I’m in a really stressful and scary situation. A few days ago, someone online tricked me into sharing a private video. Now they’re threatening to leak it to my Instagram followers unless I give them what they want. I don’t know if they’ve actually uploaded it or are bluffing, but they mentioned something about using a site like Sendvid to share the video.
I no longer have access to the chat, and I don’t have a link to the video. They’re using fear to control me — and I’m really panicking. I haven’t told anyone in my life yet because I feel ashamed, but I want to do the right thing and stop this before it spreads or ruins my life.
I’ve already read that this is called sextortion, and that it’s a serious criminal offense in the UK. But I’m not sure what my next steps should be.
Has anyone here been through this and can offer advice?
How likely is it they’ll follow through?
Will the video be taken down if I don’t have a link?
TL;DR TIFU Someone is threatening to leak a private video of me
Comments
Is this someone you know in real life or an internet stranger?
First thing’s first. Contact the police
Whatever you do don’t pay them. You just become a piggy bank and more threats will follow. Good luck.
Did it show enough to prove its you? Face, tattoos etc?
If you pay they’ll just do the same thing asking for more. Tell them you forwarded every piece of information to your local FBI (or equivalent) office and they advised you to no longer contact them. Worst case they do leak it, but you didn’t pay them to do so.
Contact authorities. And assume your shit is already leaked. Generally you don’t give them anything because what’s to stop them from blackmailing you forever going forward?
There’s literally no guarantee that they won’t or can’t do anything with your shit.
Eat the embarrassment and move on.
Tell whoever it is you’re underage.
If you give them money you will be marked as a profitable victim for them to focus more attention on and you will never get rid of them.
Call the cops
If you’re underage, that’s a huge problem for them!!
This is a well known scam. Generally if you tell them to go fuck themself they will leave you alone. They don’t gain anything from actually releasing said video and doing so paints a target on them so is actually bad for them. All they want is your money. Make it clear you have nothing for them and contact the police.
Don’t respond. Block and delete. Make your social media private.
Most of the other advice is well intentioned, but a bit off base. This is a well known scam and the only response is to completely block and ignore. If they know your socials such as IG, snap, etc., it might be a good idea to take all of your accounts private for now. Do not respond to them. Do not engage with them. Do not send them money. Block and ignore.
Unfortunately, law enforcement is unlikely to be able to help you. You’re welcome to contact them, but most often the scammers are in other countries and sometimes the scammers themselves are being trafficed.
Please go to r/scams or r/Sextortion to see similar scams. But like I said, this is a well known scam with not much you can do about it. The overwhelming majority of the time, they do not send your pics/vids to anyone.
Also, there is a VERY HIGH CHANCE a recovery scammer will contact you. There is NO ONE that can get your photos/vids back or stop this. Anyone that claims they can do anything about this for free or for a fee is a scammer. Block and ignore those people as well.
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DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY MONEY. All it shows them is you’re willing to pay. They’ll just ask you for more and more money. They’ll still have their leverage(the video) and there’s no incentive for them to delete it(and no way for you to verify they have).
Change your instagram password and anywhere else you use the same password. Just in case they got your login somehow. Do not follow any links they send you, they could and probably will be malicious.
Contact the police. 101 is the police non emergency number. Call it and explain the situation. They’ll let you know your options. Unfortunately there’s a good chance they’re in whereveristan so they can’t do anything. They’ll help you contact instagram to get the account reported. But unfortunately there’s a good chance the scammer already has copies of the videos.
Accept your nudes might get leaked. They’re usually bluffing but you never know. It’s not the end of the world if they do, although I get it’ll be difficult. I’d recommend talking about it to someone you trust to get it off your chest. There isn’t really a way of you stopping it unfortunately.
It’s a bluff
Happened to me before . Block them . In order for them to have no communication. Delete all profiles that they can find you on . Make new ones with not your name obviously. After they have no way of contacting you , they will just move on to the next person . They will not bother to think your life . Just disappear from online
Block and ignore.
