Introducing... One-star review - Sweet Bobby

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[00:00]
Ground News Narrator
Why does the same news story sound completely different depending on where you read it? That confusion is exactly what Ground News was built to solve. It's an app and website that compares news coverage, allowing you to see how each story is framed across the political spectrum and the world. For the recent story about the US Signing the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, their vantage plan shows us right leaning. Daily Express framed it as a historic peace deal, while left leaning. NPR notes it resulted in the president's approval hitting record lows. Plus data like each publication's source of funding and a factuality rating. Nobel Peace center even called Ground News an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers and expand your worldview. Get 40% off by going to Ground News 2026. That's Ground News 2026 again. Ground News 2026.
[00:56]
Basha Cummings
The observer hello, it's Basha Cummings here. I was the editor of Sweet Bobby, and I'm here because I want to play you a story that was first told to me by my colleague Eva Wiseman. It starts with a mislaid phone and a missing shoe, and it quickly consumes both her life and the man to whom it all happened, a man that we're calling Ali. If you want to hear more stories like it, you can find it on our weekly narrative series, the Sloane Newscast. But for now, I'm going to hand over to Eva. So I should first say Ali is not his real name. We're having to protect his identity and we've also removed details that might make some people in the story identifiable. Mostly that's because it's ongoing and police are involved. People marching for peace in Gaza became a common sight in 2020. Images of brutality were filtering out of Gaza during Israel's relentless bombing campaign. The United nations says nearly a million
[02:12]
Ali's Mother
Palestinians have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip.
[02:16]
Basha Cummings
Gaza's Hamas run health ministry says at
[02:18]
Aura Advertiser
least 241 people have been killed in
[02:21]
Basha Cummings
the past 24 hours.
[02:24]
Ali
In Gaza itself, hospitals are overrun with
[02:27]
Ground News Narrator
the injured and the dead.
[02:30]
Basha Cummings
Each week, newspapers were filled with photos of death and destruction.
[02:34]
Aura Advertiser
Welcome back.
[02:35]
Basha Cummings
Amid growing concerns over the trajectory of the war, Israel appears to be signaling
[02:39]
Ali
it will not slow down its offensive in Gaza. The World Health Organization says almost all
[02:44]
Ground News Narrator
the hospitals in the Gaza Strip have now stopped functioning.
[02:52]
Ali
I was very vocal about Palestine. I was very vocal about being pro the Palestinian cause and everything they were enduring and endured.
[03:06]
Basha Cummings
Ali, a middle aged son of Middle Eastern parents, took part in the protests and was vocal about the cause online and in real life, where he quickly found community.
[03:17]
Ali
So I think to have a community, a WhatsApp group, members joining all the time. And for people to meet at the protest every week and to be together, that was. That was a nice thing for people to be part of.
[03:34]
Basha Cummings
He owns a small restaurant and had recently been expanding his business, setting up a restaurant in central London. And with COVID and soaring prices, it's not been easy, but he's managed it.
[03:44]
Ali
I've built my business from nothing and we've built a fucking. I'm proud of a global brand like that. We represent my diaspora across the world. And I couldn't be proud of my baby that I built.
[03:59]
Basha Cummings
These are busy times. Growing a business, organizing marches and rebuilding himself and his life after a breakup. In some ways, Ali's life began to be increasingly defined by his pro Palestinian stance. He was unabashed in making his views clear in a professional capacity, while that community behind the protests were becoming more like friends.
[04:19]
Ali
It was the peak time of the pro Palestinian movement in London with the protests. I was an avid supporter of going to the protests and I remember someone had mentioned that it was a guy's birthday and people were going there for drinks after the protest. I remember heading there and it was towards the end of the night when I was kind of. It wasn't like late, but I was kind of looking to wrap up and go. I met her. I'd say she's very charming. And I felt there was some vibe between us. That night I went to her place and we were intimate and that was kind of the start of, I guess, us dating.
[05:07]
Basha Cummings
Leila was a Palestinian banker, and while the relationship began well, within a few months they were on the rocks. They fought noisily and split up tearily and got back together twice. She explained the struggle of missing her family in Palestine and the way traumatic experiences as a child continued to affect her. For Ali, fresh out of a difficult relationship, it was too much to handle so quickly.
[05:31]
Ali
I remember towards the end I was just, I'm done.
[05:35]
Basha Cummings
Leila became pregnant, but they agreed to have an abortion. And Ali was keen to move on and focus on his work and his activism. As the conflict in Gaza deepened and escalated, Ali spent his Saturdays protesting in the press. He'd read about pro Palestinian activists having their online account censored. In 2023, Human Rights Watch reported on systemic online censorship, how Meta had been silencing voices in support of Palestine. And in 2024, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on a telegram group organized to troll and dox people spreading pro Palestinian messages. All this piqued Ali's anxiety.
[06:17]
Ali
I know people have. Their followings have been cut exponentially. Like loads of followers have been removed. Their reach, be it stories or engagement, is completely reduced. I'm not someone big time. These people are way bigger reaches than mine and all that stuff. But again, you're. You're paranoid.
[06:41]
Basha Cummings
Unusual things had been happening in his flat. Ali had new windows installed, which made his flat seem a little brighter. But days after the window fitters had left, he discovered certain things missing. The old Samsung phone, collections of spare change. He called the police. He told them about the windows and that he'd hosted dinner parties for his community of pro Palestine activists. That people had been coming in and out of his house. And then in early summer, an email arrived.
[07:10]
Ali
Hi, we've been watching you for some time. We know that you watch these porno websites. We know that you have got a girl pregnant. We know that you've got a cookbook deal. We know that you illegally employ staff at your business. We know that you take cash payments and don't declare it to hmrc.
[07:33]
Basha Cummings
The message was from somebody calling themselves an ethical hacker. They told him that unless he shut down his business's social media, they'd destroy him.
[07:43]
Ali
I think the next day there's a dick pic of mine that gets sent to me and it says, tick tock, tick tock. That's all it says, tick tock, tick tock. And a picture of my penis. So this was all off my old phone. So this is years before, Years before. And we'd like sent intimate messages to each other. And I remember seeing that and thinking, fuck.
[08:11]
Basha Cummings
And he wonders who's behind it.
[08:13]
Ali
And again it fed into like the Zionist thing coming after me to expose me due to my stand with Palestine.
[08:20]
Basha Cummings
It was then that Layla, his recent
[08:22]
Ali
text calls, the next day she calls me, missed call, missed call, missed call, missed call. I answer the phone, why on earth have you sent an email to my work? I was like, what? I haven't sent you anything. Why have you sent me an email to my work? The subject line says, pregnancy. What the fuck? I don't know what you're talking about. I said, check the email because I haven't sent you anything. And she said something along the lines of the firewall has blocked the email or the IT team have. Have blocked it, but they can see the subject line, they can see it's from Ali. And I was like, well, that's not me. And then she starts calming down, like, what is it? Like, what is it? Why is. Why is. Why. Why is. Why am I being sent something. And then she goes, did you receive anything? Did you receive anything? And I just said, no. I said, I don't know what you're talking about.
[09:26]
Basha Cummings
Every day saw another threat. One email read, simply having fun. On May 22, Leila called again in a panic, saying two emails had been sent to her workplace revealing her pregnancy. Emails were being sent in his name. He was getting security alerts about password changes, new two factor authentication requests on his Yahoo accounts, his Gmail outlook. Over a matter of weeks, there were hundreds of calls from friends, clients, colleagues and the managers of his restaurant complex saying they'd received another email containing explicit messages between Ali and dates, details of business expenses, the warning that he fucks Jewish women for Palestine. Ali's mother received an email congratulating her on a new grandchild. And his restaurant continued to be targeted. Their scheduling and till systems had been edited. People's names were misspelled, the menu had been changed and prices and opening times, the settings had been altered so staff could only accept cash. Local councils where he had kitchens received alerts.
[10:34]
Ali
They both got emails to say, there's rats in the kitchen, you need to expect that, close the premises down immediately. So we then had to deal with that.
[10:44]
Basha Cummings
At the end of May, Ali woke to find somebody had hacked into his restaurant's website and changed the homepage. There, beneath an unflattering photo of him, were lists of their cash takings. Individuals at his restaurant were targeted and threatened.
[11:00]
Ali
At that point, I felt really, really like despair and low. And there was this moment I thought, this is how and why people would probably commit suicide when they're under this level of like cyber attack and you don't really know how and where it's coming from. And built and stood for with like, values and integrity, like just like ruined.
[11:22]
Basha Cummings
And then silence.
[11:24]
Ali
I just couldn't sleep as well. I remember just like not sleeping. Within days I got my first like one star Google review and it was in Google. It was like anti Semitic, homophobic stuff, daft, don't come here. And then it was Jew hating business. Found hairs in my food also one star. This really rattled me again.
[11:50]
Basha Cummings
This is when I first came across Ali's story. The story I thought I was going to tell was whether Ali's Palestinian activism had caused his restaurant to suffer, whether he was being targeted for that activism.
[12:02]
Ali
I remember telling my friend, who was a bit of an IT guy, and he half an hour later was like, bro, this is what is being put on some Facebook groups. And it was like this cart and Paste paragraph that was shopped around these different Facebook groups that were far right Israeli groups saying we dined at alleys and we were shocked to say that we found the staff homophobic, anti Semitic and anti Jew. Please join us in leaving a one star review to fight against this anti Semitic hate. And I remember looking at who wrote that and again it was this Facebook like a dude account, a bot account. At the time I didn't know that and I was obsessed with who this guy is. You, you get lost in who is this guy?
