an authenticator app rather than text messages, since your number may now be public.
• Ask your mobile carrier about adding a PIN or extra protection against someone moving your number to a new SIM.
• Set social accounts to private for now, and remove your phone number, birthday, workplace and hometown from profiles.
• Search for accounts impersonating you and report them.

People-search and data-broker listings

In the US and some other countries, people-search sites compile addresses, phone numbers and relatives' names from public records. Most offer an opt-out form, often linked from a privacy or "do not sell" page. Opting out takes time and listings can reappear, so set a reminder to check again every few months.

Money and identity

If financial details or an ID number were exposed, call your bank and watch your statements. In the US you can freeze your credit for free with each of the three major credit bureaus, which blocks new accounts being opened in your name.

Someone posted my personal information: who to warn

Doxxers sometimes go after the people around you, so a short heads-up protects them too.

• People you live with: be cautious with unexpected deliveries and visitors, and don't confirm who lives there to strangers.
• Your employer: ask HR or security not to confirm your schedule or location to callers, and to flag unusual contacts.
• Family and close friends: ask them not to share information about you and to tell you if someone asks.

A simple message works: "Someone has posted my personal details online. If anyone contacts you asking about me, please don't confirm anything and let me know."

When to involve the police

Posting information isn't illegal everywhere, but threats, stalking, extortion and harassment often are. Contact local police if:

• Someone threatens violence against you or your household.
• Someone shows up at your home or work, or follows you.
• You're told to pay, or to do something, or more will be posted.
• Your address is shared alongside calls for others to target you.
• Someone uses your details to impersonate you or commit fraud.

Bring your evidence log and ask for a report number. If your home address is circulating, ask whether they can note it in case of a hoax emergency call, often called swatting; some departments offer this. In the US, if the doxxing is part of extortion or another online crime, you can also file a complaint with the FBI's IC3. A local lawyer can explain civil options, such as protective orders.

If the doxxing is one part of a wider campaign, our online harassment playbook covers blocking, record-keeping and looking after yourself.

Making yourself harder to dox

Most doxxing is assembled from small pieces people share over time. Remove the easy threads:

• Use different usernames on chat sites than on your social media. A reused handle is the easiest thread to pull.
• Keep identifying details out of conversations with strangers: your full name, workplace, neighborhood and routine. Our list of personal info to keep private covers the details people forget.
• Check what your camera shows: mail, uniforms, badges and the view from your window.
• Don't open links from strangers. Some exist only to log your IP address or capture a login. Here's how to check a stranger's link safely.
• Know what an IP address reveals. Usually a city or region and an internet provider, not your door. See what your IP shows on video chat.

On Omlet you never give a name, email address or phone number, and calls aren't recorded or stored. If a chat partner recites your details or threatens you, tap the flag on their video and choose "Harassment or hate"; someone you report is never matched with you again on that device.