The digital world has brought us closer. However, it also brings out the worst from behind the veil of internet anonymity. One of the most harmful byproducts of this is sextortion, a crime that turns a person’s most private moments into tools for blackmail. It is the use of intimate images or sexually revealing information to extort a victim, financially or otherwise.
If you are a victim, please understand that none of this is your fault. These extortionists train themselves to play into human psychology, targeting every emotion, from the need for intimate connection to fear, isolation, and shame. And unfortunately, there isn’t just one form of sextortion. Continue reading to understand what sextortion is, its main forms, and how you can protect yourself.
What Is Sextortion?
Sextortion is a form of blackmail in which someone threatens to release sexual photos, videos, or information about a victim if the victim doesn’t comply with their demands. The perpetrators gain access to their victims’ sexually explicit photos or videos, mostly under the guise of an intimate relationship. They can also generate false material using AI and deepfakes to exploit their victims to provide money, additional sexual content, or other favors.
Sextortion starts with simple communication. The perpetrators create a fake profile on a dating app or social media site, appearing as a charming or attractive individual. Then they begin grooming through simple yet emotionally manipulative discussions. They exploit you by appealing to your emotional needs or garnering sympathy under the guise of personal crises.
Over time, they build a false sense of intimacy, eventually persuading the victim to share intimate photos or engage in a sexually charged video call. As soon as they get their hands on this compromising content, their mask of love drops instantly. They start the “intimidation” phase, threatening to post the images or explicit material online if the victim doesn’t comply with their demands. They employ psychological factors such as fear, isolation, and shame to extend the scam as long as possible.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received around 100 reports of sextortion per day between 2024 and 2025. Your simple and innocent quest to find intimacy and emotional connection can lead you into the hands of predators. A celebratory moment you shared on the internet can become the source of embarrassment through the use of AI technology. Anyone can be targeted, and the attack can come from anywhere in the world.
The Global Scope of the Crisis
Data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and Interpol show a staggering rise in these reports. Just between 2023 and 2024, there was a 53% rise in complaints for sextortion, with people between the ages of 20 and 29 being the most targeted group. It is a borderless crime spanning every continent.
Recognizing the Red Flags
In your combat against sextortion, awareness is your best defense. There are some common markers a potential perpetrator may present. Identifying and being vigilant to these common red flags can go a long way in protecting you from falling into sextortion traps.
- Moving quickly into intimacy: You should be aware of online friends who move from a quick hello to sexual and private topics within hours of initial discussions.
- Personal crises and empathy farming: Sextortion perpetrators often try to gain sympathy from their victims using personal crises like medical emergencies and sick relatives. This is a psychological tactic used to establish trust and empathy with their victims.
- Platform hopping: Sextortionists often persuade their victims to move to private chat apps such as WhatsApp to avoid moderation. They often hop between different platforms to throw off chat history, making it difficult to document the timeline of communication.
- Urgency: One of the biggest tools in a sextortionist’s toolbox is urgency. They try to expedite every action they take, from swift communication to quick intimacy to urgency in payment demands once you fall victim. They use a sense of urgency to prevent you from understanding their scam or taking action.
Who Is at Sextortion Risk: Myths vs. Reality
It is a common misconception that sextortionists target only a certain group of people. In reality, having an online presence, no matter how private, opens the door to becoming a potential target for sextortion. A dangerous misconception persists that only “careless” or “young” people fall victim to these schemes. This myth prevents many people from taking necessary precautions.
There are some groups and demographics that could be at heightened risk of sextortion, such as members of the LGBTQ+ community who could have their sexuality wrongfully weaponized against them. But these criminals do not discriminate when it comes to a potential victim; anyone can be their next target. They do not target weak people; they target people who have something to lose.
What Do Sextortionists Look for in Victims?
While anyone can become a victim of sextortion, the following demographics are frequently targeted:
Overtly public profiles with excessive engagement: Having a public profile can grant a cybercriminal easy access to your account and lifestyle. A profile containing flashy cars, clothes, or even money can attract the attention of a sextortionist and give them the impression that you have money to steal. Replying to an unknown profile quickly also puts you at risk, as attackers do not want to waste time waiting for a reply to their messages.
Influencers and Public Figures: Since social media influencers often have very public profiles, they are vulnerable to deepfake scams. Perpetrators use their public images to produce false but damaging information. They also try to access actual private information, such as home addresses, by using the landmarks in shared pictures. Perpetrators often attack this group, independent of their age or gender.