[12:56]
Basha Cummings
Ali contacted Google to see if the reviews could be removed. But without much luck. In the one star reviews they kept coming and in under a week there
[13:05]
Ali
were over 100, I think it was, we counted 116 one star Google reviews had come in.
[13:13]
Basha Cummings
Ali has a screenshot on his phone from the time a glut of notification after notification coming in of his restaurant, getting one star reviews. Hairs on my food. They said staff were racist. One star Ali denied that he or anyone working for him was anti Semitic. The claims were lies.
[13:33]
Ali
They were based out in Tel Aviv and all sorts of places. But it was like, right, fuck him. Another business who hates us, let's get our own back.
[13:44]
Basha Cummings
At the time I was interested in the power of anonymous reviews at a time of instability in the hospitality industry. That summer 2024, Ali posted a statement on social media saying he'd been hacked, that lies were being spread and having a profound impact on his business. And then his friends, supporters, strangers, they showed up.
[14:05]
Ali
It went probably way more viral than I thought it could have. People re sharing, people then putting like five star reviews on my Google to show solidarity and support and people reporting the 1 star reviews and all this like amazing stuff.
[14:24]
Basha Cummings
But the day after friends commented underneath the post, lots of them received an email. The emails were from the hacker and contained details of Ali's alleged illegal activity and screenshots of explicit messages, including a link to a YouTube channel that had been created. It was made up solely of videos of Ali urinating. A friend of Ali's told me that he thought he was going mad. It was around this time when Leila received another email to her work that Ali realized he was spiraling.
[14:55]
Ali
I just remember at this point my head couldn't cope anymore and it was like I had a breakdown. I couldn't, I didn't know what to think or do or even believe anymore. It was like I broke. And I remember ringing my brother and I was like, can you collect me?
[15:14]
Basha Cummings
It was in June, following months of turmoil and torment that Ali finally shared what's been happening with his mum. He'd reached the end of what he could cope with.
[15:24]
Ali's Mother
So the actual weekend that he came home, my other son rang me. He said, oh, Mum, Ali's coming home for a few days. And I was always excited. I'm lovely, lovely. And they came through the door and my first reaction was, their father has died.
[15:41]
Basha Cummings
It took Ali a long time to confide in his family, especially his mother.
[15:45]
Ali's Mother
He was so distressed and he couldn't get words out because he was sobbing. And I said, ali, whatever it is, Mummy loves you unconditionally. We'll get through it. I can't imagine what has happened to make you be the way you're presenting yourself to me. Don't worry, we'll get through it. You think it's bad, but there's always a solution to a problem. Just sit and tell Mummy what it is. It was heartbreaking to see him so broken and, as a mum, helpless. I was there for him, like his strength to get him through it, as was his brother. We all struggled because we just, like, we listened. But what could we do?
[16:33]
Basha Cummings
Ali's mum sat and listened as he told the story of what the hacker had done.
[16:38]
Ali
I remember just collapsing, you know, in her arms. I. I did feel dead inside. I did feel like there was just nothing.
[16:50]
Ali's Mother
I just saw him broken. He wasn't eating.
[16:53]
Ali
And now I was protected and cocooned by my mom and my brother and my family. Now, shit went even further south.
[17:04]
Basha Cummings
Having been caught up with what had been happening, Ali's mum was now on hand.
[17:08]
Ali's Mother
I was meticulous in record keeping. So everything, every phone call, every email, every discussion, I logged with the date, so everything. We recorded every phone call, we updated the crime reference. And then we realized the crime reference wasn't the right number. So we didn't know where all these updates were going and we felt the police weren't taking it seriously. The overall police case and dealings with them have been disappointing.
[17:48]
Basha Cummings
Things continued, and the police, who he'd first contacted when his belongings went missing, weren't stepping up. Ali mentioned how unhelpful the police were being to his cousin, who introduced him to Nick, a private investigator. He spoke to them over Zoom.
[18:04]
Ali
I just felt like I'm with the right people. He goes, I want you to start from start to finish. And he says, I want all the details, warts and all. That was his term. And I remember two hours in, he just goes, like, I need to stop you, Ali. If I hear you say the hacker one more time. I'm gonna slap you. He's like, it's her.
[18:40]
Ground News Narrator
Why does the same news story sound completely different depending on where you read it? That confusion is exactly what Ground News was built to solve. It's an app and website that compares news coverage, allowing you to see how each story is framed across the political spectrum and the world. For the recent story about the US signing the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, their vantage plan shows us that right leaning Daily Express framed it as a historic peace deal, while left leaning NPR notes it resulted in the President's approval hitting record lows plus data like each publication's source of funding and a factuality rating. The Nobel Peace center even called Ground News an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers and expand your worldview. Get 40% off by going to Ground News2026. That's Ground News 2026 again. Ground News 2026.
[19:35]
Basha Cummings
I've been a journalist for a long time, but I tend to write about culture rather than crime. And I was unprepared when I started reporting this story, how much it would come to take over my life. I talked about it to my children. I messaged sources minutes after doing a wedding speech are regularly dreamed about. The protagonist, though we've changed people's names and removed some details. The unease that's real. The facts and threats made in the long shadow of a war in Gaza. The way distant conflict can influence identity and be used as a tool of manipulation. The way it provides a disturbing snapshot of an unusual moment that's all real. I'm Jewish and. And like many have spent the last three years unpicking the stories I was taught about Israel from my Jewish identity at a time when antisemitism is rising and when that rise is being politicized. One day I opened Instagram to a voice message.
[20:34]
Ali
You make me sick. Honestly, you make me sick. People like you make me sick, saying
[20:39]
Basha Cummings
I was destroying society from within.
[20:42]
Ali
You're influencing the people of this country to do the worst things.
[20:46]
Nick, Private Investigator
We know your game, okay, because you
[20:48]
Ali
are from the synagogue of Satan.
[20:50]
Nick, Private Investigator
We know.
[20:52]
Basha Cummings
It wasn't the first time I'd experienced antisemitism, of course, but this message bothered me more than previous ones, partly because of the man's voice, quite gentle in my ear, and the way he repeatedly used my name.
[21:05]
Ali
Now, what's interesting to me, Ava, okay, is your disposition to the profane.
[21:12]
Basha Cummings
Part of me also wondered perhaps whether I was being warned away from this story. His message was to be the first of hundreds that week, many of Them comments under memes featuring my face.
[21:24]
Ali
When the scum are expelled from civilized society, then we can continue what our ancestors started and what they have worked so hard to destroy.
[21:33]
Basha Cummings
One said. Another wrote, we need to find this
[21:36]
Ali
person in real life.
[21:38]
Basha Cummings
Another simply gas Jews. There was a feeling suddenly of being on quicksand. And so this story has taken on a special haunting resonance for me in a way I'd never quite expected. But it's not about me, it's about Ali and the story behind those one star reviews. One that involves blackmail, revenge, the limits of police power, that single missing shoe and a whole year stolen.
[22:10]
Ali
There's just so many layers to the story.
[22:14]
Basha Cummings
The year leading up to those one star reviews had been a catalogue of life miseries for Ally.
[22:19]
Ali
She was a friend of a friend. I'd known nothing about her.
[22:23]
Basha Cummings
He met Leyla at that dinner in the winter of 2023, following a protest. The relationship was volatile.
[22:29]
Ali
I think there were certain times where you just, every time you kind of got a bit close, it was like a pull away. And this real kind of Jekyll and Hyde, but also Tom and Jerry vibe. It was just so draining.
[22:45]
Basha Cummings
Layla was finding the Gaza war difficult, as was Ali, and Ali was stressed. Things were going missing. A certain measured paranoia soon settled in as he noticed odd things happening on his phone.
[22:58]
Ali
I remember one friend emailed me about charity catering for a charity thing. Like, the email disappeared from the face of the earth and I was racking my brains. I was like, I know this person sent me this email.
[23:15]
Basha Cummings
His laptop would suddenly run out of charge. People were struggling to contact him on WhatsApp.
[23:20]
Ali
I had photos deleted, I had followers unfollowed. I had WhatsApp people blocked. This is just like little blips happening.
[23:31]
Basha Cummings
He'd seen his friends have their followings online plummet, and he'd read about activists being targeted. But it wasn't just his digital footprint being targeted.
[23:40]
Ali
I remember I had to go to a wedding and my, my, my friend's wedding and my, my best pair of shoes, I had them out to wear and for whatever reason, I didn't bother wearing them and I, I, I left them wherever. I don't think it matched the outfit or I just didn'. And when I came back from the wedding, I just remember looking down and seeing that there was just like one shoe of my best pair of shoes tied in my room. And, like, I could only find one fucking shoe. And I was like, what?
[24:18]
Basha Cummings
We've all waylaid things. That momentary lapse where the brain steps out of its usual rhythm. But for Ali, this had been happening a lot.
[24:27]
Ali
I just remember feeling so cold. It was just like, what? But also, no, no, no, someone's not gonna fucking steal a shoe. It did then encourage me to have a look around my room. And at that point, I remember opening my wardrobe and there was quite a lot missing. Jumpers, jackets, James.
[24:54]
Basha Cummings
It felt as though there was a low ringing in the air, a tension that drifted through all aspects of Ali's life. Unable to shake his discomfort or suspicion that he was being targeted for his activism, he called the police again.
[25:07]
Ali
When the police entered, I was sharing with them what had happened. And obviously they're like. You could see their reaction. It wasn't laughter, but it was almost like, what? Everyone in the room is confused and I'm second guessing myself.
[25:24]
Basha Cummings
It was alongside this, Ali was struggling with his relationship with Layla. Towards the end of March 2024, he'd had enough.
[25:32]
Ali
