It starts with a message from Ester’s phone.

Her mother, Pepa, sees her daughter’s name on the screen. The messages say Ester is alive, out on the street, and leaving Spain for Buenos Aires. But something feels wrong. Ester doesn’t call. She doesn’t send a voice note. She doesn’t turn on the camera. She only keeps typing.

Then Ester’s sister notices the spelling mistakes, the strange phrases, the way the words don’t sound like her.

“Mamá… esta no es mi hermana.”

Mom… this isn’t my sister.

This episode follows the case of María Ester Estepa Pérez, a 42-year-old woman from Seville whose disappearance became tied to a public TikTok traveler known online as Dinamita Montilla. He filmed roads, shelters, towns, hotels, and the places where he slept. His life appeared visible enough to feel safe.

But visibility is not verification.

As Ester’s family searched for answers, the same online trail that once made him seem familiar began to reveal contradictions. Videos became locations. Posts became movement. A public persona became part of a digital map.

This is not a story about an anonymous profile hiding in the dark. It is about someone who showed his face, used his name, and built trust through the camera.

Note: Ester’s case remains open in Spain. José Jurado Montilla has not been convicted in connection with her death. This episode discusses the public record, family statements, reporting, and allegations that remain for a court to decide.

Content warning: domestic abuse, disappearance, death, alleged sexual violence, and homicide allegations. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Released one day before World Suicide Prevention Day, this LURKERS bonus episode revisits one of the most important stories we’ve covered: The BM Boys.

This is not just a re-release. It’s a reminder.

The BM Boys episode follows the sextortion cases of Jordan DeMay, James Timothy Woods, and Murray Dowey... three teenagers caught in the same kind of trap: a fake profile, a private image, a sudden threat, and a countdown designed to make panic feel louder than help.

Sextortion works by isolating the victim. It turns shame into silence. It convinces a young person that one mistake, one screenshot, or one threat is the end of their world.

It isn’t.

If there is one message at the center of this episode, it is this: put the phone down. Find someone you trust. Say it out loud. And hand them the phone if you can’t find the words.

The shame belongs to the criminal, not to the person being threatened.

Content warning: sextortion, online coercion, teen harm, suicide, and emotional distress. Listener discretion advised.

This episode is shared for awareness and prevention. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, contact emergency services or a crisis support line where you live.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A false emergency call sends police to a stranger’s door. A plane is diverted. Gaming networks go dark on Christmas morning. And years later, in Finland, the same pattern of online power turns much quieter... and far more personal.

This episode follows the case of the Vastaamo psychotherapy breach, one of Europe’s most disturbing cybercrime cases. Thousands of patients trusted a private therapy provider with the most intimate parts of their lives: trauma, grief, depression, family pain, addiction, and the things people say only because they believe the room is safe.

But behind that room was a database.

When Vastaamo’s patient records were accessed, the breach did not stay behind corporate walls. A hacker first tried to extort the company. Then the pressure shifted directly to the patients themselves... ransom demands, threats, Bitcoin, and the fear that private therapy notes could be published for strangers, employers, families, and the entire world to see.

We trace the path from online aliases and swatting to the Vastaamo hack, the rise of “Ransom Man,” the national crisis in Finland, and the prosecution of Aleksanteri Kivimäki - a case that forces a deeper question: what happens when the most private parts of your life become someone else’s weapon?

Content warning: cybercrime, hacked therapy records, blackmail, swatting, threats, emotional distress, and suicide-linked fallout. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Beal City, Michigan, a teenage couple starts receiving messages from an unknown number.

At first, it looks like drama around a Halloween party. Then the texts come back. Crueler. More personal. More relentless. They know nicknames. They mention school conversations. They target Lauryn Licari, Owen McKenny, their relationship, their friends, and the fragile trust inside a small-town high school.

Soon, every message becomes a clue. Every classmate becomes a possible suspect. Phones are checked. Friendships fracture. Parents step in. Police try to trace the number. And as the harassment keeps escalating, the case moves from school rumors to a digital investigation that will eventually reach the FBI.

This episode follows the case known as Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, a story about anonymous texting, spoofed numbers, cyberstalking, teenage relationships, and the way one hidden identity can turn an entire community against itself.

Content warning: cyberstalking, harassment, explicit messages involving minors, emotional abuse, and threats. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In São Paulo, Brazil, a man arrives for a date and sends three ordinary words: “Já estou aqui.” — I’m already here. But in this city’s wave of dating-app ambushes, those words can mean the trap has already closed.

This episode follows the rise of São Paulo app ambushes, known locally as golpe do amor, and sometimes called golpe do Tinder, where a fake profile becomes a meeting point, and the meeting point becomes a trap.

