Safety and coercion
Sextortion or blackmail
1 report mentions this, none in the last 90 days.
Someone who has (or claims to have) intimate images of you demands money, more images, or something else, and threatens to send them to your family, employer, or followers. It can start on any app, and it moves fast. Cooperating or paying rarely makes it stop.
What it looks like
- A new online contact who quickly steers toward sexual chat or an exchange of photos, then flips to threats.
- A screenshot of your friends or followers list as a warning.
- A countdown: 'you have one hour'.
- Emails claiming to have webcam footage, sometimes quoting an old password of yours.
What should you do if someone threatens to share your photos?
Shame and panic do the work. The demand comes with a clock so you don't have time to think or ask anyone. Many of these operate as organized groups targeting lots of people at once, and teenagers are heavily targeted. The 'webcam footage' emails are a mass bluff with no footage behind them.
What to do
- Don't pay and don't send anything else. Paying usually leads to more demands.
- Stop replying, but don't delete. Screenshot the profile, messages, and any payment demands, then block.
- Get images blocked for free: Take It Down (opens in a new tab) if you were under 18 when they were taken, StopNCII.org (opens in a new tab) if over 18.
- Report it: to the app, to the FBI at ic3.gov or tips.fbi.gov, and to NCMEC if anyone under 18 is involved. You're not to blame.
More in the tips: Sextortion.
Numbers people reported for this
Top 1 number by reports mentioning this in the last year
Latest reports
Newest first, unverified