I remember towards the end I was just, I'm done. That was. Yeah, that was the straw that. That broke the camel's back and there were a few straws. And that was the last occasion it was. She had an unbelievable outburst where she was like, forcing me to kiss her and I just didn't want to because, like, we'd already had, like, you know, we'd been. We'd already been on the rocks and she. She went a bit mad. I remember feeling very scared in the room.
[26:10]
Basha Cummings
Ali cried himself to sleep that night, but it felt like there was hope too.
[26:15]
Ali
And what was lovely is I was getting out of there. I had a consultancy job in France.
[26:22]
Basha Cummings
The next day, in April 2024, Ali left for a consultancy job in Europe and away from Leyla. But the messages didn't stop.
[26:31]
Ali
She still didn't get it. Her saying, I love you fiercely, Ali, and I'll do whatever it takes. And I was just like, this is not love. We're now post France. I come back and I just remember she was insistent on meeting and then she tells me her period's late and I just felt sick.
[26:53]
Basha Cummings
Leila was pregnant and said it was his.
[26:56]
Ali
I think quite early on she could see that I wasn't going to be a fucking idiot about things. I was there to be like, look, if abortion is on the cards, I can't force you, but if I can, I don't know, support or be there, I will, but at the same time, I don't want to be with you. And it was like early stages of my life being hacked. I didn't know who the perpetrator was now. I wanted to get as far away from this female as possible.
[27:30]
Basha Cummings
She phoned Ali constantly. He'd made his position clear. He'd like her to get an abortion, but he would support her.
[27:37]
Ali
You need to pay and book the morning after pill and you need to book a hospital appointment and pay for it. And this was quite early on. So I remember I walked with her to this appointment and I never forget. We got to the door, I wanted to, like, understand what was going on. Is it even mine? Is it like, what happening here? And I remember she made me wait outside. She was like, no, no, no, you're not coming in. And I remember feeling, what? And again, I look back now, it's just another form of controlling the narrative.
[28:16]
Basha Cummings
As weeks passed, Layla's mood was increasingly charged. In England, Scotland and Wales, women can only take the abortion pill at home within 10 weeks of pregnancy. Ali felt like time was running out.
[28:28]
Ali
She was alluding to like, we're done now. Let's get this wrapped up. But I couldn't trust or fucking anything that was coming out of her mouth. Everything was choppy, choppy and changing and everything. Biologically, we were running out of time. I was just, fucking hell, we're nearly there. Because at this stage, again, I just wanted to know so I could just get on with my life.
[28:54]
Basha Cummings
He'd been out drinking with a friend when suddenly he was getting bombarded with messages.
[28:58]
Ali
And I remember her constantly being like, who are you with? Who are you with? Who are you with? Who are you with? Where? Where are you? Where are you? And at this stage, I'm. I'm not giving her anything because everything I did give her before was ammunition against me. So I'm not gonna fucking tell you shit.
[29:20]
Basha Cummings
Ali was insistent. He wanted her out of his life.
[29:24]
Ali
And I was asking her, do. Do you want to do it at yours? Do you want to do it at mine again? Like, I look back now, I'm like, what was I doing? Do you want to do it? Do you want to do it at a hotel? This is the final curtain now. And she was like, yeah.
[29:46]
Basha Cummings
Relief swept Ali. He bought her a hot water bottle, but she wanted reassurance, something to show he wouldn't abandon her. After the abortion, it got to a
[29:56]
Ali
point where I had to sign something to say I wouldn't go anywhere for X amount of weeks. Dear Layla, this is my personal guarantee that I will be by your side throughout the abortion. She doesn't take the pill. Two days later, an official hacker reveals himself in my inbox. And this is the real start of the story. The email is from an email domain called Ethical Hacker9988ProtonMe.
[30:42]
Basha Cummings
Nick is in his 50s, ex military, ex law enforcement, bald, charismatic. His company specializes in cyber intelligence and cyber security. Businesses hire them to test their internal systems as actual ethical hackers. But Ali's was not a typical hacking case. For one thing, the hacker wasn't hacking him. They were accessing his accounts. Nick quickly worked out from the single stolen Samsung phone, tracking him on Google Maps, social media and WhatsApp. A picture began to emerge in April, on the day Ali had left his laptop at Layla's flat. Mid fight, an IT consultant told him it had been installed with software that scrapes its data, then self destructs. Nick compiled a report. It described how Ali felt he'd been the victim of what I deemed to be coercive and controlling behaviour with an ex partner. Ali's mum had put together records of all their interactions and incidents, realising how unlike Ali, it was for things to go missing.
[31:49]
Ali's Mother
He treated himself for his 40th birthday to these handmade shoes, which I said, you're ridiculous, paying that for them. You're mad. He wanted to treat himself. Then one went missing, like, how does that happen? And so he was telling me all snippets of how the relationship. He distanced himself. He knew this relationship was going nowhere with her behaviors and what she'd put him through. And so this was an outpouring, you know, while he was telling me, they
[32:27]
Basha Cummings
put together a timeline of events, logging IP addresses to identify where the user had accessed the Internet.
[32:34]
Nick, Private Investigator
So things happened. You'll have to forgive me, I can't remember which account it was. Things happened on one of Ali's accounts that was from Ali's house, from his IP address and Ali wasn't there. So I'd go back to Ali saying, right, I've identified this, this date time. Where were you? No, you know, and everyone. It was coming back to that one individual.
[33:01]
Basha Cummings
He drew up a concise statement so that Ali could present their findings to the police.
[33:07]
Nick, Private Investigator
On 27th of April, 2024, I understand Ali reported numerous items missing from his flat to the police, one of which was his old Samsung mobile phone. As the images sent and accounts accessed were from the original stolen mobile phone. I felt this linked these two offences. This was not a sophisticated attack, but it is in fact the actions of someone with a personal grudge against Ali. The IP data indicated Ali's ex girlfriend, Leila to be the offender. The degree of malice directed against Ali has caused me to be concerned for Ali's personal safety.
[33:51]
Basha Cummings
After reading the report, Ali looked back at his texts with Layla.
[33:55]
Ali
They're not there because everything's been deleted by her. All the tracks have been covered and do you know what's still there? I've still got it now is like a message from her saying she loves me.
[34:08]
Basha Cummings
Suddenly, things started to come into focus. He remembered one time when Layla said her mum was being targeted getting phone calls from random numbers.
[34:18]
Ali
She went into my browser history after she said, have you googled me? And then she like, again, like, had a big hoo ha about that. Oh, oh, that's great. They must have everything now. Could see quite a lot of things. I can't even explain to you how this felt, but it was almost like she was showing me how her the hacker has got the info. It was like she was showing me and then I remember saying to her, like, how the fuck do you know all this? And she just had this fucking weird smirk on her face.
[34:55]
Basha Cummings
Using the information gathered by Nick, Ali and his mum went back to the police. But he found them slow and frustrating, despite his pleas.
[35:03]
Ali
I need to show you this spreadsheet. This is complex. There's layers to this. There's evidence already pointing to her, there's things I need to share with you. There are things that need to be actioned very, very soon because they have a shelf life, like IP addresses.
[35:24]
Basha Cummings
After a certain amount of time, typically between six to 18 months, IP data is no longer recoverable. At the time Ali had this meeting, over a year had passed since the harassment had begun. To this day, they still have his laptop. There was one police officer though, that Ali felt grateful for. When police came to his flat after he'd reported those odd initial thefts, he told them he'd been dating a woman who he thought was unstable.
[35:51]
Ali
And I'll never forget, as the policewoman left, she was like, have you heard of Claire's Law?
[35:59]
Basha Cummings
In Salford, in 2009, 36 year old Clair Wood was murdered by an abusive ex boyfriend who had a history of violence against women. Following a campaign by her father in 2014, England and Wales formally rolled out Claire's Law, also known as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. This is a police policy giving people the right to know if their partner or ex has any previous history of violence or abuse. In May, Ali's mother made an application to the police on his behalf. And about a month after that, they called her back recommending a secure line. By this time, he was so fearful he was using a selection of burner phones. And in the meeting, he was crying so much he felt like he was floating above himself, looking down at the scene. Afterwards, his mother remembers, he said they'd
[36:48]
Ali's Mother
put him on a 999 watch list so he feels he's in trouble or in a dangerous place. They will go out to him immediately, and he said, mum, that's all I can tell you.
[37:02]
Basha Cummings
A source later revealed to us that Ali was not Layla's only victim. When laid out like this, it might feel obvious, but Ali still can't shake the sense it might be connected to his activism. In some ways, he's not wrong. When Ali first started to tell me his story, unpeeling the year as if an onion, it revealed itself to be a chronicle of harassment that spoke immediately to the febrile moment we find ourselves in, of displaced tensions and geopolitical anxieties and unfinished paths of justice. It was also a portrait of the competing powers of an Internet in flux. Ali used it to bolster his political causes. His blackmailer used it to attack. By the winter of 2024, the harassment seemed to have stopped. The question of why him lingered. If it was Layla, this level of revenge for his rejection of their brief relationship seemed outsized, unhinged. Had he wronged her in a way he didn't realize? Had he been correct, if only obliquely, to feel that he was being targeted for his activism? Was their relationship an example of geopolitics in miniature? Ali's experience, while shocking, is not uncommon. In 2021, 41% of US adults reported that they'd experienced online harassment, with rates significantly higher for women journalists, activists, and LGBTQ people. Since then, generative AI has escalated this even further, enabling automated harassment at scale. Ali wondered what role gender played in his case and about the way structures of justice for online crimes are evolving far slower than the crimes themselves. Me, I felt blinded by a modern horror story and how easy it is to ruin a life. Nick, Ali's private investigator, advised him not to be interviewed by the Observer. Still, he understood Ali's impulse to talk. He needs to take control of his life, he said. But it's a gamble, he told him. Be prepared, because this isn't the end. The observer.
[39:34]
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Summary6 min read

