True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

It's been a while since I have written a more personal post where I share my thoughts and views on a particular topic (true crime related) but in this post the focus is on the popular pre-loved website 'Vinted'. 

Like millions of people in the UK, I have an account on there where I sell second hand items, outfits that I no longer wear as well as things that I might have bought by mistake that still have the tags on. Vinted is an extra way to make money and the majority of it's users are younger and older women. 

A few years ago, Vinted wasn't as popular as it is now but with the cost of living crisis and everything being so expensive, people are looking to both save money and make money and that's where Vinted comes in. So, it all sounds like a positive thing right? Well, it should be and the majority of the time it is positive. You do come across the odd grumpy customer or purchase from a seller who ends up sending you a dirty or faulty item but like all things in life, it has it's good sides and bad. You get honest people on there and people out to scam, you just have to be as careful as you can. 

When I first opened an account with Vinted, I remember watching a shocking documentary about a lady who had gone undercover and it was revealed that women were routinely harassed on the vinted platform by creepy perverts. These men would freely open Vinted accounts and target women and young girls as well as screenshotting their pictures and putting them on a site called 'Vinted Sluts'. These perverts would rate women & young girls out of 10 and describe what they wanted to do sexually to them in graphic, violent terms. This site was supposed to have been closed down but as we know with incels and their like, they just find other ways to communicate or simply open other websites. 

When I first opened an account on Vinted it took just two days before I ended up flooded with perverts in my messages. I never promoted having a Vinted page but somehow these guys pounced on me within two days of me being on there, which also leads me to believe that these horrible sites and forums (where incels pass information and pictures to each other) are still online. Literally all in one night I had creep after creep harassing me...where were they all coming from? I was offered money to send them my used underwear, one also wanted me to pee on some underwear and send it to him. 

I like shopping for lingerie and sometimes when I have a delivery of items I take a second look and think ''Nah, I don't think these will fit me or I'm not really a fan of this colour, it looked different on the site etc'', so I will sell the lingerie which has never been worn and has the tags and hygiene safety stickers still on. 

I get requests (yes, creeps still jump into my messages on Vinted) if I post a lingerie set or a cropped top with requests to wear them and if I wear the thong (especially to the gym) they will pay me extra. I've had men pretending to be trans-women who are looking for style advice from me. I try to be polite and offer advice about clothes and the next minute they're telling me that they want me to dress them in women's underwear and clothes and humiliate them. 

With Vinted practically crawling with perverts you'd probably ask me why I still have an account on there, well it's because it is an easy, fun way to make some extra money on unwanted items and why should I leave? The thing that also scares me is the younger girls on there who are being creeped on, it scares me to think that they most probably have been receiving the same disgusting messages that I have. 

A couple of weeks ago I had this strange guy pop up in my messages telling me I was hot, I just thought to myself ''Here we go again, just ignore it and go about the day''. The next thing I know, this creep was following me on all of my social media platforms, on Instagram he was liking all of my pictures and was becoming a real pest. I ignored him and carried on with my work and then I got a notification from this guy on Vinted, he'd sent me a message telling me that he took it back that I was hot, he then proceeded to make fun of the fact that I'm a writer and that I had something wrong with me, he said I loved serial killers (anyone who is a follower of mine, a reader or knows me personally knows that is not true) and was being negative. I was really uncomfortable and made it clear that I didn't want him to message me, he carried on and then started talking about how I looked, telling me basically that I looked old. It was really dark and horrible to be honest and quite upsetting. I just wanted him to go away. 

I blocked and reported him but he's still got an account on there, he isn't a buyer, or a seller, he has no reviews. He has an account on Vinted purely to harass women and girls. 

I used to screenshot all of the creepy messages from Vinted on my phone and it got to the point that it was taking up too much space and to be honest, I didn't like seeing these things every time I'd go into my photo files. I deleted them all but I found one on my phone that I forgot to delete. There's no way to track these creeps anyway and nothing gets done about it. They use a variety of email addresses, fake names, fake dates of birth and stolen profile pictures to ensure they remain anonymous. 