When you say “how likely is it they’ll follow through” you’re asking the wrong question. If they are the type to release your video, they will release it, whether or not you give them money. The overwhelming majority will not release it (because it is a waste of time and money for them), and the few who do will release it no matter what you do (since they’ll just ask for more and more money until you won’t pay, at which point they release).
It’s not a matter of “follow through” since that implies that they are honest people who will perform a transaction with you (pay us money to delete the video). You already know from the blackmailing itself that that isn’t the case.
r/sextortion
Some great advice there. Do not pay them, block and ignore. They’ll likely forget about you and move on.
Contact the authorities, talk with people you can trust that will support you, face it head on with your supportive friends/family and hold your head high.
You’ll always be better than the people who hold you to this one moment of ‘weakness’.
/r/sextortion they have a lot of resources for what to do, read everything.
I get it, it’s initially scary. But most of the time it’s all bluffing. And if they don’t then who cares everyone has seen someone’s bits before. You’ll be embarrassed for a little bit then you’ll eventually get over it.
The take it down act would help to remove it if posted to a website.
Block and ignore..no point calling the police unless things escalate or you know for a fact these people are in the same country as you.
It’s 2025. This scam is as old as the Internet itself. Ignore and move on. Don’t send nudes to people on the Internet unless you’ve got the stones to let everyone in the world see your junk.
Why did you use ai to write this?
It’s a well known ‘Sextortion’ scam. Lots of kids freak out over this kind of thing and do silly things to themselves out of fear of embarrassment. First off, please don’t freak out and think of doing anything stupid. If you are living with your parents, then tell them everything. Nothing to be ashamed of to be tricked like this, as the people running the scams are highly manipulative. In the very unlikely event this crew tries to share it, it’s going to be nothing that has not been seen a million times, and whatever embarrassment will fade fast as people move on within days. Again, often these scams rely in you thinking they can contact people you know, when in fact they can’t. These teams operate from outside the US. The FBI just arrested a crew in the Ivory Coast this week and are bringing their asses back to the US for some justice. Most important thing is DO NOT react disproportionately. What you think might be the biggest thing in your life, you will look back on one day as absolutely nothing. Be well and keep engaging here as it seems that people have your back.
If you give them money, the most likely outcome is that they demand more money.
Tell them to get fucked and then report it to your country’s relevant authorities.
This is a normal scam people do to milk people for money. Absolutely do not pay the person regardless of what they say. Your family and friends will support you if it comes down to it. Put yourself in their shoes, and if a video of your mom leaked, would you support her or embarrass her? Don’t give in
Had this happen. They sent it to a couple people and then stopped. Don’t pay. Warn ur friends.
I’ve been there. File a police report and temporarily delete your account or your followers.
R/sextortion
Do not send nude pictures or videos to someone you haven’t met in person and without permission.
Check out r/scams. This is one of the most popular scams around. Don’t worry, odds are that they won’t release the video. Seriously check out that sub, read through the sub wiki and find others that went through what you’re going through and you won’t feel so alone. This isn’t anything to be ashamed of, you’ll be alright. And whatever you do, don’t send money.
Don’t respond. Block all incoming unknown phone numbers. Go dark. Don’t respond. Become a black hole. This is a common scam.
Hey, I had this happen to me in the past. I set all my social media to the maximum privacy and blocked the person. Literally nothing happened. You’re going to be fine.
Also, just remember – what’s the worst that can happen? That the internet sees a dick and balls? Everyone on the internet has seen those before.
Even if it was a real threat (and it’s likely not), then this is still not a life changing threat.
It’s body parts. Most of us have them of some kind or anovvah
This comes up almost every day on the r/scams subreddit. If you go over there, you can post or just read what advice was given to others in your situation.
The bad news is there is a private video of you out there. The good news is the worst they can do is embarrass you a bit. Block and completely cut ties. This is a common scam technique. They will milk you for every dollar you have (and don’t have yet).
