Do Sextortionists Give Up?

Recently, we had a new client write in to ask: Do sextortionists give up after a while if I just keep ignoring em?

‘Dear DFC , I had a question: I’ve been getting harassed by someone who’s trying to sextort me with pics they got from on Snapchat. I’ve been ignoring them but they’ve been blowing my snap up. I haven’t blocked them yet but Im tempted to. Do sextortionists give up after a while if I just keep ignoring em? Thx – W.G.’

Do most Sextortionists follow through?

            Well, W.G., that’s a great question to ask, and a common one at that! However, when it comes to if sextortionists give up,it’s a complicated answer: yes, but also no. Allow us to explain!

Given the lawless nature of their schemes, there is no guarantees or particular set of conditions that sextortionists have when it comes to handling communication from their end.

There are indeed cases where, sometimes, sextortionists will give up at the first sign that they are being ignored and move on to attempting to scam their next sextortion victim, maximizing their own time invested versus returns from the initial victim.

Do blackmailers give up?

However, this is a double edged sword.

There are just as many if not more instances where sextortionists will just become agitated, leading them to double-down on their claims and possibly increase their demands – or, potentially, do even worse than just that. There’s a few risk factors and unknown variables to consider when trying to ignore or ‘wait it out’ for sextortionists to give up:

• Proliferation

One downside of ignoring a sextortion scam is that even should a scammer leave you be today, there’s no telling who else they may share your information and content with. Many sextortionists operate in groups, or scam-cells, that share information amongst themselves.

This is true whether you ignore an online sextortion scam or not. 

Point being even if it seems your sextortionist gives up they may just be passing your information and content along to one of their cohorts or even another scam-cell to begin attempting to prey on you at a later date. Sextortionist scam-cells often operate on cyclical schedules, and chances are they will be back.

• Compromisation

 You won’t know necessarily how much information a sextortion scam has already collected that can be used against you. Certainly, they have your sensitive pictures, but even if you didn’t tell them your full name, they may already have eyes on your other social media accounts and your friends and followers from them. What may have seemed like otherwise unimportant questions when the conversation with the scammer began (‘Where do you live?

What do you do? How old are you?’) may have been the sextortionists trying to obtain information used to track you down on platforms and social networks they did not already have connection to you on.

Chances are decent they already have what they need, too, even if their initial threats did not mention other platforms or avenues of release for your content – and what they do with that information, you may not like.

How do you deal with being blackmailed if escalated?

The worst possible scenario:

there’s as more-than-decent chance that when you ignore online sextortion, it will only serve to make the sextortionists more aggressive.

This can lead to dire consequences.  Depending on the information they’ve already gathered they could go forward with releasing your materials. 

The worst part about this scenario to consider is your content may then be out ‘in the wild’.  You ever knowing about it or having the opportunity to try to mitigate it.

How do you end a sextortion if they don’t give up?

If you’re asking yourself ‘do sextortionists give up’ like our friend W.G., you now have your answer. In summary, it’s never a good idea to outright ignore a sextortionist due to the unknowable variables of their behavior.

 There are better ways to make sextortion go away. That’s why we’re here to offer you this advice as well as invite you to look into our services. 

What should a victim of sextortion do?

If you or someone you know is a sextortion victim, consider reaching out to us – members of our team are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to take down the details of your case, and our specialists and analysts have a track record of high success rates when it comes to navigating, mitigating, and ultimately stopping sextortion scams in their tracks.

Reach out to us at 1-888-210-2057, or chat with one of our client services team members online. We are able to help you with

Facebook Sextortion

Instagram Sextortion

Snapchat Sextortion etc.

Act. You are one call away to get rid of sextortion in 24h or less.  Contact Our Sextortion Helpline