Sextortion: What It Is and What to Do

If you’re reading this because someone is threatening you right now, here’s what you need to know immediately:

Sextortion is when someone threatens to share intimate, sexual, or embarrassing images or videos of you unless you pay them or do what they demand. It’s a crime. It’s happening to more people than you might think. And there are real, concrete steps you can take to protect yourself and stop the threat.

This page is written without judgment, with complete honesty about how these situations happen, and with practical steps that actually work. Whatever your situation, you deserve clear information and support.

What Sextortion Looks Like

Sextortion takes different forms depending on who is being targeted and how the scammer operates.

The Mass Email Bluff

“I’ve hacked your computer and have access to your webcam. I recorded you visiting adult websites. I have screenshots of the sites you visited alongside video of you through your camera. Send $2,000 in Bitcoin to the following address within 48 hours, or I’ll send the video to everyone in your contacts.”

This is the most common version, and almost always a bluff. The scammer has not hacked your computer. They have no video of you. They send this identical email to millions of people, and some percentage pay out of fear. Often these emails include an old password of yours (obtained from a data breach) to make the threat seem credible.

The Social Media Approach

Someone connects with you on Instagram, Snapchat, a dating app, or a gaming platform. The conversation starts friendly. Over days or weeks, it becomes flirtatious. Eventually they ask you to share intimate photos or move to a video call where they encourage you to undress. Then the tone changes instantly:

“I have screenshots. I know your family and friends. Send $500 through Cash App in the next hour or I’ll share these with everyone you know.”

This is a targeted attack. The scammer invested time building a relationship specifically to reach this moment.

The Fake Intimate Images

You receive a message with an image attached. It looks like you – in a compromising position. But you’ve never taken a photo like that. The scammer created it using AI, merging your face from social media photos onto someone else’s body. The threat is the same: pay, or this gets shared.

This version is particularly distressing because the images are convincing even though they’re entirely fabricated.

Sextortion Targeting Teens

A teenager connects with someone on social media or a gaming platform who claims to be their age. After building trust, the person asks for intimate photos. Once they have them, they threaten to share them with the teen’s friends, parents, or school unless the teen sends money, gift cards, or more images.

This is a crisis affecting young people at an alarming rate. The FBI has reported a significant increase in sextortion cases targeting minors. Some victims have taken their own lives. If you’re a parent and you learn your child is being targeted, the section below on what to do is written with this in mind.

How Sextortion Scams Work

The bluff version (mass email) works on volume. The scammer sends hundreds of thousands of emails. Even if only 0.1% of recipients pay, the operation is profitable. These scammers typically have no actual images or access to your devices. The old password they include comes from publicly available data breach records.

The targeted version follows a pattern:

1. First contact. The scammer creates an attractive, believable profile and connects with the target on social media, a dating app, or a gaming platform.
2. Trust building. They invest time in conversation, creating a sense of connection. They may send (fake) intimate images of themselves first to lower the target’s guard.
3. Escalation. They steer the conversation toward intimate photo or video exchange.
4. The turn. Once they have compromising material, the scammer reveals themselves and makes demands – money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or sometimes additional images.
5. Pressure. They threaten to send the images to specific people – the target’s parents, partner, employer, friends. They may show screenshots of the target’s follower list to prove they know who to contact.
6. Repeated demands. If the target pays, the scammer demands more. Paying does not end the extortion – it confirms the target as someone who will comply, which makes them a more valuable victim.

Red Flags to Watch For

A new online contact who moves quickly toward intimate conversation. Scammers don’t waste time. If someone you just met online is steering toward sexual content, be cautious.

They share intimate photos of themselves early. This is a tactic to make you feel comfortable reciprocating. The photos they send are not of them.

They want to move off the original platform. “Let’s continue on WhatsApp” or “Let’s switch to Snapchat.” This moves the conversation to a platform where they can save content more easily or where the messages disappear (making it harder for you to collect evidence).

They claim to have access to your webcam or device. In the vast majority of cases, this is a lie. If the threatening email doesn’t include actual proof – like a real screenshot of something specific to your computer – it’s almost certainly a bluff.

They include an old password of yours. This comes from data breaches, not from hacking your computer. You should change that password everywhere you’ve used it, but it doesn’t mean they have access to your devices.

They demand payment in cryptocurrency, gift cards, or wire transfers. These are untraceable payment methods. Legitimate situations never require payment through these channels.

How This Scam Has Evolved with AI

AI has changed sextortion in a deeply troubling way: scammers no longer need real intimate images of you.

Using widely available AI tools, a scammer can take a clothed photo from your social media profile and generate a realistic-looking intimate image. These AI-generated images (sometimes called deepfakes) can be convincing enough to cause genuine fear, even though they’re entirely fabricated. You never took the photo. You were never in that situation. But the image looks real, and the threat of it being shared with your family, employer, or community is enough to make people panic.

This means anyone with photos on social media – which is nearly everyone – is a potential target. You don’t need to have shared anything intimate for a scammer to create threatening material.

