Sextortion and image blackmail

How it works

The criminal poses as an attractive person (often a young woman) on a dating app, social media or game, flirts quickly, and persuades the target to exchange nude images or join an intimate video call that is secretly recorded. As soon as they have material they demand money – usually via payment apps, gift cards or crypto – threatening to send the images to the victim's friends, family or social media contacts. Paying rarely ends it. In a newer variant, criminals use AI to turn ordinary photos from social media into fake explicit images and blackmail people who never shared anything. The FBI and NCA say offenders are mostly organised groups in West Africa and Southeast Asia.

Red flags

• A very attractive stranger turns sexual within the first messages
• They ask for nude photos or an intimate video call early on
• They quickly push to move to a private or encrypted messaging app
• They threaten to send your images to friends, family or social media contacts unless you pay
• They demand payment by payment app, gift cards or crypto

Check your match against all 44 red flags

Recent cases

Real cases reported by courts, police, regulators and the press. People facing pending charges are presumed innocent, and private victims are not named.

The numbers

• IC3 received more than 75,000 sextortion submissions; the 20-29 age group filed the most (22,061). (2025) source
• NCMEC received more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion (about 137 a day), up from 36,000 in 2024; offenders are moving faster to encrypted apps. (2025) source
• Of 127 sextortion victims who contacted the UK Revenge Porn Helpline (Aug 2022-Aug 2024), 85% were male and 64% aged 18-34; contact typically began on social media and dating platforms. (2024) source
• Canada: Cybertip.ca received over 2,300 sextortion reports (about six a day); 83% of victims with known gender were male. (2024) source
• NCA research: 74% of teenage boys did not see a request for nudes as a sextortion warning sign. (2025) source
• FBI warned that criminals use AI to create explicit fakes from ordinary photos and demand money or gift cards (PSA I-060523). (2023) source

If it is happening to you

1. Do not pay and do not send more images – paying rarely stops the blackmail (NCMEC, NCA).
2. Stop all contact and block them on every platform, but keep screenshots, usernames, payment details and links as evidence.
3. Deactivate rather than delete accounts so evidence is preserved.
4. Use hash-based removal: StopNCII.org (adults) or Take It Down (images taken under 18).
5. In the US, platforms covered by the TAKE IT DOWN Act must remove non-consensual intimate images, including AI fakes, within 48 hours of a valid request.
6. In England and Wales, creating or requesting a sexually explicit deepfake of an adult without consent became a criminal offence on 6 February 2026.
7. You are not to blame – contact support services (Revenge Porn Helpline UK, Samaritans, Lifeline 13 11 14 in Australia) if you feel overwhelmed.

Where to report

Related scams

Romance scams

A scammer builds an online relationship using a fake or borrowed identity, often over weeks or months, and invests heavily in attention and affection.

Pig butchering

A friendly or flirtatious contact – often on a dating app, social media or a 'wrong number' text – builds a relationship and casually mentions success trading crypto, gold or forex as a 'side job'.

Catfishing and impersonation

Scammers build profiles from photos stolen from real people – often soldiers, professionals or celebrities – and invent a life that explains why they cannot meet: deployed overseas, working on an oil rig, with an international organisation, or too famous.