Sextortion: What to Do First

1. Stop responding — and don’t pay

The person is relying on fear and urgency. Slowing down is the single most useful thing you can do.

• Don’t pay.Paying rarely ends the demands — it usually signals that you can be pressured again, and the requests tend to continue or grow.
• Don’t send more images or information. No new photos, no video calls, no personal or financial details.
• Stop replying.You don’t owe this person a response. Engaging usually escalates the situation rather than resolving it.
• Don’t make threats back.Keep your messages (or silence) calm and minimal — this protects you and keeps the record clean.

2. Capture evidence before you block anyone

You will likely want a record for platform reports and for law enforcement. Capture it before you block the person or delete the conversation.

• Screenshot the threats— the messages, the demands, the username or handle, the profile, and any deadline or amount mentioned. Include the full screen, with the date and time visible.
• Save usernames, profile links, and any payment details they gave you (wallet address, account name, app handle).
• Note where it happened— which app or platform, and any links to where they claim images are posted or will be posted.
• Keep copies somewhere you control— an encrypted folder or a printout. Avoid re-downloading or forwarding any intimate content itself more than necessary.

3. Lock down your accounts

Reduce what the person can reach while you sort things out.

• Afteryou’ve captured evidence, block the account on the platform where they contacted you.
• Tighten privacy settings on your social accounts (who can see your followers, friends, photos, and contact info). Sextortionists often pressure people by threatening to send content to family, friends, or coworkers.
• Turn on two-factor authenticationand change passwords on your important accounts if there’s any chance they were exposed.

4. Get help — you don’t have to do this alone

Telling one trusted person, and reaching a dedicated helpline, can take a lot of weight off you.

• If the person targeted is under 18:treat this as urgent. NCMEC’s Take It Downservice helps limit the spread of intimate images of minors, and you can report directly to NCMEC’s CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org.
• In the US,report internet-enabled extortion to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) and consider your local police. The FBI specifically asks people not to pay and to report sextortion.
• Specialized support: the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) runs a free, confidential Image Abuse Helpline at 1-844-878-2274. For emotional support, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is 988, and RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673.

5. Get ahead of the images

You can act even if nothing has been posted yet — and especially if it has.

• Proactive hash-blocking. For adults, StopNCII.org(run by the Revenge Porn Helpline, part of the UK charity SWGfL) creates a digital fingerprint (“hash”) of an image on your own device— the image never leaves your device — so participating platforms can detect and block matching uploads. For minors, use NCMEC’s Take It Down.
• Report and request removal of anything already posted. Our guide on removing intimate images from search and platforms walks through platform reports, search-engine removals, and DMCA / TAKE IT DOWN Act notices.
• Monitoring as one option.Finding every place content appears — and keeping up if it spreads — is often the hardest part. A monitoring-and-takedown tool like FaceSentry uses automated face-matching to surface possible matches of your own face and helps you prepare and track removal requests. A flagged match is a lead to review, not a legal determination, and no tool can guarantee whether or how fast content comes down.

What this guide can and can’t do

• Not legal advice. This is general information. Laws differ by location and change over time; for advice about your situation, talk to a qualified attorney.
• No outcome is certain.Removal depends on each platform’s own policies and processes. Neither this guide nor any tool decides whether content is removed or how quickly.
• You are not alone.This happens to many people, and the steps above — stop, save, lock down, report, get support — are exactly what the helplines recommend.

See related guides: your first 24 hours after NCII and removing deepfakes of yourself.