Sweet Bobby – “Introducing… One-Star Review” (July 30, 2026)

Episode Overview

This episode of Sweet Bobby from Tortoise Media, hosted and edited by Basha Cummings, introduces a new investigative story told by journalist Eva Wiseman. The narrative follows "Ali," a London restaurateur and pro-Palestinian activist, as his life is upended by an intense, personal cyber harassment campaign. What begins as a missing phone and shoe spirals into a year-long ordeal of reputational sabotage, digital stalking, and psychological distress. The episode explores themes of trust, revenge, digital vulnerability, activism, and the failures of institutions meant to protect victims of online abuse.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Activism & Community (02:11–05:06)

Ali is deeply entrenched in pro-Palestinian activism amid the escalation in Gaza. He finds community at protests and through activist groups.
- Quote [03:16]:
  “To have a community, a WhatsApp group, members joining all the time. And for people to meet at the protest every week and to be together, that was… a nice thing for people to be part of.” – Ali
Ali is also balancing the challenges of expanding his restaurant business in London against the backdrop of COVID and economic turbulence.
- Quote [03:44]:
  “I've built my business from nothing and... I'm proud of a global brand… we represent my diaspora across the world.” – Ali

2. The Relationship and Its Fallout (05:06–06:17, 22:09–27:30)

Ali enters a tumultuous relationship with "Leila," a Palestinian banker, following a protest in 2023. Quickly, the relationship grows toxic, culminating in an abortion and separation.
- Quote [05:30]:
  “I remember towards the end I was just, I'm done.” – Ali
Leila’s emotional volatility, surveillance-like behavior, and manipulation foreshadow deeper issues.
- Quote [29:45]:
  “It got to a point where I had to sign something to say I wouldn’t go anywhere for X amount of weeks. Dear Leila, this is my personal guarantee…” – Ali

3. Rising Paranoia and Online Harassment (06:17–11:49, 22:44–24:53)

Ali begins noticing strange happenings: missing objects, phone and account anomalies, disappearing social media messages, and aggressive digital interference. A series of threatening emails and leaked personal content follows.
- Quote [07:10]: (From a blackmail email)
  “We know that you watch these porno websites. We know that you've got a girl pregnant. We know that you illegally employ staff… Unless you shut down your business’s social media, we’ll destroy you.”
- Quote [11:22]:
  “At that point, I felt really, really like despair and low. And there was this moment I thought, this is how and why people would probably commit suicide when they're under this level of cyber attack…” – Ali

4. Impact on Business: Orchestrated Review Bombing (11:24–14:24)

Ali’s restaurant becomes the target of hundreds of fake one-star Google reviews, posted in far-right Facebook groups. These accuse his business of antisemitism, homophobia, and even food safety violations.
- Quote [12:01]:
  “We dined at Ali’s and we were shocked… Please join us in leaving a one star review to fight against this anti-Semitic hate.” – Ali
Despite trying to remove the reviews and mounting evidence of sabotage, Ali feels powerless as business suffers.

5. Community Support and Continued Harassment (14:04–15:13)

Following a public post from Ali detailing his ordeal, supporters respond with solidarity and positive reviews. However, the hacker retaliates with even more invasive attacks, targeting Ali’s friends and exposing intimate materials.

6. Emotional Breakdown and Family Involvement (15:13–17:04)

At breaking point, Ali finally confides in his family, revealing the emotional toll and sense of helplessness.
- Quote [15:45]:
  “He was so distressed and he couldn't get words out because he was sobbing. And I said, Ali, whatever it is, Mummy loves you unconditionally. We'll get through it…” – Ali’s Mother
His mother takes on the role of meticulous record-keeper, but frustration mounts at the lack of help from authorities.

