Somewhere in the world, an attractive dancer poses in a bathroom mirror and twists her phone so the photograph she takes has the right lighting, the right angle and – she believes – displays absolutely no identifying information about her location. Happy with the result, she uploads it as an Instagram story and goes about her day.
Somewhere else in the world, a tired schoolteacher on her lunch break receives a notification that the dancer – the suspected girlfriend of a beloved actor – has uploaded a story. She views it then takes a screenshot and zooms in to examine every visible aspect. There’s a wall light in the mirror reflection and the edge of a cabinet. A day earlier, a comment on X claimed the actor had been spotted in a town in Southern France. A quick search reveals seven luxury hotels in the general area, all of which have virtual tours of their suites available on their websites. The third hotel she checks has the same wall lights in all its bathrooms but the position of the cabinet matches only one suite. She shares the information in a private group chat with other fans then goes back to her afternoon classes.
Immediately, a dozen or more people begin to search through hundreds of social media videos and photos across all platforms, viewing them with a single goal: spot the actor. And they do. Soon a new video is added to the group chat; a screen recording from TikTok of a tourist’s birthday dinner at the hotel restaurant the previous night. Just about visible in the background is the actor and his girlfriend, enjoying an intimate meal in assumed privacy.
In less than twenty minutes with one bathroom selfie, using only phones and social media, an entire fandom knows the exact location of the celebrity they follow and have confirmed previously unreleased details of his private life. They even know which wine he drinks.
Now imagine if they did the same to solve a crime?
I was struck by this thought back in 2024 after falling down the fandom rabbit hole. The idea percolated, fed as I witnessed more feats of deductive investigation. I could feel the story itching under my skin. There’d been a handful of high-profile crimes solved with the support of internet sleuths, as well as some serious mess-ups that derailed important cases. But it wasn’t until the news broke about the arrest of Sean Combes, that Sleuths came to be.
The allegations were hardly new, nor was P Diddy the first – or last – wealthy celebrity to be accused of sexual abuse. Right now, at the very moment you’re reading these words, someone is in desperate need of help that will never come or only arrive decades later when mounting accusations can no longer be ignored.
In Sleuths I decided I would take the sometimes worrying examples of digital stalking I uncovered and deliver that help. So, while stalking an actor they’re obsessed with, three friends would uncover a sex trafficking ring and set out to bring it – and him – down.
Here’s how, in the real world, that might happen.
The first step is obvious: find every social account. And I really mean all of them. Nothing is ever truly gone from the internet no matter how well hidden. With patience, and internet archive sites, it’s possible to recover old posts and comments, even entire account histories. There may be ‘finsta’ accounts too. These are deliberately disguised accounts that often resemble bots with nonsense names that are kept private so a celebrity (or anyone) can enjoy socials without attracting attention. The most common way these are discovered is a silly mistake; they follow their main account, they follow or are followed by close friends and relatives, they share something from the secret account by accident. This could include less obvious sources; Letterboxd, Pinterest, Spotify, Reddit to name a few.
Now all the accounts are present, it’s going to be essential to keep a record of everyone they follow or unfollow across every platform, as well as anyone of note that follows them. More than one casting announcement has been spoiled because the filmmakers and actors began interacting on Instagram before the press release emerged. What’s more, those new follows might be a weak point. Did that popstar just get a super awesome tattoo? Maybe the artist is a gossip, slide into their DMs to check. People love to brag about the rich, famous or powerful individuals they work with, especially if they thought they were suspicious or rude.
Friends and family aren’t overlooked either. Facebook chitchat is often public, people frequently fail to apply privacy settings and forget they are not in an insular environment. Photographs from family events, comments discussing holiday plans and once, a video from a funeral. Now a picture is building of their network and movements, combine it with known public announcements and there’s near-real time tracking in place. Add tagging and news alerts to complete the trifecta.
Don’t forget reverse image searching. Simple search tools are already sophisticated enough that identifying public locations, even from benign seeming photographs, is easily done. Perhaps there’s a bar or restaurant or park they visit often.
The next point may feel like cheating; have someone on the inside. For anyone who followed the Colleen Rooney ‘Wagatha Christie’ events, it’s incredibly common that the people surrounding high profile individuals share information. They may even be in regular contact with gossip sites, groups or accounts. Sometimes for money, sometimes for love of gossip. I’m aware of multiple, high-profile sites that have frequent contact with fandoms, including receiving tips on a celebrity’s location as quid pro quo for early access to paparazzi photographs.
And never underestimate the presence of fans.
If you’re picturing people dwelling in basements, eternally online, stop. Millions of perfectly ordinary, happy, functional people of all age groups engage in fandoms everyday. Many of them work in jobs that give them access to privileged information. They’re personal assistants, marketing execs, photographers, accountants, PR managers. A myriad of roles, a myriad of positions with degrees of separation connecting them to the object of their obsession.
At this point, it might seem that privacy of any kind is impossible. But the above hasn’t even touched on the enormous amount of publicly available information that’s simply everyday life. Records of businesses, accounts, directorships, car tax status, births, deaths, marriages, website ownership. Want to know the layout of a building? It might be on an old real estate listing or, if there’s been a planning application made, detailed blueprints on the public council website. People can apply to have their property obscured on Google Maps, but that big fuzzy blur in the middle of an otherwise visible Streetview may as well be a neon sign screaming ‘I live here!’
Nothing here requires any level of technical knowledge, just time, patience and motivation. Perhaps a dash of insanity. There’s no hacking, no breaking into private accounts, no criminal or illegal acts. However the outcome is a substantial profile connecting an individual to times, events, location and people in a way that reveals essential investigative links. All of it achieved with nothing more than a phone.
Of course, Sleuths wouldn’t be complete if my toxic fans didn’t do anything with their profiles. Solving a crime and stopping a crime are very different things, after all. After they’re dismissed by authorities, they make the choice to take the actions others won’t in a plot to end a criminal enterprise. I won’t spoil how that unfolds.
But the next time you take that perfect bathroom selfie, think twice before sharing and remember; somewhere in the world, someone may well be watching.
Sleuths by Samantha Moody is published by Avon, on 21st May.