A few deliberate habits dramatically reduce your exposure to doxxing, harassment, and scams. Here is a practical checklist you can start on today.
🔒This is general safety education, not security or legal advice. No single measure is foolproof — combine several, and seek professional help if you are being harassed or threatened.
Separate your work and legal identity
Keep a firm wall between your work persona and your legal/personal life. This is your strongest protection against doxxing and harassment.
- •Use a stage name and a dedicated email, phone number, and payment method.
- •Never reuse profile photos, usernames, or bios between work and personal accounts.
- •Scrub location metadata (EXIF) from anything you post.
- •Avoid identifiable backgrounds, tattoos framing, or landmarks in any content.
Reduce your doxxing risk
Assume determined people will try to connect your accounts. Make it hard.
- •Opt out of data-broker sites that list your address and phone.
- •Lock down privacy settings and review tagged content regularly.
- •Use a PO box or virtual mailbox for any business address.
- •Consider a VPN and unique, strong passwords with a password manager.
Spot scams and exploitation
Not every 'agent', 'manager', or 'collab' is legitimate. Exploitation and extortion are real risks.
- •Be wary of anyone asking for money up front or your identity documents.
- •Verify payment before delivering content; watch for chargeback scams.
- •A legitimate contract is written and negotiable — pressure is a red flag.
- •If someone threatens to leak content unless you pay, that is sextortion — don't pay; preserve evidence and report it.
Protect and monitor your content
You can't stop every leak, but you can make yourself a harder target and respond fast.
- •Watermark content where practical.
- •Set up reverse-image and name alerts to catch re-uploads.
- •Keep originals and records so you can file takedowns quickly.
- •Pre-submit to StopNCII.org so partner platforms can block known images.