My First CyberBully Committed Suicide. Here’s The Second One.
By: Vish Vadlamani
Tags: Defamation, Vish Vadlamani, Bullying, Cyber Bullying

Let’s start

It all began earlier this year when an ex-business acquaintance of mine contacted me with a very condescending message. It was both surprising and infuriating as I’ve considered him a friend for a long time. Screenshots are attached below.

Backstory

A few years ago, this business acquaintance was sued by the FTC for defrauding consumers out of millions of dollars. Moreover, at the expense of others, he also siphoned large amounts of cash from his business to spend on luxury cars, and expensive jewelry while owing hundreds of people, including me — an amount of $64,232.

My mistake

Unlike most, who’d run away as far as possible from this person — I did the exact opposite. I checked up on him. Despite his shoddy morals and ethical actions against the people, I still wanted to make sure he was okay. I wanted to ensure his emotional state was stable.

During this process, against my better judgement, we began exploring business opportunities. I brokered a deal for the sale of some digital assets that went horribly wrong, when around the same time, my own identity was stolen which resulted in a loss of over $150k.

Despite my losses, I’ve assured him that I’d try to collect the balance, and had taken it as my own personal responsibility. After all, I considered him a friend, who at the time, was going through troubling times.

Screenshots (From Feb 2020)

Observe the threats and the timeline of “3–4 weeks”. Suffice to say, I was beyond frustrated by the conversation, so naturally I brought up about the old debt that was owed to me. Conveniently, he claimed no recollection, to which I’ve provided email references confirming the debt.

In the following weeks, he’s gone to extreme lengths to tarnish my name — have created several social media profiles, and blogs spreading the lie.

The result

About 4–5 weeks later, one of my current developers showed me a list of defamatory material posted on my name.

This person had followed through on his threats, and managed to manipulate the information visible in Google by creating an elaborate stream of misinformation. This misinformation was then meticulously crafted around my name, and ranked on the first page of Google — and it didn’t end there.

Round 2 (Late August 2020)

Now, he’s taking it one step further. A week and a half ago, I was assured that his “efforts” will be “redoubled”, and surely he’s followed through again.

I get harassed with wide scale defamation and slander, but when I ask for my balance, I’m the one “taunting”. Calling me “weak” and then using the word “taunting” in the same sentence is extremely comical.

The result

This evening, I received a text from one of my friends informing me that the misinformation is now appearing in his Facebook Newsfeed.

Why can’t I do anything about it?

Simple. There’s no direct way to connect his threats to the results. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate 1+1.

It’s fairly easy for someone to cover their tracks by hiring offshore workers to do the dirty work. A court order subpoena wouldn’t fully disclose the perpetrators behind these acts. Besides costing over $10,000, it doesn’t insulate against any new content.

My thoughts

It’s enraging. It’s infuriating. But deep down, I find it extremely sad. It all started with me wanting to check up on his mental health during his worst times, and I get repaid with defamation and slander.

Does it make me angry? Yes — but beyond that anger, I feel enormous sadness to see someone that I considered a friend at some point is going to such lengths to bring me down.

I fought my anger by accepting responsibility. Regardless of my good intentions, I brought this upon myself with a lesson to learn and a purpose to fulfill.

What am I going to do?

Am I going to harass his friends like he did mine? No.

Am I going to threaten his family like he did mine? No.

Am I going to engage in character assassination? No. He’s done that for himself when FTC pursued him for defrauding millions.

Am I going to stoop to his level and resort to petty attacks? No.

But I’m fighting back. Though I have accepted my responsibility, I have never surrendered to bullies, and never will. I have to focus on the positivity. I have always felt something empty about my life despite living in relative comforts. That emptiness is now filled with a purpose. A purpose to address and help others who have been facing similar situations in various environments — be it the school, workplace, or online.

I will be the voice for many others who are battling it alone. I wrote a blog post before about a childhood friend of mine who committed suicide due to peer-bullying, and if I can help prevent at least one person from taking such a drastic step, I will consider myself successful.

Until then, the fight continues…✊