Minors and Teens: Minors and teens are often targets on gaming platforms or social media. They are viewed as easy targets because of their naivety, free-spirited nature, and emotional volatility. This has an extreme emotional toll, with a University of Huddersfield study finding that roughly 72% of victims experience humiliation, 66% reporting paranoia, and 41% feeling a sense of hopelessness. Each member of the sample reported at least one psychological consequence. It is important to note that while teenagers are a high-risk group due to their heavy social media usage, nearly 50% of sextortion victims are adults.
The Elderly: Another common target for sextortionists is older citizens. This is often due to a lack of digital knowledge, a feeling of loneliness in later stages of life, and their overly trusting nature. But they are not targets due to their age. Rather, they are targets of these crimes because the elderly often have a lot of life savings, trust funds, and pensions. In fact, IC3 reports the highest monetary loss for people over the age of 60.
Common Sextortion Myths
| Myth | Reality |
| It only happens to men. | FBI data shows a near 50/50 split between male and female victims. |
| It only happens to single people. | Sextortionists target individuals regardless of relationship status. If anything, those in relationships may be targeted because they have more to lose. |
| Teens and young people are the biggest target. | Reports prove that young professionals between the ages of 20 and 29 are targeted the most by sextortionists. |
Types of Sextortion Demands
We can classify these attacks by what the criminal actually wants from you. While financial gain is the primary driver for roughly 70% of all online blackmail reports, the price for silence is not always a bank transfer.
Not all sextortionists want money; their demands can vary based on their ultimate goal.
- Financial Sextortion: This is the most common form of sextortion. The attackers often force their victims to provide monetary ransoms in the form of cryptocurrency, wire transfers, or gift cards because these methods are difficult for authorities to track.
- Coercion for More Content: In some cases, the predator doesn’t want money. Perpetrators demand more explicit photos or videos to prove trust, which only gives them more leverage for future blackmail. This particular crime is called sexploitation.
- Coercion for Services: In some cases, victims are forced to participate in other criminal activities. Some victims are coerced into becoming money mules, forced to move stolen money through their personal accounts, effectively making the victim an accomplice to other crimes.
- Revenge or Psychological Control: This is often non-financial and involves ex-partners or acquaintances who use intimate content to exert power or punish a victim for ending a relationship. This is commonly referred to as “revenge porn”, but many activists have pushed for the term nonconsensual intimate image (NCII) abuse.
The Most Common Sextortion Schemes Explained
1. Traditional Financial Sextortion Scheme
In a traditional sextortion scheme, a cybercriminal uses a false online persona to lure unsuspecting users into a relationship. Under the guise of a catfish account, they employ social engineering tactics to trick the victim into sending explicit images or photos. They may even send stolen or manufactured content first to initiate the exchange.
Once the cybercriminal has your intimate images or videos, they drop the façade and use aggressive language to threaten the victim. They threaten to send the content to family, friends, and colleagues or share it publicly online. Their goal is to create a sense of intimidation and urgency to coerce the victim into paying. Although people are becoming more aware of traditional sextortion, the scam is unfortunately still extremely effective.
2. Law Enforcement Impersonation Sextortion Scams
Law enforcement impersonation scams are not new. Typically, a person posing as a law enforcement officer will call the victim and inform them that there is a fine or a warrant for their arrest. After intimidating the victim with threats of jail time, they will pressure them to pay the fine over the phone or through an online payment system.
One way that cybercriminals do this is the “age play” trap. They will initiate a sexual conversation with the victim before posing as a parent or law enforcement official and claiming that the initial conversation was conducted with a minor. They may even spoof their email address or phone number to appear legitimate. They then offer to make the whole situation “go away” if the victim pays them. It’s important to note that legitimate law enforcement will not contact you this way.
3. Deepfake Sextortion and Cyber Sextortion Tactics
Unfortunately, sextortion is not limited to those who have access to your private images or videos anymore. Cybercriminals can use deepfake technology to create realistic but fake explicit images or videos of you. With sextortion deepfakes, a scammer can create fake intimate content using innocent images of the victim.
They then threaten to send the images to the victim’s family and friends unless they pay a certain amount of money. Sometimes, the perpetrator will demand sexual content as further damaging information to use against the victim. Although the images are fake, they can still have real consequences for the victim.
4. Sextortion Emails
Another type of sextortion is through your email. In a sextortion email, the perpetrator focuses less on building a relationship and more on immediately deceiving the victim. The scam relies on panic, hoping that the victim won’t notice the vague claims of the message and instead will act out of fear. Phishing scams are very common to receive by email, but the threat of a sextortion email is also significant.
