Crimestoppers
Fearless
Midlands sextortion campaign launches
We've launched a campaign in the Midlands to raise awareness of the crime and dangers of sextortion. The campaign is supported and part-funded by the Midlands Fraud Forum, a non-profit organisation that supports counter-fraud efforts in the Midlands.
Sextortion, also known as ‘financially motivated sexual extortion’, is a developing threat and a relatively new form of online blackmail. It is where criminals threaten to share explicit images or videos of a victim to the victim’s contacts and on social media if money isn’t paid, or if the victim fails to comply with a demand. The image may be a real photo taken by the victim or a fake image that the criminal has created to pursue blackmail.
Criminals target people through dating apps, social media, webcams or pornography sites. They may use fake ID to befriend a victim online and build trust, before requesting sexual images or videos.
Sextortion is different from revenge porn, as sextortion is not normally motivated by revenge but by the chance of financial gain.
Whilst the criminals behind sextortion can operate alone, there have been examples of serious organised crime gangs being involved. There’s evidence that, at worst, entire contact centres are being run abroad with the aim of profiteering from sextortion.
Learn more about sextortion on our dedicated keeping safe page:
Anyone can be a victim of sextortion and our advice to victims of sextortion is:
- Don’t panic
- Don’t pay
- Get help
- Report It
Further advice for those worried about sextortion is to:
- Review your privacy settings so that criminals cannot see who your friends and family are and limit personal information.
- End the chat quickly if they make you feel uncomfortable.
- If you are concerned, report it:
- Contact the police on 101
- If you are under 18. contact Child Exploitation and Online Protection.
If you know someone who is exploiting someone, tell us what you know and remain anonymous. Call 0800 555 111 or fill in our online form:
Please note: Computer IP addresses are never traced and no-one will ever know you contacted Crimestoppers. For telephone calls, there is no caller line display, no 1471 facility and calls have never been traced.
Learn more about sextortion on our dedicated keeping safe page:
24 February 2025
