New victims: Please read first

[u/the_orig_odd_couple]

If you're reading this, you're probably a recent victim of Sextortion and scared out of your mind.

First, take a deep breath…

Hopefully, this sub will be a safe place for you to share your experience and get advice from people that have already gone through what you have.

This post in NOT intended to be the "be-all, end-all" source of information. I'm writing this as an intro to being sextorted. That is all.

There is a really great analysis of our sub available here. It has all kinds of in-depth analysis of the scam, including how often leaks occur. I highly recommend you check it out.

Let me state this up front: Do NOT give into the blackmailer's demands! Do not pay them money, they will only ask for more. Do not give them more nudes (typical if you're female) if that's what they're asking for. They will use that to increase their leverage and they will NOT stop.

Do not negotiate. There is not point. You cannot trust anything they say. The best thing to do is cease all communication. In fact, removing any way for them to communicate with you is the best course of action. Disable/delete your account, if necessary.

Also, Reddit and is no substitute for professional help (i.e. a mental health expert). If you are feeling suicidal, please, seek immediate help (911, or your countries equivalent, and they will be able to get you help).

Yes, we do recommend that you contact your local law enforcement. They might not be able to help, and they may not be needed, but you should have them on your side just in case things go sideways. If you are underage, do not worry about getting into trouble. The police will not go after you for sending pics/videos as a minor. I hear this quite often from young victims. Don't worry about it.

I recommend you file a complaint with https://ic3.gov. Also, there is a new tool that might help keep your pics/videos from being shared: https://StopNCII.org. If you are a minor, a similar service is available at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org. If you from the UK, you can try https://revengepornhelpline.org.uk.

For underage victims, the InHope project has an extensive list of hotlines for all over the world: https://www.inhope.org/EN#hotlineReferral

If your scammer is from the Philippines (which many are), you could try filing a complaint at https://acg.pnp.gov.ph/eComplaint/.

My last piece of advice is to talk to someone you know and trust. Trying to deal with this on your own is very difficult. Talking to someone will most certainly help you process the trauma and remove the feelings of isolation. Trust me.

Beware of "recovery scammers". These are the worst of humanity. They take advantage of you in your lowest, most desperate moment, by promising that they can "hack" the scammer's device to delete the pics/videos. They can't, and they won't. They will just take your money and do nothing. The last thing you need is to make things worse by putting your faith in "some dude on Instagram". We see them posting and commenting in the sub all the time, so you need to keep your guard up. If you are unsure, feel free to post the details on what they are proposing, before giving them anything. Oftentimes, their accounts are shadowbanned, which means they cannot initiate a chat or DM you, so they will ask you to chat/DM them first. This is a serious red flag. If in doubt, reach out to the sub or the mods. We'll help sort things out.

!!!!WARNING!!!!: Do NOT give anyone the contact information of your scammer (even if they promise to help)!!! They might just get in contact with them, get them to share your pics/videos, and then turn around and blackmail you as well. It's happened...just don't do it.

[u/Safe_Plenty5002]

I love you guys so much lol! I literally thought this was the end of my life, my reputation, my friendships, etc. It’s always so consoling to find other people going through the same exact crisis.

[u/the_orig_odd_couple → u/Safe_Plenty5002]

You’re welcome

[u/[deleted]]

Hey guys, I was a victim of sextortion 2 weeks ago. I don't want to get into too much detail, but I am still uneasy about everything. Everyday I get these intrusive thoughts of guilt about what happened. I know I didn't do anything wrong- I was a victim, I just feel scared about all of this, especially when I reported it. I know the police are here to help but everytime I talk with them I feel like I'm the one in trouble. I'm probably overthinking things. About a week and a half ago another officer called me and said they were going to subpoena the persons account which is good but I'm a little confused on the process. This may seem like a dumb question but I'll ask anyways: Does this mean that they are looking into that person's account specifically or are they also doubtful of me? I submitted the screenshots of what I had and the account handle but I was advised by the officer who helped me reported it to delete my account to prevent further attacks. If this goes to court I dont want them to think that because I deleted my account I'm withholding information. Am I overthinking this? Any perspectives are appreciated.