7. Institutional Failure and Turning to a Private Investigator (17:47–18:40, 30:41–33:51)

The police are initially uninterested and ineffective. A private investigator, Nick, steps in and quickly identifies that Leila is likely behind the attacks.
- Quote [18:03]:
  “If I hear you say the hacker one more time… It's her.” – Nick, Private Investigator
Nick’s report uses digital forensics to link cyberattacks to her IP address and access points.

8. Personal and Geopolitical Overlap (19:35–21:38, 37:01–37:23)

Both Ali and Basha Cummings (the journalist) endure personalized digital harassment, including antisemitic abuse tied to their activism, identity, and reporting.
- Quote [20:34]:
  “You make me sick. Honestly, you make me sick. People like you make me sick…” – Anonymous Harasser (to Basha)
- Quote [21:36]:
  “We need to find this person in real life.” – Commenter
The episode reflects on how online hate and geopolitical tensions spill over into personal lives, weaponizing digital platforms for vengeance.

9. Revelations, Unanswered Questions, and Modern Vulnerabilities (34:55–End)

Leila’s actions amount to coercive control, digital stalking, and possibly a pattern of abuse with other victims.
Ali is left with lingering questions: Was he targeted solely for rejecting Leila romantically, or did his activism play a role? Is this a symptom of larger dysfunctions—both personal and political?
The final takeaways emphasize both the fragility of online reputations and the slow pace of justice for digital crimes:
- Quote [37:23]:
  “Ali wondered what role gender played in his case and about the way structures of justice for online crimes are evolving far slower than the crimes themselves.” – Basha Cummings

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

[03:44] Ali: “I've built my business from nothing… I couldn't be prouder of my baby that I built.”
[07:10] Blackmailer (email): “Hi, we've been watching you for some time… Unless you shut down your business's social media, they'll destroy you.”
[11:22] Ali: “There was this moment I thought, this is how and why people would probably commit suicide when they're under this level of like cyber attack…”
[15:45] Ali’s Mother: “He was so distressed and he couldn't get words out because he was sobbing. And I said, Ali, whatever it is, Mummy loves you unconditionally…”
[18:03] Nick: “If I hear you say the hacker one more time… It's her.”
[20:34] Harasser (to Basha): “You make me sick… People like you make me sick, saying I was destroying society from within.”
[32:33] Nick: “Things happened on one of Ali's accounts that was from Ali's house, from his IP address and Ali wasn't there... It was coming back to that one individual.”
[35:03] Ali: “I need to show you this spreadsheet. This is complex. There's layers to this. There's evidence already pointing to her…”
[37:23] Basha Cummings: “Ali wondered what role gender played in his case and about the way structures of justice for online crimes are evolving far slower than the crimes themselves.”

Major Segments with Timestamps

[02:11–05:06]: Introduction to Ali – activism, business, early relationship with Leila
[06:17–11:49]: Onset of cyber harassment, escalation, and business sabotage
[14:04–15:13]: Public solidarity, intensification of harassment, psychological breakdown
[17:47–18:40]: Police failure, Nick the private investigator revelation
[19:35–21:38]: Basha Cummings experiences similar harassment, reflecting broader themes
[22:09–27:30]: Retrospective on relationship red flags and descent into cyberstalking
[30:41–33:51]: Technical investigation by Nick, compiling evidence against Leila
[34:55–37:23]: Reckoning with justice system lag, societal implications, and unresolved trauma

Tone and Reflection

The episode maintains the first-person, emotionally raw storytelling style Sweet Bobby is known for—intimate, confessional, empathetic, but with investigative rigor. It refuses to flatten complex personal and political dynamics, exploring both the vulnerabilities of activism in a polarized age and the profound dangers of digital insecurities manipulated by people close to us.

Conclusion

“One-Star Review” is a contemporary cautionary tale about mistrust, digital exposure, and how technology amplifies old forms of vengeance into new, chilling threats. It’s an investigation not just into a single case, but the shifting landscape of digital harassment, institutional failure, and the resilience required to survive both. This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in online justice, activism, or the messy entanglement of the personal and the political in the internet age.

