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If someone threatens to share intimate images unless you send money, more images or comply with demands, ask for help promptly. Do not send more material or money to try to buy safety. Keep the threatening account and message details, report the account, and block further contact. If a child is involved, bring in a trusted adult and suitable authorities. If there is an immediate threat to anyone’s safety, contact local emergency services.
The first response should reduce the person’s isolation and preserve useful information. It should not require them to prove that an image is genuine, confront the person threatening them or manage the situation alone.
What sextortion means
Sextortion uses the threat of exposure to demand something from a person. The demand may be money, further intimate content or other conduct. In financial sextortion, someone may pose as a potential partner, obtain an image and then demand payment. A threat can also involve stolen or manipulated material, or a claim to possess material that has not been shown.
The FBI distinguishes financial sextortion from coercion intended to obtain more sexual content. Its guidance stresses seeking help, reporting the account, blocking contact and keeping profile or message evidence. Cooperation does not reliably end the threats. Source: FBI guidance on financially motivated sextortion.
Do not assume that paying once will settle the matter. Equally, nobody can honestly promise that refusing a demand will prevent publication. The response should focus on support, reporting, account protection and available content-removal routes.
What the 2025 FBI report tells us—and what it does not
IC3 received more than 75,000 submissions regarding sextortion in 2025. Its age table includes adults as well as young people: the 60+ group, for example, reported approximately $14.9 million in adjusted losses. The report separately says IC3 referred more than 5,700 submissions involving minors to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Submissions and referrals are different measures. Source: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report, page 11.
The minor-only section records 13,168 complaints from complainants aged 17 or younger, including 5,151 extortion complaints. Extortion is a broader reporting category than sextortion, so those 5,151 complaints should not all be labelled sextortion. Source: report, pages 34–36.
These are reports to a US complaint system, not a worldwide count of affected children. Financial losses also cannot measure the full harm of threats or exploitation. The report’s “under 20” tables describe a different age group from its “17 or younger” section. Our IC3 statistics guide explains those boundaries.
Preserve the threat without spreading the material
No reliable promise covers every website, copy or future upload. Use established reporting and removal resources, and verify any professional service independently. Do not give a stranger account passwords or intimate material in response to an unsolicited offer of help. The FBI has warned about deceptive paid sextortion assistance, including pressure tactics and attempts to discourage police reporting.
You can report a threat without asking the person to send the image as proof. Do not invite another transmission, especially where a minor may be depicted. Tell the authority which account made the demand and where any material is said to be available.
Keep the account and communication details already available. Avoid deleting the whole conversation or account in panic. At the same time, do not download, forward, copy or circulate sexual images of a minor to build an evidence bundle. Tell the reporting authority where the material is and ask how it should be handled.
| Information | What to capture safely |
|---|---|
| Account | Username, profile URL, user ID if visible, platform and any linked accounts. |
| Threat | The demand and threatened action in text, with dates, times and time zone. Avoid creating copies of explicit child imagery. |
| Payment | Requested account, payment handle, gift-card instruction or cryptocurrency address; any payment confirmation already held. |
| Publication | The URL, post or message identifier and platform where material was reported. Do not repost it as proof. |
| Reporting | Platform report confirmation and law-enforcement or NCMEC reference. |
A short chronology is often clearer than an unlabelled collection of screenshots: how contact began, when the first threat arrived, what was demanded, whether anything was paid, and what has been reported. Mark uncertain details as uncertain. A profile photograph, displayed name or receiving account does not by itself establish the offender’s identity.
When a child tells a parent or caregiver
Start by making it safe to keep talking: “Thank you for telling me. We will get help together.” Avoid beginning with blame, a demand to see the images or questions about why the child trusted the person. The immediate job is support and protection.
The FBI advises caregivers to reassure a child that they are a victim and help them report. It also cautions against fee-based offers to solve sextortion and directs people to specialist removal resources. Source: FBI sextortion information for victims and caregivers.
Ask whether the child is safe now, whether there are threats of a physical meeting, and whether anyone is pressuring them to harm themselves or someone else. If safety is in immediate doubt, seek emergency help. Keep a trusted adult involved and obtain appropriate professional support rather than leaving the child alone with the messages.
Not every coercive network wants money. The FBI has warned about online groups that use threats and manipulation to control vulnerable people. That is another reason not to judge an incident by the amount demanded or lost. Source: FBI warning on violent online networks.
Take It Down: a removal tool with specific limits
NCMEC’s Take It Down helps limit the sharing of eligible intimate images taken when the depicted person was under 18. It creates a digital fingerprint, or hash, on the device; the image itself is not uploaded through that process. Participating platforms can use the hash on their public or unencrypted services.
It does not remove every copy from the whole internet. Follow the official FAQ: use only material already on the original device, and do not download it or ask someone to send it to you for submission. If it is unavailable, seek help through CyberTipline. People now over 18 can still qualify for material taken when they were minors. Material taken at 18 or older has a separate route through StopNCII.
A removal request and a report about the threatening person serve different purposes. Using a hash service does not replace reporting ongoing threats or an immediate safety concern.
Report through genuine channels
Use the platform’s safety reporting process and contact competent local law enforcement. For US matters, the FBI identifies its official tip system and local field offices. Child sexual exploitation can also be reported through NCMEC’s CyberTipline. Use the official sites directly rather than a reporting link supplied by the person making threats.
If money has already been sent, contact the payment provider promptly and explain the coercion truthfully. Keep the payment reference. A report or recall request does not guarantee a refund, and a cryptocurrency transfer alone does not identify the individual behind the account.
For matters involving more than one country, local reporting remains important. Our guide to IC3 and cross-border reporting explains the role and limits of that US complaint channel.