Sextortionists can craft generic messages and email them to numerous targets at once, changing the recipient’s name and basic information scraped from public records and data breaches. They may claim to have recordings from the victim’s web camera, private images or videos from their device, or pose as a former partner. The message may include a link to view the content they claim to have, but clicking on it actually deploys malware.
The Source of the Threat: Where Sextortion Content Originates
You might assume that if you never send a compromising photo, you are safe. Unfortunately, modern technology has changed the rules. Criminals no longer need a real photo to ruin someone’s reputation. With the advancement of AI technology, converting a normal selfie into sexually revealing footage is now possible.
On top of false images and footage, a criminal could gain access to explicit data or confidential information once you connect to the internet. Inadvertently clicking a malicious link or joining an unsecured public Wi-Fi network could compromise your device and the content stored on it.
1. The Rise of Deepfakes and AI
The fastest-growing threat in the digital landscape is AI-generated or synthetic media. Criminals can now scrape a harmless profile picture from your Instagram and use artificial intelligence to create highly realistic, explicit deepfake videos. This means a predator can target you even if you have never taken a compromising photo in your life. From 2019 to 2021, a woman faced a long turmoil when an old friend deepfaked pornographic images and videos using her face and pictures she posted online.
2. Hacking and Malware
Some scammers use malware to gain access to your computer’s webcam or private cloud storage. You might receive a sextortion email claiming they have recorded you while you were visiting adult websites. While many of these emails are bluffs, the fear they generate is very real.
It is also possible to be a victim of actual malware. Visiting non-secured webpages, clicking on false advertisements, or downloading an unsafe file can inject a virus into your computer system. The virus is designed to extract any revealing or confidential information you may have in your computer.
3. Non-Consensual Sharing
It is often called revenge porn, where authentic content shared in a past relationship is used as a weapon.
4. Social Engineering and Catfishing
Many sextortion schemes start through online relationships. Scammers pretend to be romantic partners or friends, trick victims into sending explicit content, and then threaten to share it. This is the most common starting point for sextortion on social media and dating apps.
5. Leaked or Stolen Databases
Private images and videos sometimes leak through data breaches or compromised websites. Criminals buy or trade this content on dark web forums, then contact victims claiming to have hacked them directly.
Regional Sextortion Schemes
Sextortion syndicates often operate out of specific hotspot regions like the Ivory Coast, the Philippines, and Nigeria. These blackmailers are known for specific scripts that help cybersecurity and law enforcement professionals identify them.
- The Emotional Story Trap
Scammers often use emotional stories – a sick parent, a dying baby, or a family emergency – to make you feel sympathy and send money. It’s a simple but powerful manipulation used across all regions. - Cultural or Language Slips
Many scammers use broken English, strange phrases, or mix in their local language. For example, Ivory Coast scammers may translate local sayings word-for-word, while Filipino or Nigerian scammers might copy scripts from others or use Google Translate messages. - Fast Moves to Private Apps
Whether it’s WhatsApp, Telegram, or Google Chat – scammers always try to move conversations off dating platforms or social media. This helps them avoid being reported or banned. - Video Sextortion Setup
Especially common in the Philippines, scammers try to get you on a video call, record you, and then threaten to share the footage. They often claim to be lonely or looking for friendship before switching to sexual talk. - Country Code Clues and Red Flags
Phone numbers starting with +225 (Ivory Coast), +63 (Philippines), or +234 (Nigeria) are major warning signs. Combine that with fast emotional bonding, poor grammar, and money requests — and it’s almost certainly a sextortion scam.
Prevention, Protection, and Response
If you find yourself in the middle of a sextortion fraud attempt, your first instinct will be to panic or pay the ransom to make the problem go away. You must resist this urge. Paying a blackmailer is like pouring gasoline on a fire; it only makes them stay longer and ask for more. The criminal has no incentive to delete your photos if they know you are a reliable source of income.
The best course of action involves a total silence policy combined with professional intervention. You must stop all communication immediately. Do not argue, do not plead, and do not threaten them back. Secure your social media accounts by making them private and changing your usernames. This limits the surface area the scammer has to contact your friends.
If you are being blackmailed and need to regain control of your digital life, contact Cyber Investigation for expert guidance. Professional investigators have the tools to track the digital footprint of these criminals and can often help de-escalate the situation without your private information ever being released. You do not have to face this digital nightmare alone.
Protecting Yourself
- Privacy Settings: Lock down your social media. If a scammer can’t see your friends list, they lose a large portion of their leverage.
