Sextortion Explained: How It Works and How to Stop It

What is sextortion?

Sextortion is blackmail with a sexual image as the leverage: someone threatens to share a nude or sexual picture or video of a person unless they pay money, send more images, or do what they're told. The FBI describes it as a crime that occurs when someone “threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don't provide them images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money.”

When the person in the image is under 18, the picture itself is illegal child sexual abuse material. That is why these cases are handled as serious crimes against a child — not as a teenager's embarrassing mistake — and why the advice later in this guide is firm about never saving or forwarding the image.

This guide is about the version aimed at teenagers through social media and messaging apps. If you have received a mass email claiming a hacker recorded you through your webcam, that is a different scam aimed mostly at adults, with its own advice.

Telling the forms apart matters at the edges. Financial sextortion is a stranger's crime, usually run from abroad, and it moves fast. The older sexual-coercion form, which “frequently impacted girls and involved demands that were sexual or relational in nature,” according to Thorn and NCMEC, often involves someone from school or the local area. Across every form of sextortion in Thorn's 2025 survey, 36% of victims knew the person offline.

The third form is the most dangerous. Since 2023 the FBI has warned about networks such as “764” that push children, typically aged 10 to 17, into “producing, sharing, or live-streaming acts of self-harm, animal cruelty, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide,” in the words of its March 2025 alert. Any demand for self-harm is an emergency: involve the FBI and, if your child is at risk, emergency services right away.

One more thing has changed: the image no longer has to be real. In Thorn and NCMEC's analysis, about one in nine reports that described how the image was obtained involved a child who had sent nothing and was threatened with a fake — most often someone else's photo passed off as theirs. AI has added a new route: NCMEC has seen offenders create an AI nude after a child refused to send one. Our guides to deepfake nudes and AI-driven sextortion cover that variant in depth.

How a sextortion scam works, step by step

A financial sextortion scam works like a script, and the script is built for speed. When Thorn and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) analysed US CyberTipline reports from 2020 to 2023 in Trends in Financial Sextortion, the same beats appeared again and again.

What makes it so dangerous is the clock. The FBI says it can happen quickly — “sometimes in just five minutes.” In Thorn's 2025 survey, 29% of victims who shared an image with someone they knew only online were threatened within 24 hours of sending it. The speed is deliberate: a frightened teen who believes they have minutes to act is a teen who acts alone.

The case that made many parents aware of this crime shows how short the window can be. In March 2022, Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old in Marquette, Michigan, was contacted late one evening by an Instagram account posing as a girl; ABC News reported that he died by suicide within about six hours. Two brothers were extradited from Nigeria and, in September 2024, each sentenced to 210 months in US federal prison.

The threats themselves are formulaic. In the reports with chat logs, 38% contained “ruin your life”-style threats, often copied word for word, and researchers have documented extortion scripts traded openly online. The follower list is the key prop: researchers at the Network Contagion Research Institute found, as Infosecurity Magazine reported, that “nearly all financial sextortion attacks on minors involve the screenshotting of the victim's Instagram followers/following lists.”

Nearly half of reports linked to a country pointed to Nigeria or Côte d'Ivoire, though FinCEN notes that most perpetrators are individuals or small groups rather than large gangs. For a teenager in the middle of it, one reframe helps: this is a copy-and-paste crime run on thousands of people. It is not about them, and it is not a verdict on who they are.

Who gets targeted — and why so many boys

Any teenager can be targeted, but financial sextortion falls hardest on teenage boys: in NCMEC data where age and sex were known, 90% of financial-sextortion victims were boys aged 14 to 17. Much of that skew comes from the script itself: Thorn and NCMEC found these reports most often begin with “catfishing” — someone impersonating another young person, usually an attractive one of a similar age, to manipulate a teenage boy into sending images. The older, sexual form still reaches girls more often. In Thorn's 2025 survey, money was demanded from 36% of boy victims versus 13% of girl victims, while girls were more often pressed for more images (43% versus 29%).

The number of reports has climbed steeply. NCMEC received more than 50,000 reports of financial sextortion in 2025 — an average of 137 a day.

A report count is not a victim count, and surveys vary. Thorn's 2025 survey of 1,200 young Americans found that one in five teens aged 13 to 17 said they had experienced sextortion, though Thorn itself notes a 2023 survey found 6%. Other countries see the same pattern: the UK's Internet Watch Foundation reported a 127% rise in actioned cases in 2025, 98% involving boys.

