Are you Under 18, or seeking advice on behalf of someone who is? Please refer to our CEOP Website for relevant advice.
[Children] [Parents] [Professionals]
Financially motivated sexual extortion (often referred to as 'financial sextortion') is a form of online blackmail.
Globally, there has been an increase in reporting of young people and adults being forced into paying money or meeting another financial demand (such as purchasing a pre-paid gift card) after an offender has threatened to release sexual images of them. When the victim is under 18, it is a form of child sexual abuse.
If this has happened to you, it is not your fault. Help and support are available.
What is financial extortion?
Victims of any age are potential targets, however teenage males aged 14-17 and male adults aged 18-30 are particularly at risk.
This crime is usually carried out by organised criminal gangs, often based overseas, who are typically motivated by financial gain.
What financial extortion looks like
Financially motivated sexual extortion often follows a similar pattern. You may be:
- contacted online by someone you do not know or contacted by a hacked account belonging to someone you know, where the messages seem unusual
- encouraged to move a conversation from a social media platform, online game or app to a private messaging service
- quickly engaged in sexually explicit communications, which may include them sharing sexualised content first
- pressured into sharing intimate images or videos
- told that your device or account has been hacked
- threatened with the release of real, stolen, manipulated or AI-generated images
- asked to pay money, send gift cards, cryptocurrency or meet another financial demand
The offender's goal is to create fear, shame and urgency so that you act quickly without seeking help.
What to do if you or your child is a victim of financial extortion
- Don’t pay, do stop contact and block. There is no guarantee that paying or meeting the offender’s demands will stop the threats. As their motive is for financial gain, they will likely ask for more money and the blackmail may continue.
- If a payment has been made, stay calm but don’t pay anything more.
- Stop all communication with the offender and block them on any accounts that they have been contacted on.
- Avoid deleting anything that could be used as evidence such as messages, images, offender profile details and bank account details.
- Report to the platform(s) and to the local police or relevant safeguarding service (see below). Call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm.
It's important to remember that a victim is never to blame if they have been blackmailed online. Offenders will have tricked, groomed and/or manipulated them into sharing an image, or created digitally manipulated images of them.
Reporting
Under 18 Victims
- Report to the police. Call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm. A child or young person can also contact the CEOP Safety Centre to report and access support.
- Report any images or videos that have been shared. If an image or video has been shared without your consent, the below services can support in getting the content removed:
- Use Report Remove, a tool from Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation to remove images that have been shared or might be shared.
- Use Take It Down, a tool from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to remove or stop the online sharing of images or videos.
- Report it to the platform or app that the incident has occurred on. For advice on how to report to major social media platforms, visit Internet Matters.
Advice for parents and carers
Young people can find it difficult to talk about financial extortion as they may feel embarrassed, ashamed or worried about getting into trouble.
If your child tells you they are being blackmailed online:
- stay calm and listen
- reassure them that they are not to blame
- do not judge or criticise them
- help them block, report and save evidence
- support them to report the incident
- seek appropriate safeguarding and welfare support
Regular, open and non-judgemental conversations about relationships, online activity and where to get help can make it easier for children to seek support if something goes wrong.
Adult Victims
- Report the incident to your local police force by calling 101 or 999 if you feel you are at immediate risk of harm.
- Report it to the social media platform you’ve been contacted on.
- Use the Stop NCII (Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse) tool to immediately prevent your content be shared across StopNCII.org’s Industry Partners.
