48 Unsolved Internet Mysteries

#48: Author of “My Immortal”

Fan fiction has been around since the days of Shakespeare, but one in particular became legendary for all the wrong reasons. With its awful grammar and plot, “My Immortal” went down in history. For years, people have wanted to know the true identity of the author behind the Draco Malfoy romance. She introduced herself as Tara Gilesbie, and often featured comments from her friend Raven. This led to the belief that it’d been penned by Tara and Raven, two teenagers who went viral in 2009. In 2017, Rose Christo said she was a co-author, but her claims have yet to be confirmed. The Internet may never know the person behind the screen name, but the story continues to live on in infamy today.

#47: Gas Mask Test

While breathing apparatuses may help protect the lungs from harmful chemicals, it isn’t a catch all solution. One 4Chan user supposedly learned this the hard way in 2017. He posted a picture of the mask in question, alongside the ingredients to create chlorine gas. The substance is incredibly toxic, which he realized soon afterward. Less than an hour later, he published a photo of burns already forming on his arm. The worst part? Someone else chimed in to say his gas mask wouldn’t have helped in any way. Whether he survived or not is still a matter of contention. One Redditor claimed that OP survived and merely needed skin grafts. However, with no proof to back it up, others automatically assumed he passed away.

#46: u/Flippnflopp’s Fate

It may seem hard to believe that a seemingly unassuming white flower could lead to one of the most worrisome posts in Reddit’s history. However, this was no simple plant. User u/flippnflopp had acquired Datura, and they were about to experience the consequences of taking it. The substance has long been associated with negative trips, and has been known to affect everything from eyesight to bladder control. To make things worse, the user claimed to have taken a large dose. The subreddit waited for an update that never came. The only other activity from their account was a practically incoherent comment on r/gaming. Some speculated that he may have been trolling, but others were convinced that something much more tragic had occurred.

#45: Kate Yup

When someone doesn’t speak in their content, it makes everything else that occurs in their videos much more noticeable. That was how fans picked up on some of the eerier elements of Kate Yup’s ASMR mukbangs. She debuted in 2018, and became known for obscuring her face with strategic camera angles. Viewers began to catch on to ominous details. They pointed out hidden messages sent through on-screen text and Morse code, which were later deciphered as calls for help. The concern deepened with her sudden disappearance in 2019. Although she eventually returned and claimed to be fine, people weren’t convinced. To this day, it’s unclear if she was being held against her will, or if she was doing it all for views.

#44: Hotel ZaZa

Reddit isn’t just the front page of the Internet. It’s also a place where web-based enigmas gain prominence. One of the best examples comes from a 2013 thread in r/houston, where a guest discussed his experience at Hotel ZaZa. The location had themed rooms that screamed luxury— save for #322. It featured disturbing art pieces and chains connecting the bed to the wall. The hotel later claimed it had been designed after a jail cell, but Redditors weren’t convinced. To this day, it’s unclear if they were one step from blowing the case open, or if they were completely off base. The other burning question is why the hotel created the unsettling room in the first place, and who they thought might enjoy it.

#43: Coffin in the Driveway

In the mid-2010s, one Redditor shook the platform with a genuinely troubling photo. It featured a lone coffin sitting in his driveway. Upon opening it, they found a key and coordinates that led to a war cemetery in Germany. Right away, the comments jumped in with their opinions on the discovery. Many immediately wrote it off as a case of attempted viral marketing, while others rebutted that it didn’t seem to be advertising anything in particular. Someone even went to the graveyard to investigate. Through it all, OP was left wondering why they and their property had been chosen for this odd delivery. They abandoned the hunt shortly afterward, leaving us aching for a conclusion that will likely never come.