It also helps to calibrate. Most teenagers never send a nude — a 2022 meta-analysis put the share who had sent a sext at about 19%. The risky moment is specific: in a 2026 US study of 3,466 teens by Patchin and Hinduja, sending an image to someone who was not a current partner carried about five times the risk of sextortion. That is exactly the move the scam is built to provoke.

The stakes are why this matters so much. NCMEC says it is aware of at least 36 teenage boys who have taken their lives since 2021 after being targeted — a floor, not a full count — and in Thorn's survey one in seven victims self-harmed. Shame is the mechanism. A teen convinced they are in trouble pays in silence and tells no one, which is why so much of this guide is about making sure your teen can tell you.

Why paying doesn't make it stop

Paying rarely stops sextortion, because it tells the extortionist you are a source of money rather than a dead end. In Thorn and NCMEC's analysis, 27% of victims who mentioned paying described continued demands afterward, and a Canadian Centre for Child Protection study of victims' posts on Reddit found further demands in 93% of the posts that discussed paying. NCMEC puts it simply: “Cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail.”

The numbers show how the squeeze works. The median largest demand in the data was $390, but the median largest payment was $100. The first demand is an opening bid, and the gap between what a teen can pay and what is asked is where the pressure lives. Money often moves through intermediaries, increasingly with memos disguised as something innocent, according to FinCEN — nothing about paying gets the image back.

Do they actually follow through?

This is the question frightened families search for most, and the evidence is more reassuring than the threat. Of 1,837 reports in the Thorn and NCMEC data that named a platform where images were or would be shared, 102 confirmed the images had actually been shared — a lower bound, the researchers note, because many reports are filed before anyone could know. The researchers concluded that sharing “remains in the minority and shouldn't be viewed as inevitable,” and was often to a small number of people.

Thorn's 2025 survey points the same way: 17% of victims knew a threat had been carried out — 8% when the offender was known only online, 33% when they knew the person offline. It does happen, and the FBI warns offenders may release material whether or not they are paid. So the logic runs one way. If they mean to share, paying won't stop them; if they don't, paying only proves you will pay again.

Warning signs your teen may be being sextorted

The honest answer is that there may be no warning signs at all — the whole scheme can play out between dinner and midnight. That is why experts put preparation ahead of watchfulness.

We can't bank on the hope that we will see something changing in them as a signal that they need help.

— Melissa Stroebel, Thorn, speaking to USA TODAY, February 2025

Still, some signals are worth taking seriously, especially in combination. These draw on guidance from NCMEC's NetSmartz program and the FBI:

• Sudden fear around the phone — flinching at notifications, hiding the screen, or panicking when they can't get online.
• A sharp change in mood — withdrawal, irritability, not sleeping or eating, dropping activities they normally love.
• An urgent need for money — asking for cash, gift cards, or access to your payment apps, or unexplained transactions and missing gift cards.
• Accounts disappearing — suddenly deleting or deactivating a social-media account without a clear reason.
• A new online “friend” they seem both drawn to and frightened of.
• Unexplained injuries or gifts — cuts, burns, or scars in patterns, long sleeves in hot weather, or gifts and gaming currency from people you don't know. The FBI lists these as signs of the “764”-type networks; they call for help right away.
• Hopeless talk — “my life is over,” “everyone's going to see,” or anything suggesting they feel trapped.

If it's happening now: what to do in the first hour

To stop sextortion, do the opposite of everything the extortionist wants: stop responding, pay nothing, save the evidence, and bring in help. The steps below follow guidance from the FBI, NCMEC, and child-protection agencies in the UK and Australia.

1. Start with the words that take the shame away

Your first sentence matters more than any setting. It can be this plain: “Thank you for telling me. You're not in trouble, and I'm not taking your phone. The person doing this is committing a crime, and we're going to handle it together.” The pediatricians at HealthyChildren.org advise starting “by reassuring your child that they've done nothing wrong.”

The phone promise is deliberate. In a 2025 study in Prevention Science, young adults recalling image-based abuse from before they turned 18 gave fear of losing their phone or technology as a reason in 41.9% of the incidents they never disclosed, and fear of getting in trouble with their family in 53.9%. The FBI tells victims they are not in trouble “even if this started on an app or site that you are too young to be on or you accepted money or a game credit.”