AI has also enabled scammers to operate more efficiently. AI chatbots can manage dozens of sextortion conversations simultaneously, maintaining the persona, applying pressure, and adapting to the target’s responses. What used to require a human scammer managing one conversation at a time can now be automated.

For young people, AI-generated images have created a new dimension of bullying and harassment that extends beyond traditional sextortion by strangers. In some cases, classmates have used AI tools to create fake intimate images of peers – an act that is illegal in many jurisdictions and causes serious harm.

What to Do Right Now

If you are currently being threatened, take these steps:

1. Do Not Pay

This is the single most important thing. Paying does not make the scammer go away. In the overwhelming majority of cases, paying leads to more demands. You’ve demonstrated that you’ll comply, and the scammer will continue to exploit that.

2. Do Not Respond to the Scammer

Don’t engage, don’t negotiate, don’t plead. Any response tells the scammer you’re a live target who takes the threat seriously.

3. Save the Evidence

Before blocking the scammer, take screenshots of:

• All messages and threats
• The scammer’s profile and username
• Any payment demands (wallet addresses, Cash App handles, etc.)
• Any images they sent or claim to have

This evidence is important for law enforcement reports.

4. Block the Scammer

On every platform where they’ve contacted you. If they create new accounts, block those too.

5. Report to the Platform

Every major social media platform has a reporting mechanism for this type of abuse:

• Instagram/Facebook: Report the profile and individual messages
• Snapchat: Report through the app (snapchat.com/safety)
• TikTok: Report the account and messages
• Gaming platforms: Use the platform’s reporting system

Platforms can remove content, ban accounts, and in some cases provide information to law enforcement.

6. Report to Law Enforcement

• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): ic3.gov – Handles online sextortion cases
• NCMEC CyberTipline (if the victim is under 18): missingkids.org/gethelpnow/cybertipline or call 1-800-843-5678
• Local police: File a report. Sextortion is a crime in every state.

7. Remove the Images

If intimate images – real or fake – have been shared online:

• StopNCII.org: A free tool that creates a digital fingerprint (hash) of intimate images and shares it with participating platforms to prevent further sharing. You do not have to upload the actual image. Visit stopncii.org.
• Contact the platform directly to request removal. Most major platforms will remove non-consensual intimate images quickly.
• Google: You can request removal of non-consensual intimate imagery from Google Search results through their removal request form.

If a Young Person Is Being Targeted

If your child or a teenager you know is being sextorted:

Do not get angry at them. This is absolutely critical. Many young people don’t report sextortion because they’re afraid of getting in trouble for having shared images in the first place. Their fear of a parent’s reaction can be greater than their fear of the scammer. If they come to you, your response in that moment determines whether they continue to seek help or go silent.

Reassure them that this is not their fault. The person who committed the crime is the one who made threats. A young person sharing images in what they believed was a private, trusting exchange made a mistake in judgment – they did not commit a crime. The person threatening them did.

Report immediately:

• NCMEC CyberTipline: missingkids.org/gethelpnow/cybertipline or 1-800-843-5678
• FBI IC3: ic3.gov
• Local police

Get support. Sextortion causes real psychological harm, especially in young people. Consider connecting with a counselor or therapist.

Crisis resources:

• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
• NCMEC: 1-800-843-5678

If You Received the Mass Email Version

If you got an email claiming to have webcam footage of you, with an old password included as “proof”:

1. Take a breath. This email was sent to millions of people. They have no footage of you.
2. Do not pay. The Bitcoin address in the email is the only real thing in the message.
3. Change the password that was mentioned in the email, everywhere you’ve used it.
4. Enable two-factor authentication on your important accounts.
5. Delete the email or report it as spam.
6. Check if your email was in a data breach at haveibeenpwned.com. If so, change passwords on affected accounts.

How to Reduce Your Risk

• Be cautious with new online contacts who quickly steer conversations toward intimate territory.
• Think before sharing intimate images with anyone. Even in trusted relationships, images can be leaked, stolen, or accessed through compromised devices.
• Review your social media privacy settings. Limit who can see your photos and personal information.
• Cover your webcam when not in use if it gives you peace of mind, but know that the mass email version is virtually always a bluff.
• Talk to young people in your life about this threat. They need to know it exists, that it’s not their fault, and that they can come to you without fear of punishment.

Quick Summary

• Do not pay. It will not make the threat go away and will almost certainly lead to more demands.

• Do not respond to the scammer. Block them on all platforms.

• Save evidence (screenshots of all threats and conversations) before blocking.

• Report to law enforcement: FBI IC3 at ic3.gov, and NCMEC CyberTipline if the victim is under 18.

• Use StopNCII.org to prevent further sharing of intimate images.

• The mass email version is almost always a bluff. They have no webcam footage of you.

• If a young person is involved, respond with support, not anger. Their willingness to seek help depends on your reaction.

• Crisis resources: Text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line) or call/text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).