Can you copyright your image? it might not stop them from releasing it, but you can get it taken down.
frankly, I’d blame AI, they can create any image or videos with anyone’s face or voice. and there’s so much porn online, I doubt it would have life-changing impact.
Wow, CAPPERs are still a thing.. I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been said better in other comments. But this is called Capping. A special style of blackmail with a tight knit underground where most of these assholes know each other and share stuff with each other
Other than legal recourse, the best thing you can probably do is face it head on and take the power away from them. Make a note on instagram what’s goin on so if/when it happens, then it’s not news. And if/when it happens, Instagram themselves can take action
If you want to feel like you’re not alone and see how others had dealt with it, I figured you should know the name of this phenomenon at the very least
So what? If it comes out just deny, deny, deny and say it’s Ai generated and not really you.
Just be like, hey I’m underage and I went ahead and told my uncle who is the head division for the police force here…
Just ignore it. It’s not worth the trouble for them to actually follow through with the threats most of the time. They will just keep asking for money if you pay them and the cops won’t do anything about it. It’s best if you just dont engage at all.
you could go the route of “lmao got you. this is a reverse scam. I’m a dude named Jason just here to mess with you and waste your time” and completely clown on the dude relentlessly. pretend you’re not this person whatsoever. change your speech and typing patterns. get a male you know to send a new video telling him to screw off. warn your family not to open any videos anyone sends to you.
or you should also get police involved. maybe send a video from the police station with a police report filled out. saying they’re tracking the IP address. i don’t know. good luck.
This is one of the many reasons why none of my social media platforms have “show my friends to others” enabled.
You can turn yours off too.
I have the unfortunate experience of working with customers that get targeted by scammers. As @chulaluk said the best thing to do is take precautions to block as much as feasible and ignore.
Do not give them money, and while I wish there was a way to get it back there isn’t. You are in good company as many people have been in the same boat and while I can’t guarantee this the vast majority of the time the scammer does not post it and simply moves on to their next victim.
I know three early-20s guys this has happened to. None of them paid, none of them suffered any consequences.
Block, move on, learn a lesson
If you are under the age of 18, even in a jurisdiction where the age of consent is lower, then they are currently in possession of explicit images of a child, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they’d be charged with distributing said images should they send them to anyone.
That’s not a tldr that’s just the title
go to your local police station & tell them what is going on u/AnteaterSad2583
Is where you should start
Post something on your story like
“I have received threats that an inappropriate AI video will be sent out if I don’t pay money to an extortionist. I don’t believe in giving them what they want and have chosen not to pay. If you receive one of these videos, I ask that you respect my privacy and delete it. If you still decide to look, know that it is not me and is using my likeness illegally.”
Block them and forget about it. They likely won’t send anything. And if they do then who cares? Tell your friends and family that someone is threatening you with AI generated nudes.
Beat them at their own game. Make a post that someone is trying to blackmail you, therefore you’re posting the video before they do. Edit the video to protect anyone else in it. Then post it. If you leak it, you take their “power” away. Also, consult the authorities.
This is an extremely common scam. This is posted about once a week to r/scams. If you pay them they will just ask for more. Block them and move on with your life.
If they show your penis then let them. Just don’t pay
Block them and ignore it.
It’s a scam. They don’t release the video to anyone.
Then don’t be controlled. Let them leak the video, the consequences of that are far less than allowing yourself to be bullied. Yes, I’m aware this can ruin friendships, careers, etc… It’s *still* a lesser price to pay than groveling over something you chose to do.
How people react will tell you which friends are really your friends, which family are disposable, and which employers care more about image than performance.
And how does some random person “trick” you into sending a private video to them exactly?
In the age of AI you can just make a post and say that someone is threatening to leak an AI-generated video of you if you don’t pay them.
