SPRING, Texas – A Spring woman said an email sent over a decade ago has led to years of stalking and harassment from someone she's never met.
"It's like living in torture every day and nobody will listen," Sam Lindsey said.
Lindsey told KPRC2 the online exchanges began over 10 years ago, when she and a friend worked as models for a website that no longer exists.
Part of the job, Lindsey said, included communicating with people who surfed the site. All seemed well at first, until, Lindsey said, one person began to stalk her friend.
"Started going after her, her family and her friends. Just destroying her name everything and she ended up committing suicide six years ago," Lindsey said.
Shortly thereafter, Lindsey said, the attacks came her way.
"He's made comments to me about saving me, that if I lived with him I wouldn't have to work," she said.
The exchanges quickly turned violent.
Lindsey shared several exchanges with KPRC2.
One read: "Your screams will make for a beautiful background to the classical music I'll play while torturing you."
Lindsey estimated she's received thousands of messages, believed to have been sent by one person.
"He's bouncing around all those servers throughout the world, so, nobody can pinpoint where he's at," Lindsey said.
Part of the stalker's strategy includes fake social media pages.
Lindsey said the stalker uses other methods to hack into her life, causing her to contact authorities.
"The authorities I went to all said to ignore him, just don't respond, he'll go away. We'll it's been 11 years and he hasn't gone away," Lindsey said.
Most experts say to ignore the comments or walk away from social media.
Lindsey told KPRC2 that's not an option for her because she uses social media for work -- advertising portraits she's created through her work as an artist.
"I've tried to promote my artwork, but he's constantly going around and destroying my page," she said.
Lindsey hopes sharing her story will help authorities track down the individual who has been stalking her.
She also hopes to send a message to others about dangers online.
"I just hope that somebody will actually take the time to fully find this guy. I've told this story to so many people who said they can help," Lindsey said.
The FBI has information on cyber attacks and how to protect yourself. You can find that information by clicking on this link.