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Transcript126 lines

[00:00]
Ground News Narrator
Why does the same news story sound completely different depending on where you read it? That confusion is exactly what Ground News was built to solve. It's an app and website that compares news coverage, allowing you to see how each story is framed across the political spectrum and the world. For the recent story about the US Signing the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, their vantage plan shows us right leaning. Daily Express framed it as a historic peace deal, while left leaning. NPR notes it resulted in the president's approval hitting record lows. Plus data like each publication's source of funding and a factuality rating. Nobel Peace center even called Ground News an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers and expand your worldview. Get 40% off by going to Ground News 2026. That's Ground News 2026 again. Ground News 2026.
[00:56]
Basha Cummings
The observer hello, it's Basha Cummings here. I was the editor of Sweet Bobby, and I'm here because I want to play you a story that was first told to me by my colleague Eva Wiseman. It starts with a mislaid phone and a missing shoe, and it quickly consumes both her life and the man to whom it all happened, a man that we're calling Ali. If you want to hear more stories like it, you can find it on our weekly narrative series, the Sloane Newscast. But for now, I'm going to hand over to Eva. So I should first say Ali is not his real name. We're having to protect his identity and we've also removed details that might make some people in the story identifiable. Mostly that's because it's ongoing and police are involved. People marching for peace in Gaza became a common sight in 2020. Images of brutality were filtering out of Gaza during Israel's relentless bombing campaign. The United nations says nearly a million
[02:12]
Ali's Mother
Palestinians have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip.
[02:16]
Basha Cummings
Gaza's Hamas run health ministry says at
[02:18]
Aura Advertiser
least 241 people have been killed in
[02:21]
Basha Cummings
the past 24 hours.
[02:24]
Ali
In Gaza itself, hospitals are overrun with
[02:27]
Ground News Narrator
the injured and the dead.
[02:30]
Basha Cummings
Each week, newspapers were filled with photos of death and destruction.
[02:34]
Aura Advertiser
Welcome back.
[02:35]
Basha Cummings
Amid growing concerns over the trajectory of the war, Israel appears to be signaling
[02:39]
Ali
it will not slow down its offensive in Gaza. The World Health Organization says almost all
[02:44]
Ground News Narrator
the hospitals in the Gaza Strip have now stopped functioning.
[02:52]
Ali
I was very vocal about Palestine. I was very vocal about being pro the Palestinian cause and everything they were enduring and endured.
[03:06]
Basha Cummings
Ali, a middle aged son of Middle Eastern parents, took part in the protests and was vocal about the cause online and in real life, where he quickly found community.
[03:17]
Ali
So I think to have a community, a WhatsApp group, members joining all the time. And for people to meet at the protest every week and to be together, that was. That was a nice thing for people to be part of.
[03:34]
Basha Cummings
He owns a small restaurant and had recently been expanding his business, setting up a restaurant in central London. And with COVID and soaring prices, it's not been easy, but he's managed it.
[03:44]
Ali
I've built my business from nothing and we've built a fucking. I'm proud of a global brand like that. We represent my diaspora across the world. And I couldn't be proud of my baby that I built.
[03:59]
Basha Cummings
These are busy times. Growing a business, organizing marches and rebuilding himself and his life after a breakup. In some ways, Ali's life began to be increasingly defined by his pro Palestinian stance. He was unabashed in making his views clear in a professional capacity, while that community behind the protests were becoming more like friends.
[04:19]
Ali
It was the peak time of the pro Palestinian movement in London with the protests. I was an avid supporter of going to the protests and I remember someone had mentioned that it was a guy's birthday and people were going there for drinks after the protest. I remember heading there and it was towards the end of the night when I was kind of. It wasn't like late, but I was kind of looking to wrap up and go. I met her. I'd say she's very charming. And I felt there was some vibe between us. That night I went to her place and we were intimate and that was kind of the start of, I guess, us dating.
[05:07]
Basha Cummings
Leila was a Palestinian banker, and while the relationship began well, within a few months they were on the rocks. They fought noisily and split up tearily and got back together twice. She explained the struggle of missing her family in Palestine and the way traumatic experiences as a child continued to affect her. For Ali, fresh out of a difficult relationship, it was too much to handle so quickly.
[05:31]
Ali
I remember towards the end I was just, I'm done.
[05:35]
Basha Cummings
Leila became pregnant, but they agreed to have an abortion. And Ali was keen to move on and focus on his work and his activism. As the conflict in Gaza deepened and escalated, Ali spent his Saturdays protesting in the press. He'd read about pro Palestinian activists having their online account censored. In 2023, Human Rights Watch reported on systemic online censorship, how Meta had been silencing voices in support of Palestine. And in 2024, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on a telegram group organized to troll and dox people spreading pro Palestinian messages. All this piqued Ali's anxiety.
[06:17]
Ali
I know people have. Their followings have been cut exponentially. Like loads of followers have been removed. Their reach, be it stories or engagement, is completely reduced. I'm not someone big time. These people are way bigger reaches than mine and all that stuff. But again, you're. You're paranoid.
[06:41]
Basha Cummings
Unusual things had been happening in his flat. Ali had new windows installed, which made his flat seem a little brighter. But days after the window fitters had left, he discovered certain things missing. The old Samsung phone, collections of spare change. He called the police. He told them about the windows and that he'd hosted dinner parties for his community of pro Palestine activists. That people had been coming in and out of his house. And then in early summer, an email arrived.
[07:10]
Ali
Hi, we've been watching you for some time. We know that you watch these porno websites. We know that you have got a girl pregnant. We know that you've got a cookbook deal. We know that you illegally employ staff at your business. We know that you take cash payments and don't declare it to hmrc.
[07:33]
Basha Cummings
The message was from somebody calling themselves an ethical hacker. They told him that unless he shut down his business's social media, they'd destroy him.
[07:43]
Ali
I think the next day there's a dick pic of mine that gets sent to me and it says, tick tock, tick tock. That's all it says, tick tock, tick tock. And a picture of my penis. So this was all off my old phone. So this is years before, Years before. And we'd like sent intimate messages to each other. And I remember seeing that and thinking, fuck.
[08:11]
Basha Cummings
And he wonders who's behind it.
[08:13]
Ali
And again it fed into like the Zionist thing coming after me to expose me due to my stand with Palestine.
[08:20]
Basha Cummings
It was then that Layla, his recent
[08:22]
Ali
text calls, the next day she calls me, missed call, missed call, missed call, missed call. I answer the phone, why on earth have you sent an email to my work? I was like, what? I haven't sent you anything. Why have you sent me an email to my work? The subject line says, pregnancy. What the fuck? I don't know what you're talking about. I said, check the email because I haven't sent you anything. And she said something along the lines of the firewall has blocked the email or the IT team have. Have blocked it, but they can see the subject line, they can see it's from Ali. And I was like, well, that's not me. And then she starts calming down, like, what is it? Like, what is it? Why is. Why is. Why. Why is. Why am I being sent something. And then she goes, did you receive anything? Did you receive anything? And I just said, no. I said, I don't know what you're talking about.
[09:26]
Basha Cummings
Every day saw another threat. One email read, simply having fun. On May 22, Leila called again in a panic, saying two emails had been sent to her workplace revealing her pregnancy. Emails were being sent in his name. He was getting security alerts about password changes, new two factor authentication requests on his Yahoo accounts, his Gmail outlook. Over a matter of weeks, there were hundreds of calls from friends, clients, colleagues and the managers of his restaurant complex saying they'd received another email containing explicit messages between Ali and dates, details of business expenses, the warning that he fucks Jewish women for Palestine. Ali's mother received an email congratulating her on a new grandchild. And his restaurant continued to be targeted. Their scheduling and till systems had been edited. People's names were misspelled, the menu had been changed and prices and opening times, the settings had been altered so staff could only accept cash. Local councils where he had kitchens received alerts.
[10:34]
Ali
They both got emails to say, there's rats in the kitchen, you need to expect that, close the premises down immediately. So we then had to deal with that.
[10:44]
Basha Cummings
At the end of May, Ali woke to find somebody had hacked into his restaurant's website and changed the homepage. There, beneath an unflattering photo of him, were lists of their cash takings. Individuals at his restaurant were targeted and threatened.
[11:00]
Ali
At that point, I felt really, really like despair and low. And there was this moment I thought, this is how and why people would probably commit suicide when they're under this level of like cyber attack and you don't really know how and where it's coming from. And built and stood for with like, values and integrity, like just like ruined.
[11:22]
Basha Cummings
And then silence.
[11:24]
Ali
I just couldn't sleep as well. I remember just like not sleeping. Within days I got my first like one star Google review and it was in Google. It was like anti Semitic, homophobic stuff, daft, don't come here. And then it was Jew hating business. Found hairs in my food also one star. This really rattled me again.
[11:50]
Basha Cummings
This is when I first came across Ali's story. The story I thought I was going to tell was whether Ali's Palestinian activism had caused his restaurant to suffer, whether he was being targeted for that activism.
[12:02]
Ali
I remember telling my friend, who was a bit of an IT guy, and he half an hour later was like, bro, this is what is being put on some Facebook groups. And it was like this cart and Paste paragraph that was shopped around these different Facebook groups that were far right Israeli groups saying we dined at alleys and we were shocked to say that we found the staff homophobic, anti Semitic and anti Jew. Please join us in leaving a one star review to fight against this anti Semitic hate. And I remember looking at who wrote that and again it was this Facebook like a dude account, a bot account. At the time I didn't know that and I was obsessed with who this guy is. You, you get lost in who is this guy?