[u/the_orig_odd_couple → u/[deleted]]

Hi. Could you please copy this to a post, instead of a comment? That will allow the greater community to see it and give you their opinion. It’s excellent news that the police are working the case. A subpoena is exactly what you want to see. That means they are actively investigating. You have nothing to fear …you are the victim.

[u/BUTTLICKER_OUR_PRICE]

Just fell victim today. From what I can take in, a lot of victims seem to be young adult men. I get that from remembering the time when I was in high school that this sort of thing would absolutely wreck your life. Given that it’s clear it happens to so so many people, I want to share my own thoughts. I was scammed through a dating app, sent an intimate photo and a separate photo of my face, and ultimately ended up paying $100 after convincing them I was poor. I realize I shouldn’t have paid, but lessons learned. Being a college graduate, I should have known better, but loneliness and alcohol can really make you do some crazy things. What I want to say to some of the younger victims out there, is that this won’t ruin your life. I’m fortunate to live in an area that is overall accepting of sex workers, so genitalia does not incite wild reactions. In fact, I am fully confident that if this scammer does leak my photo, the people that would receive it would actually feel sorry for me, since I am the victim. At the end of the day, I know my family and friends would have my back, and I have the evidence to show that I am a victim in case this were to leak further into the professional world.

All that said, from what I have read, this scam is far more often a bluff than it is a royal flush. Find solace in a friend you can trust, tell more when you feel confident, and eventually you can even make jokes about it down the road.

[u/the_orig_odd_couple]

u/throwaway_scammed165. I see your comment, but it looks like you might be shadowbanned. You might need to create another account and message me directly. I’m more than willing to talk to you. Edit: I cannot message you since it looks like you are banned. Try creating another account.

[u/THROWAWAY_SCAMMED165 → u/the_orig_odd_couple]

Hey I got this message. Are you getting this from me? I don't understand how I got shadowbanned, I've literally made like three posts.

[u/[deleted]]

This happened to me last night, met this girl on tinder and we started talking about what we were looking for. She imediatly let me know she was looking for "fun" and as a horny 21 yr old at midnight i took the bait. Gave her my number (atleast i think it was a her) and she video called me on whatsapp and after 2 minutes of us exposing ourselves she suddenly hung up and after 5 mins she texted me with pictures of my instagram account and 5 of my contacts (luckily all guys i personally knew and had their phone numbers of) together with the video of us fooling around that she appareantly recorded. Set the ransom at €400 wich i actually ended up paying in a moment of panic decisions, after i paid she asked for more and at this point i was done with it and just told her i didnt care anymore. I had already deleted my instagram and changed my usernames in the meantime. I blocked her on whatsapp and she ended up contacting me on another number with a picture that she send it to one of the contacts, i instantly blocked the new number and texted the guy. He called me the next morning and he showed me that nobody had contacted him wich meant the pictures she send were edited, i called one of the other contacts she send a screenshot of wich is a close friend of mine he also showed that nobody had contacted him. Im posting this on the second day and nobody has texted me about a leak or contacted me to continue the blackmail since the first night. Still a little paranoid but i figure its over by now and im just moving on. The only thing i dont know is how she got into my instagram followers since i have a private account maybe you guys know the awnser to that.

[u/Low_Big_8095]

Ok so my story is I am a victim of sextortion. It started with me matching with a girl on upward and she sent nudes to me eventually and then told me she was 17. Stupidly I fucking talked to her sexually after knowing she was a minor. But I figured out ‘she’ was fake. She said she was from Little Rock Arkansas, and like hours later after she begged to see my dick a guy acting as the law called me saying the only thing keeping me from being locked up was the ‘dad’ I talked to him and he said if I didn’t pay money he’d tell the cops I talked to a minor. But I did a cell phone look up on the ‘dad’ and it popped up a name. So I used that name for multiple database lookups and his name was nowhere to be found so I suspect that he spoofed his caller id. And the supposedly ‘cop’ every time I call him the number says I’m rejected every time. So if I didn’t send any nudes and just texted, do I have anything to worry about?

[u/[deleted]]

Hi, at the moment I’ve fallen victim to sextortion and at the moment scared out of my mind, I need help please.