#42: WiFi Under Concrete Pad

Picking up a sudden Internet signal might seem like a stroke of good luck. Finding dozens, on the other hand, implies something potentially much darker. That was the experience had by u/throwawaywtfwila, who reported in 2016 that they had found 25-30 networks located beneath a concrete slab on an urban farm. A WiFi analyzer confirmed the findings. OP was convinced they had accidentally found an underground crime ring. Another Redditor recently linked the odd situation to Jeffrey Epstein, adding an even more sinister layer. Unfortunately, the original user seemingly abandoned the account shortly after their initial posts, and has never provided an update. The truth behind those signals — and whatever else may have been beneath the slab — has yet to be uncovered.

#41: Enigmatic Subreddit

Code is hard enough for the average person to understand, much less one like this. Back in 2012, a subreddit called r/F04cb41f154db2f05a4a was created, and things immediately took a turn for the weird. The posts were cryptic in nature, and featured strings of random characters. At least two pleas for help were issued. These, coupled with the former background portraying the Reddit mascot with a bleeding eye, made it terrifying to an outside observer. Users have spent years trying to translate the ciphers. While someone had luck with some of the newer messages, the ones associated with asking for help never were. The subreddit has seen a decrease in traffic recently, so it appears the truth might never be revealed.

#40: Goncharov

Amongst the darker mysteries the web has to offer, there is a rare bright spot. It all started with a Tumblr post featuring boots that promoted a Martin Scorsese film from 1973 called “Goncharov”. The only problem? It didn’t exist. The meme reignited in 2022, when other online denizens began creating fake posters, trailers, and even soundtrack scores for the non-existent movie. It soon became so mainstream that celebrities began playing along, including Scorsese himself. It was an Internet-wide inside joke that everyone loved. The one thing that was never resolved, however, was where the original user had gotten the boots that kicked off the craze. Were they actually real, or had they been photoshopped for a joke? We may never know for sure.

#39: Sleep as Android Recording

Tracking apps can be helpful in noticing differences in your sleep pattern…and any unwanted visitors throughout the night. One Redditor learned this in 2014, when their “Sleep as Android” app recorded a series of odd noises and a strange man’s voice. Theories began to run rampant in the comments. One insisted that OP had been the target of a home invasion. Others were convinced she had gone through a legitimate paranormal experience. She upgraded her home security, and luckily, the voices stopped. The clicking was another story. It apparently became a semi-frequent occurrence, lasting until she moved out. She never found out what the source was, and it seems she’s rightfully left this event behind for good.

#38: Dead Internet Theory

Most people might not think twice when it comes to who they’re interacting with online. It’s easy to assume there’s another human on the other side, but that isn’t always the case. The Dead Internet theory postulates that bots have taken over the web, and that everything we see has been pre-determined by an algorithm. It gained popularity in the early 2020s thanks to an uptick in AI generated content. Those who believed it pointed to GPT models and confirmed bot activity as evidence. Dissenters rebutted that there was no concrete proof of it, and that it was all a conspiracy. The debate is still ongoing, but it just goes to show that you never know who — or what — you’re talking to on the net.

#37: Freck’s New Feet

The unarchived version of his website may have been lost to time, but his legacy still lives on in infamy today. In the early 2000s, Paul “Freck” Morgan took the web by storm when he claimed he would stream himself amputating his own feet with a homemade guillotine. He went on to say that he planned to use pay-per-view purchases to fund prosthetics. Some wrote it off as a hoax. However, the sheer amount of detail in his history and plans seemed too in-depth for even the most dedicated trolls. The amputation kept being rescheduled, and eventually Freck fell off the map. Now, it’s unclear if he ended up going through the procedure traditionally, or if the whole thing was just a ruse.

#36: Paranoia.com

In the 1990s, it was a hotbed of sordid material. When you look up Paranoia.com now, however, you’re instead treated to the sight of the main page of the Walt Disney Company. What exactly would a family-friendly company want with a domain formerly known for its lack of boundaries? The answer to that question is still unknown to this day. The site went offline in 1999, but the name continued to bounce around well into the 21st century. It’s unclear when the corporation claimed it for themselves, or what they had planned for it. Some have hypothesized that it would eventually be used to advertise a movie of the same name, but the business has yet to confirm…or speak on the mystery at all.