- Don’t Respond to DMs from Strangers: If you never engage, the scam cannot begin.
- Use antivirus software: Protect against cam-jacking malware.
What to Do If You Are Targeted
- Document Everything: Save screenshots of the threats, the perpetrator’s profile, and payment instructions.
- Do Not Pay: Paying only marks you as a reliable source of income. The demands will never stop once you pay.
- Do Not Block Immediately: Sudden blocking can trigger a leak. Instead, go silent or seek professional help to manage the exit.
- Report to Authorities: Notify the platform where the crime occurred, your local police, and the FBI (IC3). Additionally, consider working with specialized digital forensic experts who can track the digital footprint.
How Digital Forensics Corp. Helps Stop Sextortion Scams
Digital Forensics Corp. has a team of experts that are ready to help you with any type of sextortion. We can help you with prevention in cybersecurity or in responding with a digital investigation. Our skilled professionals have been fighting against online blackmail for over a decade and provide a wide array of expertise to bring to you.
Expertise and Services
When it comes to sextortion, our main priority is to protect your privacy. We are well-versed in the techniques and behavior of these cybercriminals. We know exactly how to communicate with them and take control of the situation. Using our vast experience, we track the digital footprint left by the culprit. Our team will then work tirelessly to end the sextortion by removing the blackmailer’s leverage over you and ending their threats against you. If you want to regain control over your privacy, get a free consultation about sextortion today through our Sextortion Helpline.
Further Resources and Support
Digital Forensic Corp. is always a call away but there are also other resources you can turn to for help as well. Nonprofit organizations have been working diligently to online blackmail and provide helpful resources to support victims.
- Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI https://cybercivilrights.org/ ): A nonprofit that helps victims and survivors of image-based sexual abuse and the laws aimed at protecting them.
- National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (https://www.missingkids.org/home): A nonprofit that provides assistance to victims, families, and others when they need help with a missing, exploited or recovered minor.
FAQ about Sextortion
How do sextortionists find their victims?
Most sextortionists use social media scraping or dating apps. They look for public accounts with visible friend lists, as this allows them to prove they can contact your family or colleagues if you refuse to pay.
Should I pay the sextortionists to make them go away?
No. Paying sextortionists almost always leads to more demands. Once they know you have the money and the willingness to pay, they will keep coming back until you are financially drained.
Can I stop sextortion online without paying?
Yes, and you should never pay. Payment rarely ends the threat; it only identifies you as a profitable target. Professional investigators can help you starve the scammer of attention and remove their leverage safely.
Is cyber sextortion a common crime?
Cyber sextortion is incredibly common. Millions of cases are reported to agencies like the FBI annually, though experts believe the actual number is much higher because victims often feel too ashamed to report the incident.
What is the best way to deal with sextortion fraud?
Document all communication with screenshots, then secure your social media privacy settings. Do not delete the conversation yet, as it contains vital evidence. With the evidence you’ve collected, report the crime to the proper authorities.
Can they really hack my webcam?
While webcam hacking is technically possible through specialized malware, most webcam threats sent via bulk email are total bluffs. They use a password you used years ago (found in a data breach) to trick you into believing they have access to your hardware.
What do I do if my photos have already leaked?
If a leak occurs, you should contact organizations like the NCMEC (for minors) or specialized digital forensic firms. They can help with takedown notices to remove the content from websites and search engines.
How do I know if a sextortion scam is real or a bluff?
If the sextortionist provides a specific photo or video of you, it is a real threat. If they only send a text email claiming they watched you through your webcam but show no proof, it is likely a mass-email sextortion scam.
Can the police actually catch someone doing cyber sextortion?
While difficult, especially with international suspects, law enforcement and digital forensics teams can track IP addresses, payment trails, and account metadata to identify and sometimes prosecute those behind cyber sextortion.
What is sextortion fraud on social media?
Sextortion fraud on social media typically begins with a catfish account. The scammer builds a brief romantic connection, convinces the victim to move to a private chat, and then records or screenshots explicit material to use as blackmail.
How long do sextortionists usually keep harassing you?
If you stop responding and don’t pay, most sextortionists will move on to an easier target within 24 to 72 hours. However, if you have paid them in the past, they may persist for weeks or months.
Is deepfake sextortion online legally punishable?
Is deepfake sextortion online legally punishable?
In the U.S., legal protections are catching up. Currently, about 30 states have laws against non-consensual sexual deepfakes, and federal legislation is being developed to combat sextortion online involving AI-generated content.