[12:56]
Basha Cummings
Ali contacted Google to see if the reviews could be removed. But without much luck. In the one star reviews they kept coming and in under a week there
[13:05]
Ali
were over 100, I think it was, we counted 116 one star Google reviews had come in.
[13:13]
Basha Cummings
Ali has a screenshot on his phone from the time a glut of notification after notification coming in of his restaurant, getting one star reviews. Hairs on my food. They said staff were racist. One star Ali denied that he or anyone working for him was anti Semitic. The claims were lies.
[13:33]
Ali
They were based out in Tel Aviv and all sorts of places. But it was like, right, fuck him. Another business who hates us, let's get our own back.
[13:44]
Basha Cummings
At the time I was interested in the power of anonymous reviews at a time of instability in the hospitality industry. That summer 2024, Ali posted a statement on social media saying he'd been hacked, that lies were being spread and having a profound impact on his business. And then his friends, supporters, strangers, they showed up.
[14:05]
Ali
It went probably way more viral than I thought it could have. People re sharing, people then putting like five star reviews on my Google to show solidarity and support and people reporting the 1 star reviews and all this like amazing stuff.
[14:24]
Basha Cummings
But the day after friends commented underneath the post, lots of them received an email. The emails were from the hacker and contained details of Ali's alleged illegal activity and screenshots of explicit messages, including a link to a YouTube channel that had been created. It was made up solely of videos of Ali urinating. A friend of Ali's told me that he thought he was going mad. It was around this time when Leila received another email to her work that Ali realized he was spiraling.
[14:55]
Ali
I just remember at this point my head couldn't cope anymore and it was like I had a breakdown. I couldn't, I didn't know what to think or do or even believe anymore. It was like I broke. And I remember ringing my brother and I was like, can you collect me?
[15:14]
Basha Cummings
It was in June, following months of turmoil and torment that Ali finally shared what's been happening with his mum. He'd reached the end of what he could cope with.
[15:24]
Ali's Mother
So the actual weekend that he came home, my other son rang me. He said, oh, Mum, Ali's coming home for a few days. And I was always excited. I'm lovely, lovely. And they came through the door and my first reaction was, their father has died.
[15:41]
Basha Cummings
It took Ali a long time to confide in his family, especially his mother.
[15:45]
Ali's Mother
He was so distressed and he couldn't get words out because he was sobbing. And I said, ali, whatever it is, Mummy loves you unconditionally. We'll get through it. I can't imagine what has happened to make you be the way you're presenting yourself to me. Don't worry, we'll get through it. You think it's bad, but there's always a solution to a problem. Just sit and tell Mummy what it is. It was heartbreaking to see him so broken and, as a mum, helpless. I was there for him, like his strength to get him through it, as was his brother. We all struggled because we just, like, we listened. But what could we do?
[16:33]
Basha Cummings
Ali's mum sat and listened as he told the story of what the hacker had done.
[16:38]
Ali
I remember just collapsing, you know, in her arms. I. I did feel dead inside. I did feel like there was just nothing.
[16:50]
Ali's Mother
I just saw him broken. He wasn't eating.
[16:53]
Ali
And now I was protected and cocooned by my mom and my brother and my family. Now, shit went even further south.
[17:04]
Basha Cummings
Having been caught up with what had been happening, Ali's mum was now on hand.
[17:08]
Ali's Mother
I was meticulous in record keeping. So everything, every phone call, every email, every discussion, I logged with the date, so everything. We recorded every phone call, we updated the crime reference. And then we realized the crime reference wasn't the right number. So we didn't know where all these updates were going and we felt the police weren't taking it seriously. The overall police case and dealings with them have been disappointing.
[17:48]
Basha Cummings
Things continued, and the police, who he'd first contacted when his belongings went missing, weren't stepping up. Ali mentioned how unhelpful the police were being to his cousin, who introduced him to Nick, a private investigator. He spoke to them over Zoom.
[18:04]
Ali
I just felt like I'm with the right people. He goes, I want you to start from start to finish. And he says, I want all the details, warts and all. That was his term. And I remember two hours in, he just goes, like, I need to stop you, Ali. If I hear you say the hacker one more time. I'm gonna slap you. He's like, it's her.
[18:40]
Ground News Narrator
Why does the same news story sound completely different depending on where you read it? That confusion is exactly what Ground News was built to solve. It's an app and website that compares news coverage, allowing you to see how each story is framed across the political spectrum and the world. For the recent story about the US signing the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, their vantage plan shows us that right leaning Daily Express framed it as a historic peace deal, while left leaning NPR notes it resulted in the President's approval hitting record lows plus data like each publication's source of funding and a factuality rating. The Nobel Peace center even called Ground News an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers and expand your worldview. Get 40% off by going to Ground News2026. That's Ground News 2026 again. Ground News 2026.
[19:35]
Basha Cummings
I've been a journalist for a long time, but I tend to write about culture rather than crime. And I was unprepared when I started reporting this story, how much it would come to take over my life. I talked about it to my children. I messaged sources minutes after doing a wedding speech are regularly dreamed about. The protagonist, though we've changed people's names and removed some details. The unease that's real. The facts and threats made in the long shadow of a war in Gaza. The way distant conflict can influence identity and be used as a tool of manipulation. The way it provides a disturbing snapshot of an unusual moment that's all real. I'm Jewish and. And like many have spent the last three years unpicking the stories I was taught about Israel from my Jewish identity at a time when antisemitism is rising and when that rise is being politicized. One day I opened Instagram to a voice message.
[20:34]
Ali
You make me sick. Honestly, you make me sick. People like you make me sick, saying
[20:39]
Basha Cummings
I was destroying society from within.
[20:42]
Ali
You're influencing the people of this country to do the worst things.
[20:46]
Nick, Private Investigator
We know your game, okay, because you
[20:48]
Ali
are from the synagogue of Satan.
[20:50]
Nick, Private Investigator
We know.
[20:52]
Basha Cummings
It wasn't the first time I'd experienced antisemitism, of course, but this message bothered me more than previous ones, partly because of the man's voice, quite gentle in my ear, and the way he repeatedly used my name.
[21:05]
Ali
Now, what's interesting to me, Ava, okay, is your disposition to the profane.
[21:12]
Basha Cummings
Part of me also wondered perhaps whether I was being warned away from this story. His message was to be the first of hundreds that week, many of Them comments under memes featuring my face.
[21:24]
Ali
When the scum are expelled from civilized society, then we can continue what our ancestors started and what they have worked so hard to destroy.
[21:33]
Basha Cummings
One said. Another wrote, we need to find this
[21:36]
Ali
person in real life.
[21:38]
Basha Cummings
Another simply gas Jews. There was a feeling suddenly of being on quicksand. And so this story has taken on a special haunting resonance for me in a way I'd never quite expected. But it's not about me, it's about Ali and the story behind those one star reviews. One that involves blackmail, revenge, the limits of police power, that single missing shoe and a whole year stolen.
[22:10]
Ali
There's just so many layers to the story.
[22:14]
Basha Cummings
The year leading up to those one star reviews had been a catalogue of life miseries for Ally.
[22:19]
Ali
She was a friend of a friend. I'd known nothing about her.
[22:23]
Basha Cummings
He met Leyla at that dinner in the winter of 2023, following a protest. The relationship was volatile.
[22:29]
Ali
I think there were certain times where you just, every time you kind of got a bit close, it was like a pull away. And this real kind of Jekyll and Hyde, but also Tom and Jerry vibe. It was just so draining.
[22:45]
Basha Cummings
Layla was finding the Gaza war difficult, as was Ali, and Ali was stressed. Things were going missing. A certain measured paranoia soon settled in as he noticed odd things happening on his phone.
[22:58]
Ali
I remember one friend emailed me about charity catering for a charity thing. Like, the email disappeared from the face of the earth and I was racking my brains. I was like, I know this person sent me this email.
[23:15]
Basha Cummings
His laptop would suddenly run out of charge. People were struggling to contact him on WhatsApp.
[23:20]
Ali
I had photos deleted, I had followers unfollowed. I had WhatsApp people blocked. This is just like little blips happening.
[23:31]
Basha Cummings
He'd seen his friends have their followings online plummet, and he'd read about activists being targeted. But it wasn't just his digital footprint being targeted.
[23:40]
Ali
I remember I had to go to a wedding and my, my, my friend's wedding and my, my best pair of shoes, I had them out to wear and for whatever reason, I didn't bother wearing them and I, I, I left them wherever. I don't think it matched the outfit or I just didn'. And when I came back from the wedding, I just remember looking down and seeing that there was just like one shoe of my best pair of shoes tied in my room. And, like, I could only find one fucking shoe. And I was like, what?
[24:18]
Basha Cummings
We've all waylaid things. That momentary lapse where the brain steps out of its usual rhythm. But for Ali, this had been happening a lot.
[24:27]
Ali
I just remember feeling so cold. It was just like, what? But also, no, no, no, someone's not gonna fucking steal a shoe. It did then encourage me to have a look around my room. And at that point, I remember opening my wardrobe and there was quite a lot missing. Jumpers, jackets, James.
[24:54]
Basha Cummings
It felt as though there was a low ringing in the air, a tension that drifted through all aspects of Ali's life. Unable to shake his discomfort or suspicion that he was being targeted for his activism, he called the police again.
[25:07]
Ali
When the police entered, I was sharing with them what had happened. And obviously they're like. You could see their reaction. It wasn't laughter, but it was almost like, what? Everyone in the room is confused and I'm second guessing myself.
[25:24]
Basha Cummings
It was alongside this, Ali was struggling with his relationship with Layla. Towards the end of March 2024, he'd had enough.
[25:32]
Ali