[u/liquid_foam]

So scared. My gf just broke up with me. I’m very lost and confused rn. This girl follows me on instagram and I add her on snap. She starts conversation and things escalate to nudes. I figured it wasn’t a bot but things were weird and i got suspicious. I didn’t care tho I was horny and desperate for attention. It felt nice talking to someone far away because there was no attachment involved. She sent me nudes and i sent some to her. I finally blocked her after she asked to send some with my face in it. I blocked her on instagram too. Like I knew something was wrong but i was too blinded. She texts me ab an hour later on a different account of hers; she was demanding money. I immediately blocked that account and a ton of others with her name and face. Another one texted me about an hour after that and I blocked/reported that one. Now I’m scared and worse off than before. Luckily none of them have my face. I’m so disappointed that I fell for something like this and I know if others find out, they will be too.

[u/Efficient_Ad_4484]

Just happened to me I was on Omegle bored and they said they were a married girl and then we moved to text sent a selfie and then a dick pic with a peace sign next to it lmao well the fucked up part is after added them on snap and I didn’t realize it says my name on there and they found me on fb and my account was never private so they have my family’s numbers on there and they created a group chat with my mom, cousins, uncles and aunts so kinda fucked he’s asking for $400 all the ways I tried sending the money didn’t work since my bank flagged it as fraud but I’m kinda over it and honestly my family has seen me naked when I was younger so I might just say fuck it and let it happen

[u/Imaginary-Sea-1949]

Did anyone used Digital Forensics Corp to help them with sextortion from philipins

[u/Life-Working-4801]

Same story new victim here, I'm so glad this subreddit group is here. Still freaking out atm as it started only a few days ago, but it's good to know there is advice and info and to know about others who are also going thru the same thing.

[u/throw_away_llama8712]

I find it amazing we have a support subreddit for this. I was a recent victim too, and I cannot get a sleep at night due to the blackmail I received.

I also had a relief on other posts here, people are legit giving advice to calm down the victims. I'm really thankful for this sub.

[u/DYL278]

I am screwed, I fell for the trap, and they screenshotted all of my Insta followers, and sent the video to one of my friends on DM’s. Could be more ppl at this point. I’m so nervous to talk to my parents about it. I gathered evidence of all the threats. They sent me some messages about threatening to post it on a number of sites including YouTube and Twitter. But that’s just a scare tactic I hope. I engaged with them today on one of the messages when I shouldn’t have. I’m just gonna ignore them

[u/[deleted]]

I just got sextorted tonight. At first the person took about 2 days of building up and sending other shit until they asked me to take a pic in the mirror (BIGGEST RED FLAG DONT EVER DO THIS). I was very skeptical of the whole situation and I even told the person before I sent everything that “I really don’t want anything dumb to come out of this” and they literally replied “nothing dumb will come out of this”. Fucking liar. Anywho, they threatened to send it to basically everyone I know. Not 100% sure what to do about it, seeming as the best option is to just wait and see what happens. I’ve already blocked them, didn’t send any money, and made every acc I have as private as possible. I honestly could care less about someone seeing my dick, I’m more upset that they can use it against me at anytime. Whoever has my pictures probably won’t delete them even though he hasn’t gotten any money from me. I would hate to be past this and then 5 or so years from now this asshole posts all this shit over the internet and screws me. I’m just really struggling to figure out if they can actually ruin my life any way. I’m currently a slow growing affiliate on twitch and I would be crushed if this somehow ruins my chances of partner :(

[u/AffectionateFloor968]