We begin with Felipe Afonso Araújo, then widen the lens: a survivor identified by UOL as “Jorge”, a pseudonym for privacy, and Eduardo Alexandre Deccó, who believed he was meeting a profile called “Jonnas.”

Then we pull back to the system: how conversations move to WhatsApp, how victims are profiled, why the address changes at the last second, how the phone becomes the key: PIX transfers, bank apps, passwords, and how laranjas, or money mules, help create distance between the crime and the people directing it.

And we end with what changed: how São Paulo authorities began targeting the structure around these crimes - leaders, account handlers, and money mules - while banks, prosecutors, and platforms faced pressure to move faster.

Content warning: abduction themes, threats, violence, and death. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A fifteen-year-old boy leaves in a car on a cold night in Cheshire, England, heading to a “special place.” By the time his friends realize something is wrong, the first thing they encounter isn’t the truth. It’s noise, rumors, fake accounts, and a trail built to misdirect.

This episode follows the case of Alex Rodda and the digital evidence that helped expose what happened, and the role friendship played in preserving the truth when the story online started to spiral.

Note: Some friends connected to the search were underage at the time. To respect UK reporting restrictions and privacy, this episode identifies certain individuals by role in Alex’s life rather than full names.

Content warning: grooming, coercion, homophobic threats, violence, and death. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A mother rushes through a Dublin hospital to pick up the woman she trusts: Lucy Fitzwilliams. But at reception, there’s no Lucy on the list. Just one name… and one location: “Samantha. Cubicle three.”

What follows is a true story of long-form identity fraud: a woman who doesn’t just lie, she becomes whoever the room is most ready to trust.

Over more than a decade, Samantha Cookes slips into real lives under new names and roles: a surrogate, a live-in nanny, a “therapist” offering help to families in crisis, and later, online, as Carrie Jade Williams.

This episode isn’t about people being foolish. It’s about compassion, and how the right performance can turn kindness into a passkey.

Content warning: identity fraud, deception, emotional exploitation, and manipulation. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Each year on June 17, we remember Mackenzie Lueck.

This is a remembrance re-release of our Season 1 episode on Mackenzie, 23 years old, last seen after a late-night arrival in Salt Lake City, taking a Lyft to Hatch Park to meet someone she’d been speaking to online… and then her phone went silent.

We reconstruct the timeline, the digital trail, and the investigation that followed, told with care for Mackenzie and the people who loved her.

Content warning: abduction, violence, and death (non-graphic).

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A red Kia Soul runs out of road in the California desert. Patrol units close in. A helicopter circles overhead. Police believe a 15-year-old girl is inside the car... along with an armed driver.

Then the name comes over the radio: Austin Lee Edwards. Deputy sheriff. Former Virginia State Police. And suddenly this isn’t just an abduction alert, it’s an authority nightmare.

Because the “boy” she thought she knew online wasn’t a boy at all. Investigators say Edwards used a fake teen identity to communicate with her, using the familiar mechanics of grooming and sextortion across platforms like Instagram and Discord: attention, secrecy, pressure, and control.

And when the screen stopped being enough… he drove cross-country from Virginia to Riverside, California, turning a digital lie into a real world emergency, one that began behind a phone and ended with police uncovering what was left behind on Price Court.

This episode isn’t only about one predator. It’s about the mechanism: how authority bias can become camouflage… and how a badge can buy a dangerous person time.

Content warning: grooming and sextortion involving a minor, abduction, violence, and death. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Morata de Tajuña sits just outside Madrid, Spain, a small town where routines are a heartbeat. And when that heartbeat stops… everyone feels it.

Three elderly siblings, known around town and always moving together, suddenly vanish from daily life. Days turn into weeks. The shutters stay closed. The lights don’t come on. And when authorities finally enter the home, Morata realizes this isn’t just a disappearance… it’s the end of something that had been building quietly for years.

This episode follows two forces that collide:

• The Spell: a long-running Facebook romance scam, messages that feel personal, promises that feel divine, and an “inheritance” that’s always one payment away.
• The Debt: when the money runs out, belief doesn’t disappear. It gets heavy. It turns local. And it becomes dangerous. Because their debt now has an address.

Content warning: romance fraud, financial exploitation, violence, murder, and discussion of disturbing crime-scene details. Listener discretion advised.

Hosted by Frank Battiston. Produced by Daniel Urdanivia. A PowerTale Podcasts production.

Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.

—

Follow LURKERS:

Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast

TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast

YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast

Website: www.thelurkerspodcast.com

Production note: All narration, quoted messages, and dramatized readings are performed by the host or human voice actors. Some voices are altered through sound design and are not original recordings unless identified as such.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.