#35: Adam Pacitti’s Dream Girl

Prior to the Internet, people would put out classified ads in an attempt to find a missed connection. The web has made it much easier to reach a worldwide audience, as evidenced by Adam Pacitti’s search. According to him, a woman made an appearance in his dreams one night, and he realized they were meant to be together. He was convinced they were meant to be, and a global search soon commenced. Millions tuned into his website, with some women even claiming to be the one in his subconscious. The question of the campaigns’ legitimacy still lingers. Pacitti himself has asserted it was all a social experiment, but it’s unclear if those who responded were in on the joke or hoping for a legitimate romantic connection.

#34: Red Rooms

It doesn’t get much darker than this. Some users purport that within the darkest corners of the net, people host sites where audience members watch helpless strangers be injured or even killed. In the most horrific cases, viewers vote or pay for a specific type of torture to be utilized. These supposed zones were eventually named “Red Rooms.” They’ve been the source of countless debates, with dissenters pointing out that there has never been a verified site of this nature. However, that could just mean that the perpetrators behind them have never been caught. We don’t recommend searching out these areas for yourself, as there’s no way to know just what you may stumble across.

#33: The Dark Web

Have you ever wondered what’s just beyond the scope of the web you know and love? Go past social media sites and Google, and you’re left with the dark underbelly of the net. On the Dark web, unencrypted sites and browsers reign supreme. There, people can explore unregulated content to their hearts’ content. Some are easier to stomach. Others, not so much. Users are subjected to a vast array of dark material, from black markets to depraved adult content. While the zone may be real, some of its claims— such as hitman-for-hire services— have been questioned by skeptics. It’s hard to tell where lore ends and sordid material begins. Should you dare to enter this realm, there’s no telling what you may find.

#32: Paris Catacombs: Lost Man

Getting lost in general is scary enough. Doing so in an underground mass grave is downright horrific. Viewers learned that while watching supposed found footage of a man attempting to navigate the Paris catacombs. The clip showed him devolving into panic, before starting to run. Through it all, those watching are exposed to odd paintings and human remains. The clip ended with the man dropping the camera and running off, leaving his fate unknown. Some have speculated that he simply had a nervous breakdown from fear. Others took a more sinister approach, and claimed he was being chased. Since its release, people have debated its legitimacy. There’s plenty of evidence for both camps, leading to debate that’s still raging on today.

#31: QAnon

When Internet conspiracies bleed into the mainstream, disaster strikes. QAnon is one of the most consequential examples. The anonymous 4Chan user claimed to be a government official, and made several cryptic posts asserting that high-powered people on the left would soon be exposed as members of an evil organization. Each drop was heavily scrutinized and theorized upon, which created a never-ending rabbit hole. It didn’t take long for the phenomena to escape the web. Several Trump associates have referenced Q, with the President himself even acknowledging it. Copy cats from other countries have also emerged. Despite its publicity, Q has never come forward to reveal their identity. Their influence has faded slightly, but the impact they had from behind a screen can’t be understated.

#30: Blank Room Soup

For many, this dish is a comfort food staple. In the context of this video, however, it’s anything but. Blank Room Soup gained notoriety soon after being uploaded. It showed a man with a censored identity eating, while a costumed figure styled after Raymond Persi’s RayRay character slowly approached him from behind. The man then began to cry, which led to several theories. Some were convinced it was a snuff film, while others believed he was being forced to eat his loved ones’ remains. Sequels have been posted, but the mystery still lives on. The identity of the supposed captive and captors has never been revealed, and at this point we may never learn if it was simply performance art— or something else much darker.

#29: Mortis.com

Since the web’s early days, there have been sites that have come and gone. While most were standard, some were more baffling. Mortis.com was one of the strangest, due to its name and threadbare appearance. When accessing it, users were met with a simple login prompt. Most people abandoned it right there, but a few were determined to get in. Once they did, they discovered that it hosted several terabytes of data. Considering that it was first created in the late 90s, this was no easy feat. Things only got crazier as the alleged developer was found– only to vanish when pressed for answers. Eventually, Mortis.com was shut down, taking its secrets with it.