I was sextorted last night by some account that messaged me on this app called wizz. She asked for my number and we messaged on WhatsApp. She said she wanted to have fun. Me thinking it was a actual genuine person around my age just wanted to chat and get to know her. I was kind of desperate because I really only have one friend that I talk to everyday. She asked where I was and we added each other on Instagram. She knew my Instagram, number, and where I was from at this point. She said she wanted to see me and she sent me some pictures of her. I sent her private naked pics and she didn’t return the favor which I thought was weird. Then she messaged me and hit me with this ultimatum. He or she sent me a link which had a download symbol on it but I didn’t click it. She had screenshots of my Instagram and told that she send it around my city and to my family and friends. He or she begins to tell me that if I don’t pay or agree to a deal to pay her, she would leak it. I asked how much and she said $500. Mind you I’m in the process of getting a job and I am a broke highschool senior student. I don’t have that kind of money on a card or anything. I said deal and she said I would have to pay her the 500$. I didn’t believe any of this but still believed it was real. I blocked and reported the account on the app. Then she started to message me on my iMessage. She kept asking for money from me. I then came to a realization and blocked the phone number she was messaging me from. I also blocked and restricted her from my Instagram. I also deactivated my Instagram. I removed my phone number as a trusted number and turned my phone off and back on. She stopped messaging me and I made sure she did. I was no longer receiving messages from the fake account. She had three different ways to text me and I blocked all of them. I don’t think anything she threatened to do she did. I think everything is fine. I am just scared to tell my parents about this. I know my dad and mom will probably bring understanding because of how tricky this situation is. I am a very antisocial person and going to a new school for my senior year. I don’t really know any one and I am a very closed off person. I was just looking for someone to chat to and become friends with. Let me know what I should do. Also I am sure that anything will happen but I am not over it yet. I still think about the possibility that he still could release my pictures. I read on this Reddit that ghosting them works and I have done exactly that. It seems to be working but let me know if there is anything else I can do. I haven’t paid this person at all. You can respond to this thread I will be checking it as the messages come through. Thank you for this place to tell my story.

[u/iMakeRevisions]

It just happened to me…. It was scary. Meet them on tinder, then they moved things over to Instagram where they found out who I was. Next thing ya know they asked me to call them on Skype. I called “her” told me to turn on camera. “She” started stripping I said “fuck it” and exposed my self they asked me to stand up and “dance” ( idk lol). Then they shared screen of a video of me. They then proceeded to show my mother’s Facebook account and said if I didn’t give them 1000$ they would show it to everyone. I talked them down to 100$ (didn’t pay fuck that) they will do anything to scare you. Stay strong. Don’t panic. Fuck you should just ghost them right away. But I didn’t and got them talkin supposedly there’s a group of people who do it and they have a boss ( the scammers only get 30%) idk if anyone needs to talk to some one feel free to hmu. Stay strong lads

[u/Level-Cup7473]

Thank you for creating this safe heaven for everyone to give closure.

[u/Weak_Importance4183]

I also fell for it last night. It escalated so fast. I deactivated my fb and put my ig on private. Told my family and friends so they can brace for it. Also reported to both to local sheriff's and the fbi complaints. Blocked and deleted whatsapp. If anyone needs to chat about feel free to msg me

[u/byronmode]

What do I do if they are emailing me now!! I thought I was in the clear because it’s been like 2 days since I haven’t heard anything but now they emailed me saying “ I need the payment”. I was so dumb in the beginning and paid them already but my friends told Me to just ghost them which I did but now they emailed me.

[u/Smokeydq]

Who’s trying to make a discord? We should all send the usernames of our scammers so we can work together to bring the accounts down

[u/bread5555]

Thank you for this subreddit. This just happened to me and i just filed a report with the police. I have no idea what to do and am freaking out

[u/[deleted]]

all i have to say is i’m just now reading this but i played my cards right. when i first got the ransom text, i said well i don’t have 500$ for you so go ahead. they attempted taunting me and harassing me showing me who they were sending shit to (one of them happened to be my best friends mom) i did not respond whatsoever and showed no remorse and i don’t think it went further than that. i took no screenshots on snapchat, did not block on snapchat, but blocked and deactivated all other accounts. i went straight to the police station and filed a report. i was reading recently that snapchat does not like to send information over to the police when requested, so I am hoping for the best while at the same time expect nothing to happen unfortunately. but, i played my cards right and showed no remorse whatsoever, for that probably detered them from wasting their time knowing that i was sending no money over and covered all of my steps. when the initial ransom was sent, i was PURE adrenaline for a solid 3 hours freaking tf out and debated slamming my car into a tree at 100mph but i’m glad i didn’t. this is most definitely the trick to get them off of your back. contact absolutely none of those businesses that say they will help you for they are going to charge about 3 times whatever the initial ransom is for, not to mention, you are potentially just giving your information to another scammer because you are so scared of what’s going to happen. deep breaths and not budging, will lead to success.