An Unknown Phone Number Sent Me Explicit Photographs Of A Family Member

Location: Ohio

There are several aspects to this situation; I’ll try and be as clear and concise as possible.

Friday morning, I received a text message from an unknown number. This person claimed to be a relative of mine (name included). Around 3pm, I responded to the message and confirmed it was me they were messaging. They proceeded to say they lost a bet and had to send a male relative explicit pictures of themselves. Two pictures came through and have been verified to be authentic.

Obviously, I was highly disturbed by this exchange so I reached out to my sister about it. Then, my sister claimed this same relative also contacted her earlier in the day asking if a particular phone number was mine. My sister proceeded to inform her it was not my real phone number. From here, the relative said whoever texted them pretended to be me and sent the same pictures that I had received to them, saying inappropriate things along with it like I would subscribe to her pages and liked what I saw.

At this point, it’s clear someone developed some sort of plan to make me look like a weirdo, first of all. This imposter even went as far as to create an OnlyFans account using my real name and picture to purchase content off the relative’s page (this was news to me that the relative actually had an account of that nature).

Late evening, I was finally able to reach this relative and talk with them. After verifying it wasn’t each other texting one another, all seemed well despite the awkwardness of the situation. From here, I did some basic research on my own, starting with trying to reverse lookup the phone numbers the imposter used. They all came back as free call/text app numbers with VOIP protocols.

Any grounds to open a criminal investigation? It’s my understanding that these free text/call companies can be subpoenaed and forced to reveal the real phone number tied to the one the app assigned. So far, the only damage that’s been done is someone impersonating me and saying inappropriate things to my relative (a blatant attack on my character) and someone impersonating them and sending nude photos to me. So far, no attempts of blackmail have been made, no money has been demanded, and no further harassment has ensued.

What should I do in this situation? Filing a police report is a given, right? Whoever this person is, it definitely feels like a sabotage mission and there’s no telling whether this is the end of it or not.