2. Stop all contact — and pay nothing

Don't reply, don't negotiate, and don't send anything else, including a “last” image or a partial payment. If money has already gone out, stop any further payments. The extortionist may escalate for a while when replies stop; that is the script, not a sign that you did something wrong.

3. Save the evidence — but never the image

Before blocking anyone, capture what investigators need: screenshots of the account's profile, username, and profile link; the messages and threats; any payment handles, requests, or receipts; and the dates and times. NCMEC is emphatic: do not delete your teen's profile or messages, because they help stop the blackmailer.

Do not screenshot, save, download, or forward the explicit image itself, even as evidence — an explicit image of a minor is illegal to possess or share. That includes a threat message that shows the image or a collage built from it: skip it, write down its date, time, and the sender's username, and tell investigators it is there. Advice on deleting differs slightly abroad: Canada's Cybertip.ca, for example, advises screenshotting the messages and then deleting and blocking the sextorter. Outside the US, follow your national hotline's instructions.

4. Report and block on the platform

Report the account inside the app, then block it once the evidence is saved. Snapchat has a specific reporting reason — “They leaked / are threatening to leak my nudes” — and in the US, Instagram offers a live chat with Crisis Text Line when someone reports sextortion. Reporting helps the platform remove the account before it reaches the next teen.

5. Report to NCMEC and the FBI

In the US, report to NCMEC's CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678, staffed around the clock, and to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov, 1-800-CALL-FBI, or your local field office. NCMEC also offers crisis support for families. If your child is in immediate danger, call 911 first.

6. Start getting the image taken down

NCMEC's free Take It Down service is built for exactly this. If the image or video was taken before your teen turned 18 and is still on their device, the tool creates a digital fingerprint (a hash) on the device — the image itself “will remain on your device and will not be submitted” — and participating platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, use it to find and remove copies.

Your teen can run it themselves; you never need to see the image. It has limits: it “will not work on encrypted platforms” and only covers participating services. If the image has already been posted somewhere, NCMEC's analysts can help get it removed from a specific link through its removal support.

7. Look after your teen for the next few days

The crisis doesn't end when the account is blocked. Check in often, keep the tone warm, and watch for signs of hopelessness in the days that follow. If new messages arrive from new accounts, don't reply — screenshot them (never one that shows the image) and add them to your report. The pediatricians at HealthyChildren.org recommend involving your child's doctor if they seem anxious or depressed.

What happens after you report — in the US and elsewhere

After you report, NCMEC staff review the tip, work to identify where the offender may be, and pass it to the appropriate law-enforcement agency — in the US or in one of the roughly 170 countries and territories NCMEC works with. Your teen is treated as a victim throughout.

Victims may feel like there is no way out—it is up to all of us to reassure them that they are not in trouble, there is hope, and they are not alone.

— Christopher Wray, then FBI Director, national public safety alert on financial sextortion, December 2022

Because many offenders operate from abroad, a report won't always lead to an arrest you hear about — but cases do reach court. Beyond the DeMay prosecution, Interpol's Operation Jackal IV made 58 arrests against West African crime groups whose targets included minors, and in August 2026 the US Justice Department announced two more extraditions from Nigeria in sextortion cases.

The law is catching up

The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed in May 2025, makes it a crime to publish non-consensual intimate images — including AI “digital forgeries” — and to threaten to publish them in order to intimidate, coerce, or extort. It also requires covered platforms to remove reported images within 48 hours of a valid request. That duty took effect on 19 May 2026, and the FTC now enforces it.

Where to report outside the US

The steps are the same everywhere; only the phone numbers change. These are the official channels in four countries, plus a route for everywhere else.

Two of these are worth knowing by name. The UK's Report Remove lets under-18s report a nude image confidentially so it can be removed. Australia's ACCCE tells young people directly: “you will not be in trouble with law enforcement.” Elsewhere, the INHOPE network lists national hotlines.

Settings that make sextortion harder

No setting stops sextortion outright, but several make the first contact and the image exchange harder — and most are already on for teen accounts. The catch is that they only apply if the account knows your teen's real age, so check the birthdate on every app before anything else. Some also roll out by age group or country, so check what your teen's own account actually shows.

