alt Hacker News> which must have been something that went viral in the UK Internet circles but not outside (I don't remember it and Y2K Internet was much smaller).
From a quick google it seems to have been reported in most of the tabloids and broadsheets.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/2000/12/16/Woman-in-hiding-afte...
I'm not in an anglophone country, but I also have bad memory and n=1 so obviously I cannot speak for everyone else.