#28: The Bridge

Some posts leave a permanent mark online. The tale of one person’s trip to a local structure has unsettled Redditors for years. The poster claimed they and their friends explored the interior of a bridge, leading to the discovery of several unsavory objects– including one that was bloodied. There was an immediate debate between people who insisted they had stumbled across a serial killer’s lair, and those who believed it was all a hoax. The follow-up only made things more complicated. This time, several photos of the bridge’s contents were uploaded, with the items ranging from a large knife to caution tape. The original account ended up being deleted, meaning the truth behind this potential real-life thriller may never be revealed.

#27: 112 Dirtbag

The disappearance of Maura Murray in 2004 rattled her community, and remains unsolved. Seven years after she went missing, a bone-chilling recording was uploaded to YouTube that essentially reignited the search. It was of an older man laughing at the camera, becoming more maniacal by the second. There was no context, but many immediately assumed he was the dperpetrator. There was even speculation that his username was a reference to an interview Murray’s father had given, and that he included a map to her body in a now removed clip. The outcry led to him being questioned, but he was ultimately released. Despite that, some people are convinced he was involved, and are still trying to get her family the closure they deserve.

#26: Sad Satan

Horror games have been beloved for a long time– but some are best left unplayed. “Sad Satan” takes scary to a whole new level. Supposedly created by someone on the dark web, its disconcerting content quickly led to it gaining notoriety. The gameplay only consisted of a character walking down a hallway, but it was far from boring. Along the way were random audio snippets, including Charles Manson interviews and disturbing lyrics. The mystery behind it was deep enough– but a subsequent cloned version made it worse. This iteration included several jumpscares, including graphic and potentially illegal images. No one knows who made either variation, leading to a theory that the original was the work of the Youtuber who initially brought it to light.

#25: The 432 Mystery

Let this be a reminder not to click any suspicious links. In the 2010s, random people began receiving random emails with URLs and a note stating they had been chosen. Some were morbidly curious and looked into it, only to be met with pages consisting of creepy messages. Puzzles were periodically uploaded and solved, and some became confident that they had outsmarted the owner. That is, until some of the participants were doxxed, with their photos and even their addresses being published. This made some people even more determined to learn the truth. For a while, there was a subreddit dedicated to solving it. However, it was inexplicably banned, causing the trail to go cold for good.

#24: The Box of Crazy

The name may be self-explanatory, but its origins definitely aren’t. On a forum dedicated to identifying unidentified objects, one person posted something truly mystifying. It was a suitcase filled with drawings, each more unsettling than the last. There were more technical illustrations like blueprints and maps, paired with chilling depictions of aliens and multi-headed deities. Some saw Biblical inspirations, and assumed it was the work of a believer going through a crisis. There were others who believed they were in communication with extraterrestrial beings. Of course, skeptical Redditors dismissed the whole thing as drug-induced or entirely fabricated. Despite the numerous theories, none have been verified, creating an enigma that has lasted over a decade.

#23: The Button

Reddit has gained a reputation for its annual April Fools day activities. While many have become iconic, one in particular somehow ended up being an odd social experiment on mob mentality. The Button was simple– a timer would count down, and people would click it. Then, they were assigned a color based on whatever number the clock was left on. A digital caste system was formed, with plenty of infighting between the various flairs. Eventually, the timer reached zero without a single click, bringing the months-long project to an end. Afterwards, many questioned why it’d caused such a frenzy, and why the administrators let it continue for so long. It remains one of the strangest unexplained instances of contemporary tribalism.

#22: Chip-Chan

Streamers may have been popularized on Twitch, but the concept has been around much longer. Some have been live since the earlier days of the net, including one woman known as Chip-Chan. She became well-known after people stumbled onto her content and were left with more questions than answers. Rather than interact with viewers, she simply slept on camera. Over time, it became clear that she never stopped filming. Chip-Chan insisted she was imprisoned and controlled by a device in her ankle. Those claims paired with her declining health caused several viewers to try and get her help, with no results. The lack of intervention led her audience to wonder if it was the case of a mental disorder, or something much darker.

