Strange man tracked me down

This is going to sound a little strange, but hear me out.

About 2 months ago I was backpacking America- hitchhiking, camping, hiking the national parks etc.

Well, in California I was passing through this campsite by myself and this strange man drives up to me and stops his car alongside me. He looked about 40 or something. He says I'm beautiful and would like to take me on a date.
Well obviously I'm freaked out and just want to get away, so I politely say 'thanks but I'm not interested' or something like that, and begin walking away. He drives alongside me for a while, asking things like 'where are you going?' and 'do you need a ride?' I turn him down each time and don't answer his questions but I'm starting to get pretty concerned about my safety. I have pepper spray in my pocket and I've got my hand on it just in case.
The questions continue for a few minutes as this guy hounds me, and eventually he gives up and just says 'can I at least have a photo of you, please? It's not every day I see a girl like you backpacking the states by herself.'

Now, I'll admit I was stupid in this situation. I should have said 'no' and run away but I was feeling intimidated and frightened and I thought that an innocent photo was a small price to pay to appease this creep and get away from him- so I agreed. I frequently had my photo taken whilst i was travelling, so it wasn't exactly an unheard of request. What harm can a photo do?- was my mentality in the few seconds I had to respond to the request. I stood there awkwardly and let him take a picture on his phone from his car. Afterwards, I just got away as fast as I could. It was dumb to allow him to do it- but I was panicky and alone and I was afraid of pissing the guy off...

2 months later, I'm back home, and yesterday I had a friend request on facebook from this creep. He didn't know my name, my country of origin (I have an Australian accent but I live in England, so the accent would've thrown him), he knew nothing about me except for that one picture. How could he have found me? I was even wearing a baseball cap, no makeup and my hair tucked away when he took the picture- so I didn't even look like myself and especially nothing like how I look in my fb profile picture.
I'm just really baffled and a little disturbed by this. He must have somehow used the photo to trace me but I'm wondering how that's possible when I literally could've been anybody in the world?
I'm not naive, I know that by putting information about myself on facebook, I'll be made public to the world and anybody could find me- but this just seems so insane. He found me through some blurry picture that doesn't really look like me and nothing else? Not even my first name? It seems sketchy, and I'm just looking for somebody to explain how he could've managed it?

I know I was stupid for letting him take the photo, so I'd really appreciate if people didn't lecture me in that regard. It was a frightened mistake I made in the hopes that it would make him happy and send him on his way, leaving me unscathed.

Reply 1

Jaz_A

Jeez. That's really creepy O_O

Only thing I can think of is that he googled people travelling and looked for any FB statuses by you. Just matching the picture up.

Or he put the image into google search and it came up with other pictures of you on your travels? Seems more likely, but depends if anyone put the other photos of you online?

Either way, block block block xD

Reply 2

username944192

Original post by Anonymous

Just block him on Facebook? Means he can't try to add you again, can't see anything you do on other people's pages etc. It's not like you're ever going to see him again for it to be awkward.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Original post by Jaz_A

There's a thought! I had pictures taken of me looking a very similar way during that trip by families or other backpackers and such. Perfectly decent people that I likely did share my name and country with. Perhaps one of them put something about me online (on a blog or something) and he was able to match the pictures up with that?
It seems far fetched but it's the only explanation I can think of.

Reply 4

Jaz_A

Original post by Anonymous

I was thinking more along the lines of if you were tagged in photos, but could be blogs possibly I guess.

Though I think it's possible he could recognise you from normal pictures, not just ones where you're wearing similar clothes. People generally are quite good at recognising people they've seen, and if he had a picture it's even easier to compare face shapes etc.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

Copperknickers

He could have done a reverse image search and used the image to look for you. Face recognition software is pretty advanced these days it could easily take a picture of you and match it to another picture of you even if the hair etc was different.

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

Original post by Jaz_A

Almost no photos exist of me on facebook from my travels that I would be tagged in- I made a point of not really handing my fb out to the people I met during that time. I doubt he did it that way

Reply 7

Simes

Original post by Copperknickers

That's the one.

I wonder if it is worth reporting this to FaceBook or the police? Just in case. Or even, the police in the area where he tried to pick you up.

Reply 8

Jaz_A

Original post by Anonymous

Almost no photos exist of me on facebook from my travels that I would be tagged in- I made a point of not really handing my fb out to the people I met during that time. I doubt he did it that way

I didn't just mean pictures from your travels I meant any of you at all on fb/the internet in general. Even with decent privacy settings on fb, they always end up on google.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 9

bob002

Original post by Simes

That's the one.

I wonder if it is worth reporting this to FaceBook or the police? Just in case. Or even, the police in the area where he tried to pick you up.

he hasn't done anything wrong yet ... jeez

ignore, block, get on with ur life.

Reply 10

Anonymous #1

Original post by Copperknickers

Might've done. That's so creepy... it's insane what people can do these days.
I doubt he'll take it any further- probably just a bit of a stalker with way too much time on his hands. I'll ignore the request and try and forget.