A Complete Victim’s Guide to Sextortion: From Panic to Documentation

If this is happening to you right now: you are not in as much danger as you feel, you are not responsible for what is being done to you, and there is a specific, proven sequence that makes this situation dramatically better. This guide is that sequence — written to be read in order, in the state you’re in right now. If there is any risk of self-harm, contact 988 (call or text) first. Everything else can wait five minutes.

Phase 0 — The First Ten Minutes

• Stop engaging. Do not reply, do not negotiate, do not explain. Every reply teaches the extortionist what works on you.
• Do not pay. The FBI, NCMEC, and FTC are unanimous: payment does not stop sextortion — it schedules the next demand. You become a paying customer of a criminal enterprise.
• Do not delete anything. Panic-deleting threads, accounts, and images destroys the only evidence that helps you. Leave everything exactly as it is.
• Screenshot with timestamps visible. Capture usernames, profile URLs, the full threat conversation, and any payment details — with the timestamp showing in the interface.
• Tell one trusted person. Isolation is the criminal’s primary weapon. One person — a parent, partner, friend, or counselor — changes the entire psychological geometry of the attack.

Phase 1 — Stabilize

• Secure your accounts. Change passwords and enable two-factor authentication on email and social accounts — the email account first, since it resets everything else.
• Check for posting. Search your own name and usernames on major platforms. In most cases, nothing has been posted — the threat is the product; disclosure destroys the business model.
• Restrict incoming contact. Lock down DMs from non-followers, set accounts to private, and mute rather than confront.
• Pause, don’t decide. No permanent decisions about your accounts, your school, or your relationships in the first 24 hours.

Phase 2 — Document

Evidence is what converts fear into a case. Preserve and organize: the scammer’s usernames and profile links, the platform(s) involved, complete message threads, payment demands with amounts and rails (gift cards, wallet addresses, payment apps), and any account names the scammer mentioned. Keep originals — don’t crop, annotate, or re-save — and maintain a simple log of dates and what happened when.

This is also where professional documentation earns its cost. A forensic-grade package — timestamped captures, chain-of-custody documentation, attribution analysis — is what police departments, attorneys, and federal portals take seriously. Our four-step process explains how an engagement works, and the tiers are fixed-price with no surprises.

The difference between “something terrible is happening to me” and “here is a documented, timestamped, attributable case file” is the difference between being a victim and being a complainant — and complainants get outcomes.

Phase 3 — Report, in This Order

• Local police. File a report and get the case number — it anchors everything downstream, including insurance and protective orders where available.
• FBI IC3. IC3.gov is the federal intake for internet crime. Your report joins the aggregate data that built cases like Operation Artemis.
• NCMEC CyberTipline — missingkids.org — mandatory for any case involving a minor, including AI-fabricated images, which are treated as child sexual abuse material under federal law.
• The platform. Report the account and the messages separately. Expect removal, not justice — platform reports are housekeeping; your police and IC3 reports are the case.

Phase 4 — Recover

The fear peaks in the first 72 hours and fades with structure. Facts that help: perpetrators rarely follow through when payment is refused — the threat is the business, and disclosure ends it. Most victims never experience any leak. The “everyone will know” script is mass-manufactured; as our data analysis showed, tens of thousands of Americans received the same script last year, and the overwhelming majority are fine today.

If leverage feels existential, consider preemptive disclosure to the few people who matter — family, a partner, an employer. Told by you, in your words, it removes the weapon entirely. Our FAQ covers how to have those conversations, and if professional support would help you execute this sequence with documentation behind it, the intake team responds within 4 hours, confidentially, around the clock.