Sextortionists often employ sophisticated tactics, including deceptive online personas and manipulated media, to coerce victims. Regardless of the duration of your involvement, immediate action is crucial. We provide a comprehensive approach, beginning with a thorough analysis of the threat and tracing the perpetrator's digital footprint.
Here, we’ll explain how these criminals typically operate and what you need to do, regardless of how long you’ve been involved in sextortion. You’ll also learn what steps our team takes to help you get rid of this nightmare as quickly as possible.
We offer immediate, 24/7 assistance from our team of digital investigators.
We understand cybercriminals better than anyone because we work against them on a daily basis. We understand the logic behind their actions, know when they’re bluffing, what scenarios they follow, and how those scenarios unfold. Most importantly, we know how to turn the tables on them and exploit their vulnerabilities.
The first vulnerability that we target is in the basic communications with the culprit. Against an unsuspecting victim, the criminal can catch people off guard with threats and demands. However, against a trained digital investigator? We know exactly how to manipulate the perpetrator into making mistakes that make them visible.
Secondly, we target the criminal’s anonymity. Most of their drive to do online extortion comes from the belief that their identity is protected. However, that’s not necessarily true. Using our expertise, we can track the digital footprint of the culprit, leading to the IP address, phone number, email address, ID’s and even specific devices used by the perpetrator being exposed. Not only does revealing their identity strip away the criminal’s power but it also makes it a lot easier to take legal action against them.
If you’re a victim of sextortion, how you respond matters. You need to make sure that you are protecting yourself and the information being threatened while at the same time setting up the criminal to be brought to justice. Time is also a critical factor when dealing with cybercriminals, so you need to act right now.
Our digital investigators are skilled in handling sextortion and we will not hesitate to work on your behalf to solve the situation. We have a methodical process to take complete control of the crisis and will even take over the stress of communicating with the perpetrator. After you come to us for help, the only thing you need to do is continue with your life.
So, your first and most important step is reaching out for help. Don’t waste time—request a callback or call us yourself. Phone consultations are free, and even if you choose to proceed without us, you’ll definitely get plenty of useful information specific to your case.
We offer immediate, 24/7 assistance from our team of digital investigators.
Sextortion is a crime that has spread like wildfire in the digital space. In a 2024 study led by RMIT University, they surveyed over sixteen-thousand adults from eighteen countries and found that one in seven admitted to being a victim of sextortion. Read more about this in the study "Sextortion: Prevalence and Correlates in 10 Countries". The number of victims is growing every year and the impact on them can be devastating; affecting their reputation, jobs, mental health, and relationships. The perpetrators often see very little consequences for their actions because there is a lack of sextortion regulations out there.
Fortunately, there are people fighting back against sextortionists that have created resources to help victims. However, the best way to fight is to spread awareness about the crime and that’s why we created this comprehensive sextortion overview. Here is everything you need to know about the crime.
Sextortion or sexual extortion is a form of blackmail in which a person threatens to share someone else’s explicit images or videos unless the victim pays them. Although the crime can happen in person, the majority of the time it occurs over the internet.
This crime can have a huge impact on your life. Psychologically, sextortion can have an even greater impact on your mental health. It’s common for victims to feel hopelessness or despair because they feel as if they have no options. However, you do have options, which we will reveal below.
Sextortionists tend to hide behind anonymity. They use a fake online persona to lure in unsuspecting victims. After messaging hundreds of people to find a target, they utilize manipulative tactics to build trust. The criminals often stick to text-only messages to avoid showing their face but many can use images and videos of their fake persona as an attempt to shed any doubt about their identity.
Once enough trust is built, they will escalate the relationship by sending an explicit image of “themselves”, expecting the victim to do the same. After explicit content is exchanged back and forth, the criminal then threatens to send these images or videos to the victim’s family and friends unless they are paid by a certain time. In some cases, the culprit gains access to your private images and videos through a data breach in which they blackmail you with the information without a prior relationship.
Regardless of how long you have been dealing with sextortion, our cyber specialists are well trained in tracking these criminals using their advanced knowledge of cybersecurity. With years of experience in online crimes, we can trace and identify the perpetrator, helping to protect your personal and professional life.
We offer immediate, 24/7 assistance from our team of digital investigators.
Despite what many people think, majority of sextorters don’t care about intimate images or videos. In fact, according to a DFC Launches New Sextortion Report For 2025, ninety-eight percent of their processed sextortion cases were financially-motivated. Sextortion is a financially-motivated crime and everything that the perpetrator does is to convince you to pay them. To understand the crime fully, we have to look at the different types of blackmail used by criminals.
Financial sextortion is not the only type of blackmail causing upheaval but it is one of the most significant. The crime is widely used by cybercriminals and effective at causing extreme duress in a short amount of time. However, there are other forms of online blackmail that can be equally as dangerous.