Some of these creeps just get off on trying to tear a woman down or they just love to try and make conversation with you in your messages by pretending they are interested in what you're selling. They pretend to be a customer at first and then they change and turn pervy, unbeknown to you, they've been getting their rocks off just because you responded to their 'item enquiry'. 

Vinted has totally blown up now and I think it's even more difficult to avoid the creeps and freaks, there's just too many of them and when you report them, they just pop up again with another account. There was a guy who harassed me all weekend last year and every time I blocked his Vinted accounts, he popped up within seconds with another one. These creeps have multiple accounts. 

Now, it's not just the creeps that are an issue, there are some women on Vinted that are basically selling used panties and socks and are only too happy to accommodate these guys for the sake of a fiver or a tenner. These creeps are not multi-millionaires by the way, they offer you at the very most, £10 for used underwear on Vinted and I see these creeps sometimes purchasing from these women. I made the mistake when I first opened an account on Vinted, I saw a bundle of thongs that a woman had listed, she described them as new with tags but included IYKYK (If You Know You Know) in the description. Me, being oblivious contacted her about a possible bundle deal and she refused point blank to sell them to me. It turned out that the underwear had been worn and was only to be sold to these men. 

I was flabbergasted that all this seedy stuff was going on but it's the world we live in (you should see the monstrosities that I see on X/Twitter every day that some creep who's following me has reposted). I did what I always do....I researched and ended up down a seedy, dirty path. So not only do you have the creeps and perverts, the freaks and the scammers, you have women who sell dirty underwear and socks etc to these guys for a few pounds. I ended up on a forum that gave advice on how to sell dirty underwear to strangers, they wrap their used panties in foil to keep the 'discharge' (I'm really sorry to be graphic but that's their words) fresh otherwise it goes stale and mouldy. Can you believe it? So who can we blame for all of this when there's quite obviously a market for dirty knickers. 

I like to think of myself as open-minded but I'm sorry, I can't understand men who buy used panties from a stranger on the internet, they even purchase used panties off of women they have never seen, it could be anybody with any type of disease. It makes you feel sick!

I've been wanting to write this post for a while but I didn't think it would be received well or some people may take offence and see it as unprofessional but I always do and say what I like and some of this stuff just makes me nauseous. 

So, what would my advice be if you're on Vinted especially if you are a woman who has no interest in flogging her dirty knickers for a fiver to any old Harry, Bob and Jim. Here's some tips:

- Don't use your real address with deliveries, this info is often printed on postage labels. If you purchased from a seller, have your parcel sent to your nearest Newsagent/Supermarket.

- Try not to use any pictures of yourself and don't share personal information.

- If a creep pops up in your messages, don't read! First sign that it's a creep is the info you will see in the notification, if there are 0 reviews and 0 followers, that's usually a sign. Some creeps do have a handful of reviews from women they've bought dirty knickers from but you will be able to tell the difference. 

- A lot of these perverts and dirty underwear sellers operate on Telegram so you will usually see on their profile things such as their telegram username as well as IYKYK. 

- Report anyone who is harassing you by reporting and blocking, you may have to do this several times if the creep has a bunch of accounts they will get fed up eventually, trust me. 

- Screenshot if you want to keep evidence if someone is continuing to harass you as this may aid any investigation in tracking this individual down. 

Just be aware on there, trust your instincts and if you need someone to chat to about this, I am always available for advice, you can email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com all comments and conversations will be kept completely confidential. 

I know this post is a little bit different to what I usually post on here although I know a lot of you like my personal posts, I just wanted to talk about this, maybe someone else has gone through the same thing or is currently being harassed? Maybe there'w men who've been harassed by women on Vinted? We don't know because nobody is talking about it. Hopefully I have set the ball rolling for open discussion on how to make Vinted safer. 

If you've made it to this part in the post, I really appreciate it. I will be back to covering more serial killer cases and true crime in my next posts. In the meantime, I hope to see you as usual on my Socials

Remember, always trust your instincts and stay safe! See you in the next post x