Top 10 Creepiest Internet Mysteries

Top 10 Creepiest Internet Mysteries

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most chilling mysteries from the furthest corners of the Internet, both solved and unsolved.

#10: “I Am God”

While unsettling content isn’t rare on the internet, there are still examples that will rattle you to your core. One example is this 4chan-based mystery. Essentially, after someone claimed their friend's computer had been corrupted with random image and text tiles, users tried their hand at piecing the answer together. As they progressed, they found alarming details, such as binary code that translated to the phrase “I Am God”. Once the picture had been put together, it revealed an image of a bright red, screaming face. The thread was highly debated, with people arguing over whether it was legit, or if it was just someone trolling. While the answer is more than likely the latter, there are still far more questions than answers.

#9: Ted the Caver

This story helped bring about one of the Internet’s biggest creations: creepypastas, which are a variety of virtual horror stories. One such story was of Ted the Caver– an adventurous man who explores a cave, only to grow more lost and find countless horrors within it. The story was updated via blog posts, giving it an extra degree of realism. And the depiction of Ted’s growing unease and anxiety as he explored only added to that. It became a hot topic in the early-aughts, with countless arguments over its authenticity due to its descriptions of the cave. While the author revealed that some elements may have been exaggerated, there’s no doubt that this story has left a legacy that will live online forever.

#8: “Grave Robbing for Morons”

What is it about VHS quality that makes everything instantly creepier? As if talking about desecrating graves wasn’t unsettling enough, the grainy footage only makes it all the more disturbing. “Grave Robbing for Morons” was a VHS tape that has been circulated online over the years, depicting a young man as he casually explains how to get away with stealing from graves. He also went into detail on how you can tell the difference between real and fake bones. This twisted tutorial was only made worse when he held up a skull, seemingly proving his credibility. The truth behind the video is still unknown, but regardless, it has remained a shining example of how wild the internet can be.

#7: 112Dirtbag

Not much is known about him, besides his infamous claim to fame. 112Dirtbag published a video laughing eerily at the camera, before celebrating the anniversary of a woman who had gone missing. What was more chilling was that his channel name was weirdly similar to a comment her father had made about who could have hurt her. Online sleuths hit the scene, suggesting that he was the one responsible for her disappearance. 112Dirtbag was so convincing that he was interviewed by the police– only to be released after it was revealed he had supposedly just been trolling. While the trail has gone cold, the fact that someone may have lied about being involved in a victim’s disappearance just for clout is distressing in itself.

#6: 11B-X-1371

Everything about this is ominous, from the plague doctor masks to the desolate setting. The constant discordant electronic sounds and the shaky camerawork only adds to the unease. Beyond the surface, there’s even more creepiness to be found. The more it continued to circulate, the more people realized there were secrets hidden beneath the surface. Slowly, ciphers in the video were discovered. This caused mass speculation as people tried to solve them. There have also been images of gore found hidden within the video as well. There are tons of theories about what the truth is– ranging from a twisted prank to a marketing scheme. Regardless, Reddit dutifully records each update– and soon they may hopefully come close to finally cracking the case.

#5: The Jack Froese Emails

Emails can already be stressful enough– imagine what seemingly getting one from the undead must’ve felt like. There’s elements of a classic ghost story, with a supposed spirit named Jack Froese reaching out to his loved ones from the afterlife. While the reports were initially brushed away as a mean-spirited joke, the family insisted that there had been details that only he would’ve known. With this information in mind, more guesswork was done, and wild accusations were thrown out– from Froese’s family staging the whole thing, to the man himself scheduling the correspondence before his passing. While the answer is still unknown to this day, we can’t imagine what it is like for the family to receive those messages, assuming they weren’t responsible for them.

#4: Markovian Parallax Denigrate

For this mystery, we’ll need to hop off the internet and onto UseNet. “Markovian Parallax Denigrate” was the title of a series of cryptic threads, and the original unsolvable online puzzle. It was written off at the time and rediscovered decades later by new users. While they could’ve been the cause of an early text generator, there’s something about them that can’t be explained away so easily. Things only got weirder when the person behind the odd messages scrambled their IP, pinning them on someone else. That threw off the scent entirely, and people have been hungry for answers ever since. Today, it remains a legend of the old net.

#3: r/A858

At one point, this was Reddit’s white whale. The sub seemingly popped up out of nowhere, with the only posts being a series of random letters and numbers. Redditors everywhere were convinced they were elaborate clues. They took on the challenge readily, trying to decrypt some of the messages. While some were able to be solved, nothing ever led to concrete answers. Things were made even more cryptic when the sub was suddenly made private in the mid-2010s, supposedly ending the mystery in its tracks. It was later revealed that it had been a marketing scheme the entire time. While followers were disappointed that it wasn’t anything more exciting, they had to admit that it at least brought them together as a community.

#2: Webdriver Torso

People online will create mysteries about anything if they let their imaginations run wild enough. In the early 2010s, users were puzzled when strange videos were posted to an account called Webdriver Torso. They just depicted colorful shapes bouncing around. However, as they were published more consistently, guesses began to circulate. Some suggested that they were messages from spies, while others guessed they were recruitment videos. It was later discovered that Google owned the account, which only made things more dramatic. It was finally revealed that the profile was a test, creating new content as a way of keeping an eye on quality. While it may have been benign, that hasn’t caused it to fade away– in fact, it’s been embraced by Google itself.

#1: Cicada 3301

The creepiest mysteries are the ones that are truly unsolvable. Cicada 3301 puzzles hit the internet throughout the early 2010s, with the first one being released at the beginning of 2012. The object of the project? To supposedly find people with the highest IQs. If there’s one thing the web loves, it’s a challenge. People set out to solve it, and realized that it incorporated cryptography– which is essentially the study of hidden code. There have been plenty of conspiracies floating around about the group– with some even claiming that they’re a cult or behind larger conspiracies. The project went dark after a few years, as their third hint was never officially solved. Until it is, we may never get the next piece of this case.

What’s the most unsettling online mystery you’ve ever stumbled upon? Let us know in the comments below.