What Can the Police Do About Blackmail?

You got caught in the trap . You fell for the honeyed words of the person who messaged you with aspirations of becoming romantic or even sexual partners. Now you’re a victim of online blackmail. The first natural thought of course is to go to the police to report sextortion.  But What Can the Police Do About Blackmail?

It is a crime after all, and sextortionists are simply criminals of a new era. But, what can the police do about blackmail online? That’s the real question. We’ll explore this topic in today’s article.  

Can I report someone for trying to blackmail me?

 Before we address what the police can do about blackmail, we first must understand sextortionists.  Some may believe that the person on the other end of the screen is, in fact, the person in the pictures they were sent originally, but merely a criminal.

Some believe that they’re simply a catfisher in their local area.  

This couldn’t be further from the reality – most sextortionists are not based out of the continental United States. The vast majority of cases of online sextortion have origination points in Nigeria, The Ivory Coast, and The Philippines.

Every so often we’ll also see origination points from Morocco, Ghana, and India, but these have less prominent incidence rates. Most sextortionists operate within small, sometimes interconnected groups. Usually with a manager or overseer running the operation, while several others work from scripts and fed responses as they communicate with their potential victims.

It Means that, even if a sextortion scammer says they’ve deleted your data should you have gone through the process of paying them off (which you should never do, under any circumstances) it’s not guaranteed that one of their colleagues won’t turn around on you later with your material – but we digress.  

What Can the Police Do About Blackmail?

So, what can the police do about blackmail and sextortion online, with these things in mind? In reality, not all that much.

Let’s address why from two angles: the first being equipment and training. Most of police departments don’t have necessary trainings. At least lacking particular types of cyber-crime specialists, to handle sextortion tracking down an otherwise anonymous sextortionist through digital means with conclusive identification.

The second angle to consider is that, should a police department have the necessary tools and training, there’s nothing they can do from a standpoint of actually acting on any information they discover.  The most scammers are outside the country, a local police precinct will lack jurisdiction to act on an overseas point of origin. So, why approach the police at all, if they can’t necessarily put an end to your situation?

What the police can do for you if you’re being blackmailed or sextorted is to take the record of your situation.

Filing a report with your local precinct is a very helpful and protective measure. There are certain types of  blackmail situations that can escalate should the demands of a sextortionist not be met, where sextortionists will up their ante by threatening to doctor your communications with them and the media you’ve sent to make it appear as though you’re communicating with and making advances towards an under-aged person.

This could even be the threat they’ve led with, depending on the scammer.

Filing a police report early and with as much evidence of your communications with the scammer as possible can act as an insulator to these types of accusations, should your material be released online. It goes to show that you are the victim, rather than what the perpetrator is making you out to be.  

HOW TO DEAL WITH SEXTORION?

All this said, if this is what the police can do about blackmail and sextortion online, what other options do you have? One of the first is to file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center (or, IC3 for short).

This is a secondary layer of insulation much like the police report.  However, while the FBI may not act immediately on your case. Due to their size and caseload, they are at least positioned better with their relationships with the Interpol. Interpol do have the reach necessary to arrest and bring to justice scammers like these. However,  this option doesn’t often lead to quick solutions.

There, however, many private companies and individuals who knows how to deal with sextortion.  We certainly recommend doing your research on the topic. 

We’ve had years of experience and have assisted with thousands of cases of online sextortion and blackmail in that time. Our success rate in dealing with these types of situations is over 90%.

Our ultimate goal is to receive hard proof of deletion. 

If you faced with sextortion, give us a call. Our staff  is available 24/7 to hear your case.  Contact Our Sextortion Helpline Now. Don’t Hesitate. We’ve Helped Thousands