A common misconception is that sextortion and sexploitation are interchangeable but sexploitation is only a form of sextortion.
Sextortion is always financially-motivated. The criminal will demand some form of payment. On the other hand, sexploitation is motivated by sexual desires. The criminal will either demand more sexual content or even favors. These two crimes sound similar but they are typically performed by different criminals entirely.
While technology and cybercrimes continue to develop at a rapid pace, the law has been slow to keep up with the changing times. A little more than half of U.S. states have yet to adopt sextortion regulations and federally, there isn’t any specific law against NCII abuse or sextortion. It’s vital that you understand the legal options available to you no matter where you are.
States are continuing to adopt laws that criminalize online sextortion. However, the state language used to describe the sextortion meaning can change what legal protections victims have. For example, in Minnesota, the Supreme Court ruled a revenge porn law to be unconstitutional because there wasn’t a requirement to prove an intent to harm when sharing non-consensual intimate photos. It’s language differences like this that paves an unclear path for victims of sextortion.
Legally the U.S. has just started to get into the fight against cybercrimes and specifically financial sextortion. Even though almost half of the states have some form of sextortion regulation, there is still a lot of progress to be made. The majority of the time the legal sextortion meaning will fall under extortion or coercion statutes. Let’s look at some key states and their approach to handle sextortion incidents.
Understanding the legal sextortion meaning is important because there are many inconsistencies between the states. This makes it difficult to successfully prosecute your attacker.
Sexual deepfake technology, for example, is being used by sextorters to blackmail their victims and only 30 states have laws against distributing explicit deepfakes. With there being no federal law against sextortion or non-consensual intimate image (NCII) abuse, victims are left without any assurances that they can get justice. We recommend working with a legal professional when looking into your legal options so that you can get a better understanding of the laws applicable to you.
Sextortion doesn’t only threaten your physical relationships, it also puts your mental health at risk. The stress that comes from being threatened, betrayed, and forced to meet a ransom is a lot to handle on your own. The psychological impact of sextortion may not be the first thing people think of when it comes to the topic but it’s one of the most important to address.
There is an extreme amount of shame, fear, and perhaps depression that develops when you’re being sextorted. It is exhausting to constantly feel very intense emotions every day.
Unfortunately, the threat of exposure doesn’t disappear in the night. Unless you have proof that your blackmailer deleted the compromising images or videos, there will always be a concern.
A huge factor in the distress that going through sextortion brings is the fear of judgement from your family and friends. You don’t want them to be disappointed and change the way they see you. Sextortion incidents can lead to consequences with those around you but it can also reveal who your true friends are.
When blackmailers carry through with their threat, the effect can be devastating. There have been times when victims have had to move to another city to start a new life. Unfortunately, others are not always kind and victims can feel even more isolated by the people around them.
Sextortionists can be from anywhere. They can be someone the victim knows or a stranger. However, many sextorters are strangers that aren’t even in the same countries as the victims they are targeting. According to the FBI, countries like Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and the Philippines are very popular for sextortionists
So, how do these blackmailers gain the trust of their victims? A lot of times these online relationships are not carefully selected. The blackmailers can use a catfish profile of an attractive person to message tens, if not hundreds, of people at a time and then wait for a response. There are many manipulation tactics at play though to eventually gain the trust of their targets.
Many victims of sextortion are speaking out about their experiences. In some cases, the victims were able to work with digital forensics experts to bring the perpetrator to justice. In others, the story is a good lesson in what it looks like if the criminal carries out his threat. Let’s take a look at some notable sextortion cases, starting with the Plenty of Fish blackmailer.
After a man hit it off with a woman on the dating app ‘Plenty of Fish’, the woman began pressuring the man to send her money for sudden expenses she claimed to have. Unfortunately, the man made a vital mistake and he complied with her requests under the belief that they were in a romantic relationship. Things only got worse when the victim ran out of money.
The perpetrator began threatening to release his explicit images or videos unless the victim paid him. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. That’s when he decided to work with a cybersecurity firm that was able to identify the criminal and confront him with the possibility of facing criminal charges for his actions. The perpetrator then decided to leave the victim alone. However, the victim’s money was not recovered.
Whether you are building a long-distance relationship or being blackmailed, it’s important to never send money to a stranger. Cybercriminals can build trust with victims for months but any request for money is a glaring red flag, especially early into a relationship. The perpetrator will only continue to demand payments from you if you pay them and will become more hostile as time goes on.
One day, Owen received an explicit video of himself from an unknown number. He thought the video was real at first until he noticed that it wasn’t his actual body. However, he knew that the video looked convincing enough for others to believe it.