Instagram

With Teen Accounts, teens are set by default so they can “only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to,” and under-16s need a parent's permission to loosen that. Since October 2024, nudity protection in DMs blurs nude images by default for under-18s, accounts showing “signals of scammy behavior” can't see a teen's follower lists, and screenshots of disappearing images are blocked. Under-16s need a parent's permission to switch nudity protection off.

Since July 2025, new chats with teens also show the month and year the other account joined Instagram. It's a useful habit to teach: a “girl from a nearby school” whose account was created last month is a red flag worth pausing on.

Snapchat

Snapchat shows teens a pop-up warning when they add, or are messaged by, someone with no mutual friends or from a region where their network isn't usually located, and it withholds some friend requests from accounts with a history in locations associated with scams. With Family Center, parents can see who their teen chatted with in the last seven days — but not the messages.

iPhone and Android

Apple's Communication Safety blurs nude images and offers help resources in Messages, AirDrop, FaceTime, and more; it is on by default for users under 18, and you can check it at Settings > Screen Time > [child's name] > Communication Safety. On Android, Google Messages' sensitive content warnings are on by default for 13-to-17-year-olds, and children supervised with Family Link can't turn them off (unsupervised teens can).

Discord and TikTok

Discord's Teen Safety Assist sends a safety alert when a teen gets a first message from someone new and blurs sensitive media by default. TikTok has turned off direct messages for users under 16 since 2020. Worth noting: the most dangerous networks favour gaming and chat platforms, so a teen who only uses games is not out of reach.

For a younger teen, some families add a layer of age-appropriate monitoring on the device itself — openly, with the teen's knowledge, and with a clear end date. It can fill gaps the app toggles leave, but it cannot replace the thing that actually protects a teen in the first five minutes: their confidence that telling you is safe.

How to talk to your teen about sextortion before it happens

To talk to your teen about sextortion, name the scam before they meet it, and promise — out loud — that they can come to you without losing their phone or getting in trouble. In Thorn's 2025 survey, 16% of young victims told no one and only 23% told a parent or trusted family member. Thorn's researchers concluded that “awareness ahead of danger is vital.”

Keep it short and matter-of-fact, ideally in a low-stakes moment like a car ride. You're not accusing them of anything; you're handing them a plan. Here is what that can sound like, piece by piece.

1. Name the scam. “There's a scam where someone pretending to be a girl your age starts flirting, asks for a pic fast, then threatens to send it to everyone you know unless you pay. It's run by crime groups, and it happens to a lot of teens.”
2. Give them the tell. “If someone you've only met online pushes for a photo within a day or two, treat it as the scam, not a crush.”
3. Make the promise. “If it ever happens — even if you already sent something, even if you already paid — come to me. You won't be in trouble and I won't take your phone. We'll fix it together.”
4. Give them the plan. “Don't pay, don't reply, screenshot the chat but not the picture or anything that shows it, and tell me or another adult you trust.”
5. Cover the fake. “Even if you never sent anything, someone can make a fake picture of you with AI. Same plan.”
6. Cover someone they know. “It can also be someone you know — an ex, or someone from school — pushing for more pictures or threatening to share one. Same plan, same promise.”
7. Name the backups. Agree on two or three other trusted adults — an aunt, a coach, an older cousin — they could go to if telling you feels impossible.

The promise is the load-bearing part. The Jed Foundation's Dr. Katie Hurley has told USA TODAY that families should adopt an “amnesty policy” so teens can come for help regardless of what happened, and Thorn's researchers suggest agreeing on the plan in advance, so a panicking teen doesn't have to invent one. Teen boys especially may believe it could never happen to them; the point of the talk is that it could, and that there's a way out.

You may feel humiliated, but life will go on. It is so much better to seek out that help, because it's a situation that you're not prepared to handle on your own.

— Jennifer Buta, mother of Jordan DeMay, speaking to USA TODAY, February 2025

Avoid the tempting shortcut of “just never send anything.” It's good advice, but as a warning it lands as blame — and blame is exactly what keeps a teen silent once something has already happened. NCMEC's Lauren Coffren told the same USA TODAY report that the “if you just don't share” framing is “not really true anymore,” now that images can be faked.

Sextortion is one of several manipulation tactics that start with a fake identity; our guides to catfishing and online manipulation, love bombing, and social media scams cover the rest. The aim of all of it is the same: a teen who tells you in the first five minutes — because they already know you'll help.

Frequently asked questions