Featured Image Credit: Basically Homeless/ YouTube
YouTuber Basically Homeless has made a career out of doing things that may or may not be considered 'responsible' (his own word) - filming videos that show what happens if you make some very silly digital choices.
Back in 2022 he was on a real spree of these videos, and one of his most popular uploads showed what happens if you knowingly give away your personal data on the dark web.
That's a pretty crazy idea, of course, but it's an interesting thought experiment since the words 'dark web' immediately summon fears of hackers and malicious malware.
The YouTuber bought a prepaid SIM card for a new phone number, set up a debit card that he's happy to have hacked, and then got going.
He even put these details on the desktop background of his computer, so that hackers had a chance to see them there if they take control.
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From there, he accessed the dark web and started browsing some extremely suspect-looking forums and chatrooms.
The links he clicked on are immediately sketchy looking, and he even tries to buy things - surely the quickest way to share your card details with bad actors.
One shop promised to let you pay for Bitcoin or 'cash money' at crazy rates, which you'd be surprised that anyone would fall for.
He's forced to blur out large portions of his screen throughout the video, given how dodgy these websites are - they must be riddled with NSFW images.
Downloading and installing a program called 'Virus Maker', though, takes things to the next level - it gives Basically Homeless a whole heap of crazy choices, including the baffling option to 'Kill computer', something he cannot resist.
He tries 'Kill computer' and runs the program, fading to black and skipping forward a few weeks as a cliffhanger.
He shows that he's had 13 texts on his leaked phone number, along with a host of emails - including messages from people claiming to be following him in real life - no wonder a commenter under the video said: "This video made me incredibly anxious lol, you're truly one of the bravest people I've ever seen!"
Attached photos show someone else's car, reassuringly, so it doesn't seem like his actual location got leaked.
Amazingly, though, the virus program that he installed doesn't seem to have killed his laptop - it certainly hasn't done anything good for it, but Basically Homeless wasn't done there.
He followed the video up with another where he actually paid a specific hacker to try to access his data, taking things up a notch.
This is an entertaining watch too, but it's also clear that you can learn quite a lot from his videos - specifically, that it's by far the safest option to just stay off the dark web entirely, since you're not risking anything if you never use it.