The sextorter threatened to send the video to his friends and family unless he wired over thousands of pounds. Owen rejected the perpetrator’s demands but this was a terrible misstep. The blackmailer then made good on their demands and sent the video to at least twenty of Owen’s contacts. Many of his family and friends didn’t believe that the video was fake until Owen sent screenshots of his conversation with the criminal. For months, Owen was scared to leave his house in case someone recognized him from the video. Two years after the incident, he claims he is still scared.
Sexual deepfakes are being used in sextortion at an alarming rate. AI-generated images can be just as damaging as real images and there aren’t as many protections for them legally. However, there are ways to minimize the chance of becoming a victim. Here are a few sextortion tips on deepfake scammers.
When you are being faced with sextortion, you should never blatantly reject the culprit’s demands. This will likely result in a retaliatory response from the blackmailer. Instead, use delay tactics to buy more time. Remember, the cybercriminal is financially-motivated. You can buy time by telling the culprit that you are short on money and need more time to get more. Make sure whatever excuse you use is convincing. In the meantime, you can go to the local police department or a cybersecurity firm to get professional help.
In 2016, Illinois State Senator Ron Sandack was texting a woman on Facebook in a friendly conversation. The two connected on Skype sometime later and although the nature of the video call is redacted, the woman used the video to blackmail the senator. She threatened to publish the video call to all his Facebook friends unless she was paid a certain amount of money.
Concerned about his career and reputation, Sandack paid the woman by wire transfer to the Philippine islands. However, he still resigned as senator because of this incident.
Sextortion can ruin lives. However, this only emphasizes the caution you need to take online. Some blackmailers are catfish and easier to identify as suspicious but there are others who aren’t misrepresenting themselves. You still shouldn’t be any less careful interacting with them. You can never know a stranger’s true intentions but the best way to protect yourself is by avoiding sharing explicit images with anyone you don’t trust one-hundred percent.
Nathan McErlean was on vacation with his friends when he was messaged by a stranger on Snapchat. He checked her Snapchat score and was comforted by her high activity. He didn’t notice any red flags about her. She was actively replying to the conversation and every snap was different.
After two weeks, the profile sent Nathan explicit images of herself. She asked if he could do the same and Nathan did. That’s when things changed. The criminal replied with Nathan’s explicit image and a screenshot of his Instagram followers. They demanded three-thousand pounds or else she would send the image to Nathan’s followers.
He decided to not pay the blackmailer and tried to bluff them into thinking he doesn’t care. However, the blackmailer made good on their threat. They created a group chat with Nathan’s followers and sent the image. Nathan immediately made his account private and reported the image for going against Instagram’s community standards. Instagram quickly removed the image and Nathan credits the platform for reducing its exposure.
How do you respond if a blackmailer follows through with their threat? Most cybercriminals will threaten to message your family and friends through social media. Although this is distressing, social media platforms have a reporting system designed for sextortion and blackmail in general. You should report the profile, message, or post immediately to get it removed. You can also work with a cybersecurity firm like Digital Investigation Inc. so that they can monitor and quickly remove any NCII content of you on the internet.
As you saw in Nathan’s case, how you respond to sextortion is very important. There are best practices that every victim should follow to stop the sextortion and refuse to give the blackmailer any more leverage over you. Let’s re-visit some of the immediate steps to take when you are dealing with sexual extortion.
Every online interaction leaves a digital footprint and tracking this data is exactly what digital forensic experts do best. Combining social engineering with digital forensics, we are able to track the location and identify the perpetrator anywhere in the world. Once their identity is exposed, victims have a lot more options like taking legal action, filing a restraining order, or our experts can force the culprit to remove your private information from their device.
You can enlist the help of a legal professional if you want to take legal action against their attacker. Depending on where you and the perpetrator are, you can pursue criminal charges or file a civil lawsuit against the blackmailer for damages. In some cases, the attorney can create a cease-and-desist letter to send to the criminal as a way to get them to take down any images posted on the internet.
Attorneys can also provide emotional support during this traumatic experience. It’s important to have a strong support system behind you. Many victims want to avoid telling those closest to them about the sextortion out of shame but talking to someone can make all the difference in your mental health. Make sure to talk to a trusted friend, attorney, counselor, family member, police officer, etc.
The best way to fight against sextortion is to prevent it from happening in the first place. The first step is becoming aware of the blackmail scam and now we have to secure our online activity. Here are some ways we can protect ourselves online.
You might think that something like sextortion could never happen to you but everyone is at risk in the digital age. The development of AI and technology gives blackmailers a lot of tools to access private information and takeover legitimate social media accounts. On the other hand, firms like Digital Investigation Inc. are also using the latest technology to help victims of sextortion fight back.
Our approach to sextortion is to protect the victims in every way we can. Using machine learning and the latest technology, we give those dealing with sextortion more options in prevention, protection, and response. If you want more options to fight against sextortion, Digital Investigation Inc. can give them to you today.
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