#21: Mariana’s Web

By now, the existence of the Dark web is well-known. However, there may be another hidden layer, consisting of some truly unnerving things. Getting there is no easy feat, but those who have been successful claim to have seen a side of cyberspace they had never experienced before. It’s allegedly the home to a vast array of confidential information, belonging to individuals and larger entities. Not much is known around this mystical area, but apparently, users need a deep knowledge of quantum computing to even get close. Whether it’s real or not, the thought of so many important and private secrets potentially falling into the wrong hands is terrifying to think about.

#20: “Kanye Quest 3030”

In 2013, a bizarre game called “Kanye Quest 3030” was released for PC. Players controlled Kanye West and fought other rappers like Eminem and LL Cool J in “Pokémon”-style battles. However, this was merely a front for the so-called “real game.” If the player typed the word “ascend” into a dialogue box, they were taken to a freaky secret area. This segment of the game asked players for their personal information and contained a QR code that, if activated, would supposedly pull the user’s IP. Some people believe that this game was created by a cult known as Ascensionism and that it served as a recruitment tool. Others think it’s a weird alternate reality game. Either way, it’s super creepy.

#19: GhostNet

There’s a reason this thing is called GhostNet. Uncovered in 2009, GhostNet refers to a massive cyber spying operation that targeted over a thousand computers in over a hundred countries. Emails bearing sketchy attachments were sent to high-profile targets like foreign embassies and government offices. When opened, it would give the spies control over the computers. The command infrastructure was based in China, but no conclusive link to the Chinese government was made and the country denied any and all involvement in the attacks. To this day, no one knows who, exactly, was responsible. They’re as invisible and intangible as a ghost.

#18: Anonymous

A movement like this seems like something you’d only see in movies– and yet, it’s 100% real. Since the early 2000s, a hacktivism collection known as Anonymous has proven to hold real power online and in real life. Starting on 4Chan, they quickly became one of the most prominent groups of the modern era. Their targets have ranged from corporations to entire governments. Using voice modulators and masks resembling a widely beloved character, they’ve wreaked havoc and fought for important causes. There’s no known leader or objective, and those involved are instructed to not reveal their identities. While their presence has slightly waned in recent years, they’ve remained one of the most elusive aspects of the Internet as a whole.

#17: Unfavorable Semicircle

YouTube can be a weird place, and it’s filled with some puzzling videos. Beginning in April of 2015, a user called Unfavorable Semicircle began uploading some very strange videos. These didn’t have proper titles or descriptions, and they were very abstract in content. Nothing about them really made sense, and the videos ranged from just a few seconds to eleven hours in length. The channel quickly caught the attention of internet sleuths and even the BBC, who reported on it in 2016. In a shocking turn of events, Unfavorable Semicircle was suspended by YouTube shortly after the BBC piece had been published and has never been heard from again.

#16: Mr. Sleepy People

If one can’t feel safe in their own bed, where can they? Beginning in 2011, a YouTube channel called Mr. Sleepy People started posting odd videos. In them, the person behind the camera would approach sleeping women, before reaching out to pry open their eyes. Many of the subjects were intoxicated, leading some to believe he had drugged them. The identity of the perpetrator is still a mystery. He never showed his face, and he deleted his channel shortly after being called out. It’s still unknown who was behind the lurid acts, or if he truly stopped committing them.

#15: Grave Robbing for Morons

Could we have a genuine body snatcher on our hands? Some people certainly think so. “Grave Robbing for Morons” is a famous VHS tape of unknown origin. It depicts a young man holding a human skull and giving detailed instructions for robbing graves. No one knows where the tape came from, who is in it, or even if it’s genuine. The man in the video calls himself Anthony, and some people believe it could be Anthony Casamassima, who was arrested for pillaging graves in the late ‘90s. Others believe it’s a hoax made by a bootlegger known as Screws. Real or not, the video is supremely creepy.