I remember towards the end I was just, I'm done. That was. Yeah, that was the straw that. That broke the camel's back and there were a few straws. And that was the last occasion it was. She had an unbelievable outburst where she was like, forcing me to kiss her and I just didn't want to because, like, we'd already had, like, you know, we'd been. We'd already been on the rocks and she. She went a bit mad. I remember feeling very scared in the room.
[26:10]
Basha Cummings
Ali cried himself to sleep that night, but it felt like there was hope too.
[26:15]
Ali
And what was lovely is I was getting out of there. I had a consultancy job in France.
[26:22]
Basha Cummings
The next day, in April 2024, Ali left for a consultancy job in Europe and away from Leyla. But the messages didn't stop.
[26:31]
Ali
She still didn't get it. Her saying, I love you fiercely, Ali, and I'll do whatever it takes. And I was just like, this is not love. We're now post France. I come back and I just remember she was insistent on meeting and then she tells me her period's late and I just felt sick.
[26:53]
Basha Cummings
Leila was pregnant and said it was his.
[26:56]
Ali
I think quite early on she could see that I wasn't going to be a fucking idiot about things. I was there to be like, look, if abortion is on the cards, I can't force you, but if I can, I don't know, support or be there, I will, but at the same time, I don't want to be with you. And it was like early stages of my life being hacked. I didn't know who the perpetrator was now. I wanted to get as far away from this female as possible.
[27:30]
Basha Cummings
She phoned Ali constantly. He'd made his position clear. He'd like her to get an abortion, but he would support her.
[27:37]
Ali
You need to pay and book the morning after pill and you need to book a hospital appointment and pay for it. And this was quite early on. So I remember I walked with her to this appointment and I never forget. We got to the door, I wanted to, like, understand what was going on. Is it even mine? Is it like, what happening here? And I remember she made me wait outside. She was like, no, no, no, you're not coming in. And I remember feeling, what? And again, I look back now, it's just another form of controlling the narrative.
[28:16]
Basha Cummings
As weeks passed, Layla's mood was increasingly charged. In England, Scotland and Wales, women can only take the abortion pill at home within 10 weeks of pregnancy. Ali felt like time was running out.
[28:28]
Ali
She was alluding to like, we're done now. Let's get this wrapped up. But I couldn't trust or fucking anything that was coming out of her mouth. Everything was choppy, choppy and changing and everything. Biologically, we were running out of time. I was just, fucking hell, we're nearly there. Because at this stage, again, I just wanted to know so I could just get on with my life.
[28:54]
Basha Cummings
He'd been out drinking with a friend when suddenly he was getting bombarded with messages.
[28:58]
Ali
And I remember her constantly being like, who are you with? Who are you with? Who are you with? Who are you with? Where? Where are you? Where are you? And at this stage, I'm. I'm not giving her anything because everything I did give her before was ammunition against me. So I'm not gonna fucking tell you shit.
[29:20]
Basha Cummings
Ali was insistent. He wanted her out of his life.
[29:24]
Ali
And I was asking her, do. Do you want to do it at yours? Do you want to do it at mine again? Like, I look back now, I'm like, what was I doing? Do you want to do it? Do you want to do it at a hotel? This is the final curtain now. And she was like, yeah.
[29:46]
Basha Cummings
Relief swept Ali. He bought her a hot water bottle, but she wanted reassurance, something to show he wouldn't abandon her. After the abortion, it got to a
[29:56]
Ali
point where I had to sign something to say I wouldn't go anywhere for X amount of weeks. Dear Layla, this is my personal guarantee that I will be by your side throughout the abortion. She doesn't take the pill. Two days later, an official hacker reveals himself in my inbox. And this is the real start of the story. The email is from an email domain called Ethical Hacker9988ProtonMe.
[30:42]
Basha Cummings
Nick is in his 50s, ex military, ex law enforcement, bald, charismatic. His company specializes in cyber intelligence and cyber security. Businesses hire them to test their internal systems as actual ethical hackers. But Ali's was not a typical hacking case. For one thing, the hacker wasn't hacking him. They were accessing his accounts. Nick quickly worked out from the single stolen Samsung phone, tracking him on Google Maps, social media and WhatsApp. A picture began to emerge in April, on the day Ali had left his laptop at Layla's flat. Mid fight, an IT consultant told him it had been installed with software that scrapes its data, then self destructs. Nick compiled a report. It described how Ali felt he'd been the victim of what I deemed to be coercive and controlling behaviour with an ex partner. Ali's mum had put together records of all their interactions and incidents, realising how unlike Ali, it was for things to go missing.
[31:49]
Ali's Mother
He treated himself for his 40th birthday to these handmade shoes, which I said, you're ridiculous, paying that for them. You're mad. He wanted to treat himself. Then one went missing, like, how does that happen? And so he was telling me all snippets of how the relationship. He distanced himself. He knew this relationship was going nowhere with her behaviors and what she'd put him through. And so this was an outpouring, you know, while he was telling me, they
[32:27]
Basha Cummings
put together a timeline of events, logging IP addresses to identify where the user had accessed the Internet.
[32:34]
Nick, Private Investigator
So things happened. You'll have to forgive me, I can't remember which account it was. Things happened on one of Ali's accounts that was from Ali's house, from his IP address and Ali wasn't there. So I'd go back to Ali saying, right, I've identified this, this date time. Where were you? No, you know, and everyone. It was coming back to that one individual.
[33:01]
Basha Cummings
He drew up a concise statement so that Ali could present their findings to the police.
[33:07]
Nick, Private Investigator
On 27th of April, 2024, I understand Ali reported numerous items missing from his flat to the police, one of which was his old Samsung mobile phone. As the images sent and accounts accessed were from the original stolen mobile phone. I felt this linked these two offences. This was not a sophisticated attack, but it is in fact the actions of someone with a personal grudge against Ali. The IP data indicated Ali's ex girlfriend, Leila to be the offender. The degree of malice directed against Ali has caused me to be concerned for Ali's personal safety.
[33:51]
Basha Cummings
After reading the report, Ali looked back at his texts with Layla.
[33:55]
Ali
They're not there because everything's been deleted by her. All the tracks have been covered and do you know what's still there? I've still got it now is like a message from her saying she loves me.
[34:08]
Basha Cummings
Suddenly, things started to come into focus. He remembered one time when Layla said her mum was being targeted getting phone calls from random numbers.
[34:18]
Ali
She went into my browser history after she said, have you googled me? And then she like, again, like, had a big hoo ha about that. Oh, oh, that's great. They must have everything now. Could see quite a lot of things. I can't even explain to you how this felt, but it was almost like she was showing me how her the hacker has got the info. It was like she was showing me and then I remember saying to her, like, how the fuck do you know all this? And she just had this fucking weird smirk on her face.
[34:55]
Basha Cummings
Using the information gathered by Nick, Ali and his mum went back to the police. But he found them slow and frustrating, despite his pleas.
[35:03]
Ali
I need to show you this spreadsheet. This is complex. There's layers to this. There's evidence already pointing to her, there's things I need to share with you. There are things that need to be actioned very, very soon because they have a shelf life, like IP addresses.
[35:24]
Basha Cummings
After a certain amount of time, typically between six to 18 months, IP data is no longer recoverable. At the time Ali had this meeting, over a year had passed since the harassment had begun. To this day, they still have his laptop. There was one police officer though, that Ali felt grateful for. When police came to his flat after he'd reported those odd initial thefts, he told them he'd been dating a woman who he thought was unstable.
[35:51]
Ali
And I'll never forget, as the policewoman left, she was like, have you heard of Claire's Law?
[35:59]
Basha Cummings
In Salford, in 2009, 36 year old Clair Wood was murdered by an abusive ex boyfriend who had a history of violence against women. Following a campaign by her father in 2014, England and Wales formally rolled out Claire's Law, also known as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. This is a police policy giving people the right to know if their partner or ex has any previous history of violence or abuse. In May, Ali's mother made an application to the police on his behalf. And about a month after that, they called her back recommending a secure line. By this time, he was so fearful he was using a selection of burner phones. And in the meeting, he was crying so much he felt like he was floating above himself, looking down at the scene. Afterwards, his mother remembers, he said they'd
[36:48]
Ali's Mother
put him on a 999 watch list so he feels he's in trouble or in a dangerous place. They will go out to him immediately, and he said, mum, that's all I can tell you.
[37:02]
Basha Cummings
A source later revealed to us that Ali was not Layla's only victim. When laid out like this, it might feel obvious, but Ali still can't shake the sense it might be connected to his activism. In some ways, he's not wrong. When Ali first started to tell me his story, unpeeling the year as if an onion, it revealed itself to be a chronicle of harassment that spoke immediately to the febrile moment we find ourselves in, of displaced tensions and geopolitical anxieties and unfinished paths of justice. It was also a portrait of the competing powers of an Internet in flux. Ali used it to bolster his political causes. His blackmailer used it to attack. By the winter of 2024, the harassment seemed to have stopped. The question of why him lingered. If it was Layla, this level of revenge for his rejection of their brief relationship seemed outsized, unhinged. Had he wronged her in a way he didn't realize? Had he been correct, if only obliquely, to feel that he was being targeted for his activism? Was their relationship an example of geopolitics in miniature? Ali's experience, while shocking, is not uncommon. In 2021, 41% of US adults reported that they'd experienced online harassment, with rates significantly higher for women journalists, activists, and LGBTQ people. Since then, generative AI has escalated this even further, enabling automated harassment at scale. Ali wondered what role gender played in his case and about the way structures of justice for online crimes are evolving far slower than the crimes themselves. Me, I felt blinded by a modern horror story and how easy it is to ruin a life. Nick, Ali's private investigator, advised him not to be interviewed by the Observer. Still, he understood Ali's impulse to talk. He needs to take control of his life, he said. But it's a gamble, he told him. Be prepared, because this isn't the end. The observer.
[39:34]
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