What is Doxxing? A Gamer's Complete Guide to the Threat

You're in a heated match. Someone on the enemy team gets tilted. Then they type your real name in chat. Your address. Your phone number. Welcome to doxxing—one of the most terrifying experiences a gamer can face. ## What Exactly is Doxxing? Doxxing (also spelled "doxing") is the act of publicly revealing someone's private information without their consent. The term comes from "dropping docs" (documents) and originated in hacker culture in the 1990s. **Information commonly exposed in doxxes:** - Full legal name - Home address - Phone number - Email addresses - Workplace or school - Social media accounts - Photos - Family members' information ## Why Do People Doxx Gamers? **Revenge/Harassment:** Someone loses to you, gets banned because of your report, or just doesn't like you. They doxx you to intimidate, harass, or enable others to harass you. **Swatting:** The most dangerous form of doxxing. Attackers use your address to file false emergency reports, sending armed police to your home. This has resulted in deaths. **Financial Gain:** If you have valuable skins or accounts, attackers might doxx you as part of a social engineering attack to steal your assets. **Clout/Reputation:** In some toxic communities, doxxing someone "important" (streamers, esports players) earns social capital. **Ideological:** Political disagreements in gaming communities sometimes escalate to doxxing. ## How Do Doxxers Find Your Information? **1. Username Correlation:** Your gamertag is public. If you use the same username elsewhere (Twitter, Reddit, old forum accounts), attackers can find connected accounts and piece together your identity. **2. Data Breaches:** When gaming sites get hacked, your email, username, and sometimes real name get leaked together. This creates a map from your gaming identity to your real identity. **3. Social Engineering:** Attackers might befriend you in-game, join your Discord server, or pretend to be tournament organizers. Over time, they collect information you share casually. **4. OSINT (Open Source Intelligence):** Professional doxxers use public records, people-search websites, social media, and other public sources to build a complete profile. **5. IP Address:** In some games, your IP address is exposed to other players. This can be used to determine your approximate location or, in some cases, your ISP account holder's name. ## Real Consequences of Being Doxxed **Immediate Harassment:** - Phone calls and texts from strangers - Pizza deliveries you didn't order - Threatening messages to you and your family - Social media harassment **Swatting:** Armed police arriving at your home based on false reports. This is genuinely life-threatening. **Long-Term Impact:** - Information stays online forever - Future employers may find it - Ongoing anxiety and fear - Forced to move or change phone numbers **Professional Damage:** For streamers and esports players, doxxing can end careers and force retirement from public gaming. ## How to Protect Yourself **Username Hygiene:** - Use completely different usernames for gaming vs. personal accounts - Don't include identifying info in usernames (birth year, location, etc.) - Consider changing usernames periodically **Platform Privacy:** - Lock down Steam, Discord, and all gaming profiles - Don't reveal your timezone, location, or real name - Be cautious in voice chat about personal details **Breach Monitoring:** - Use GalaxyWarden to check what's already exposed - Get alerts when your gaming accounts appear in new breaches - Act quickly to change information when leaks occur **Separation of Identities:** - Keep your gamer identity completely separate from your real identity - Don't link social media to gaming accounts - Use a gaming-specific email **Physical Security:** - Use a VPN to hide your IP address - Be cautious about revealing your real location - Consider using a P.O. Box for any gaming-related mail ## What to Do If You're Doxxed **1. Document Everything:** Screenshot the doxx before it's taken down. You may need this for law enforcement. **2. Secure Your Accounts:** Change passwords, enable 2FA, check for unauthorized access. **3. Contact Platforms:** Report the doxx to the platform where it was posted. Most have policies against sharing personal information. **4. Alert Others:** Tell your family, employer, and local police that you've been doxxed and may receive harassment. **5. Consider Data Removal:** Services like DeleteMe can help remove your information from people-search sites. **6. Don't Engage:** Do not respond to the doxxer or their followers. This usually makes things worse. **7. Law Enforcement:** In many jurisdictions, doxxing is illegal. File a police report, especially if threats are made. ## The Bottom Line Doxxing is a serious threat, but it's not inevitable. With proper precautions—keeping your gaming and real identities separate, monitoring for breaches, and hardening your platform privacy—you can dramatically reduce your risk. GalaxyWarden was built specifically to help gamers protect themselves from this threat. We treat your gamer identity as something worth protecting, because it is.

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