#14: The Heaven’s Gate Website

Heaven’s Gate was a small American cult that was made famous in March of 1997 after 39 members of the cult took their own lives in order to “ascend” to a new plane of existence. A few of the members who survived have since been given the task to preserve their group’s legacy digitally. Heaven’s Gate’s website remains in operation and, as much as it is a glorious time capsule back to ‘90s web design, it also proclaims messages about leaving “this world.” No one really knows who runs the website, but all signs point to a couple named Mark and Sarah King.

#13: Alex from 4Chan

Spend about two minutes on 4chan and you’re bound to come across something disturbing. But, this probably takes the cake. In April of 2013, a post was made providing coordinates to an industrial area of Tennessee. Accompanying the coordinates was a piece of text claiming that a “prize” was awaiting those who visited. After users joked about going, the OP provided unsettling pictures of what looked like human remains and a body bag. A user calling himself Alex then visited the location and documented his frightening progress, but he abruptly stopped posting after hearing someone approaching. Maybe Alex was real and met a tragic fate, or maybe it was all just an elaborate hoax concocted by the original poster. Who knows?

#12: John Titor

We all want to believe in time travel, and John Titor may be proof of its existence. A user named TimeTravel_0 posted on the Time Travel Institute and Art Bell BBS forums in the early 2000s. They claimed to be a time traveler from the year 2036, describing the workings of a time machine in detail and even making various predictions about the future. The most elaborate was an American civil war that would break out in 2005 and lead to World War III. The posts were eventually traced to a Florida lawyer named Larry Haber, and it’s now believed that both Larry and his brother Richard were the men behind John Titor. Still, even a likely conclusion is not certifiable proof, and the enticing posts remain a mystery.

#11: The Elevator Game

It seems like every other month the kids are participating in a new trend. One dating a while back was called The Elevator Game. This trend originated in Korea and was said to bring its players into another dimension. The ritual game comes with a specific set of rules and instructions, like going to specific floors in a building and refusing to speak to the mysterious woman who supposedly eventually enters the elevator. The game gained popularity after the death of Elisa Lam, as some people theorized that she was participating in the game. Though this might just be some glorified creepypasta, one thing is for sure: it was popular enough to get a movie adaptation!

#10: The Jack Froese Emails

It’s one of the greatest and most popular ghost stories of the 2010s. Jack Froese contacts his friends and family from beyond the grave through the modern miracle of smartphones. Froese passed away in 2011, and people started getting strange emails shortly after. These emails were of a very personal nature with inside jokes and things that only Froese would have known about, including a dream his cousin had about him. Numerous theories have been put forth regarding the source of the emails, like scheduled sending and even Froese’s mother posing as her deceased son. Either way, his friends and family were happy to hear from him, and that’s good enough for us.

#9: Publius Enigma

For this internet puzzle, we’re going back to 1994, which makes this one of the earliest viral internet mysteries. At the time, Pink Floyd was on their Division Bell World Tour, and a user by the name of Publius posted a cryptic riddle relating to the band’s album on a fan forum. On July 16, Publius wrote on the forum that he would prove his authenticity in person, and two nights later, the words “Enigma Publius” were briefly spelled out in the stage lights at a Pink Floyd concert. Band members David Gilmour and Nick Mason claim that it was all a marketing stunt by the record company. Regardless, the riddle itself has never been solved. Then again, maybe it was never intended to be.

#8: Valor por Tamaulipas

Given its high level of journalist assassinations, the country is among one of the most dangerous for those in the press. This makes the work of Valor por Tamaulipas so much more honorable. This was a Facebook page run by… Well, no one knows. They would report on violence in the state of Tamaulipas, with most instances linking back to organized crime. By exposing such people, the administrator (or administrators) were putting themselves at great personal risk. Indeed, one criminal organization offered around $50,000 for information about them and their family. Thankfully, none of their identities were ever revealed.

#7: Oct282011.com

The internet is filled with many haunting and enigmatic websites, and oct282011.com was one of them. The page consisted of little more than a dark screen, some cryptic text that no one understood, plus a phone number. This is where things get really creepy. Those who actually called the number reported a series of unsettling noises, such as strange voices, heavy breathing, loud beeps, and one person even claimed to hear something being dragged across a floor. No one knew what the heck was going on, and October 28, 2011 didn’t amount to much either. That is, unless you count the release of Dreamworks’ “Puss in Boots.” The site was taken down in 2015, leaving behind a ton of questions that are still unanswered.

#6: 973-eht-namuh-973.com

Unlike Oct282011.com, this website is still up and running, so you can explore it to your heart’s content. Fair warning - you might be there a while trying to figure it all out. It’s more like a Russian Doll than a website, with links opening more links that open other links that open…well, you get the idea. The whole thing is super weird, with pages featuring distressing pictures, numerology, and Bible passages. Someone get Robert Langdon on the phone, stat! To this day, both the administrator and the nature of their website are unknown. It’s one of the internet’s finest, and more tantalizing mysteries.

#5: Markovian Parallax Denigrate

This is an all-time classic internet puzzle - and also one of the first. It dates back to 1996, when nonsensical texts were posted to the discussion system Usenet. Every single post had the subject line “Markovian parallax denigrate,” and the messages themselves were filled with even more unintelligible nonsense. It’s not necessarily creepy or troublesome. Just…weird. Many people believe that the messages are spam or some kind of primitive text generator, while others think it was the ramblings of a single troll. Whatever they are, the posts are no clearer today than they were in the ‘90s, and no one has any idea what they are supposed to mean.

#4: Internet Black Holes

Inspiring many epic works of science fiction, black holes, as defined by NASA, are “region[s] in space where the pulling force of gravity is so strong that light is not able to escape.” The name was lent to this strange phenomenon in which web traffic simply disappears. Working much like a black hole in space, an internet black hole sucks in discarded data packets when they can’t reach a router that’s either offline or disconnected. Neither the sender nor the recipient are informed of the delivery’s failure, and the packet of info just up and vanishes from the digital sphere.

#3: Bitcoin’s Founder

Bitcoin - many have heard of it, few understand it. But that’s not the mystery. The mystery lies in the currency’s founder. Or, maybe, founders. Absolutely nothing is known about the person or people responsible for Bitcoin. All we have is the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and a few alleged bits of personal information, like a Japanese heritage and the alma mater California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. A few people have been put forth as potential suspects, and an Australian computer scientist named Craig Steven Wright has claimed to be Nakamoto. However, many experts doubt his claim. Unfortunately, it’s the best we have at the moment in deducing Nakamoto’s identity.

#2: r/A858

No other mystery has captivated Reddit quite like A858. In the early 2010s, a mystifying subreddit was created that contained nothing but strings of letters and numbers. It soon gained popularity, and many Redditors devoted many hours to cracking the code. Some messages were successfully decoded, but not many. And, unfortunately for the internet sleuths who dedicated countless hours to solving the case, it led nowhere. The subreddit went private in 2016, leaving Redditors stumbling in the dark without answers. No one even knows why A858 was created in the first place but, hey, at least a valiant effort was made.

#1: Cicada 3301

Perhaps the greatest internet mystery of all was derived from where else but 4chan, on January 4, 2012. The post consisted of an elaborate puzzle centered around data security and cryptography. Two more puzzles followed in 2013 and 2014 - both of which were again posted on January 4. While the first two were eventually cracked, the third remains frustratingly unsolved. The puzzles were apparently made to recruit “highly intelligent individuals” for some cryptography-based mission or job. Many people believe it has something to do with government agencies like the NSA or CIA. Others believe that the challenges have a darker source and could be linked to cults or conspiracies. For now, though, it’s all up to individual discretion!

Which of these mysteries do you hope gets solved first? Let us know in the comments below!