Buddy of mine had someone threatening to leak intimate pics to his Facebook followers, namely his family, around Christmas. He refused to send money and told his family to be on the lookout for messages or communication of any type from anyone they don’t know. He never heard anything else about it, and no family ever said anything to him.
My reaction was if someone want to look at me, I’ll be happy. Give me the link so I can share it too
this is a common scam. They won’t do anything if you block them. Like everyone here is saying, don’t send any money and block the person. Also…stop sending intimate photos/videos online to strangers. If you REALLY have to, make sure you don’t have your face, or any identifiable markings/tattoos/jewlery in the picture.
go to r/sextortion they will help but be careful of scammers dm’ing you or saying they can help
Only answer is live in fear because he wont stop, or trust the people he sends it to will hear your side. But rest assured, people that blackmail do not stop and they get worst. They will make demands that sicken you.
first, how sure are you that they have anything to show?
If they have anything, will it destroy your family and friends?
Are you willing to continue this 2 years from now if you give in?
I know it may be hard. Its scary. Either call the bluff and they can never do this to you again or go to the police and they will track them down. Guaranteed, you arent the only victim.
I had this happen. Just laugh in their face and tell them you send nude photos to everyone on your Instagram regularly. The more you take it seriously, the more serious it is. Laugh in their face and tell them to go for it. There is literally nothing they can do to you besides release it, and that would open them up to charges.
Just say it’s AI. Create your own AI video and use it as evidence that someone is making videos of you. Make yours sort of obviously AI.
Block, ignore and delete IG. Easy fix
Let them. If you pay them they’ll always hang it over your head and keep asking for more.
Give them nothing, accept any fallout from them sharing it (which they likely won’t). If anyone you know sees it they are far more likely to feel bad for you than anything.
But don’t send them shit.
Just block them on everything they try to contact you it. It happened to me once and they looked up all my family members with names and towns and threatened to send the video to them. All I said was “I like my body” and blocked them. A number started trying to video chat me 20 times that day, blocked every time. And guess what? Never heard from again. Don’t give in. They won’t do it because if they do, they lose all leverage over you
I had someone try to ruin me with photos they passed around to friends and family. They were family and the lies and hate was deplorable. Talk to a lawyer to find out what you can legally do to end this and put them away if possible.
Whenever this happens just keep sending more pictures and videos of you jerking it and your asshole. Theyll understand you have no shame in your game and leave it alone
My friend was getting extorted when the Ashley Maddison site was hacked.
Someone reached out to him asking for bitcoin in return for not telling his wife about what he was doing on the site.
He wrote back that he didn’t know what bitcoin was and that his wife didn’t care since he wasn’t married.
Eventually the hacker lowered the amount of bitcoins they wanted.
My friend told them to release the emails, he could have cared less.
Block and ignore. Sending them anything, whether it be money or more videos, is only going to escalate things. There will be no end to it. And even if you did give them what they wanted, there is no guarantee that they wouldn’t share the video anyway.
My advice is you should never send photos or videos to anyone that you don’t want everyone to see. Once that’s out there, it’s completely out of your control. Even if it’s someone you trust, their device could get stolen or hacked.
You could also try contacting the relevant authorities, but chances are there won’t be much they could do. Not engaging in any way is your only real play. Also, set all of your accounts to private if you haven’t already.
Firstly, I don’t think you got “tricked” into sharing it, just moreso you sent it, and now you regret that decision after this.
Secondly, just tell them you don’t care and that if they choose to break the law then they can suffer the legal consequences for releasing that video without your permission. It technically falls under sextortion/revenge porn and make them aware that by releasing it without your permission and so fourth, is breaking the law (and it also exists in other countries such as America.)
Most of the time these are threats that are never followed through with. Worst case scenario, it’s posted, but you can then take legal action, report them, your followers will most likely side with you and call out that disgusting blackmailing behaviour of the individual who released the video. There’s tons of NSFW/Adult content online and I can honestly assure you that yours is more likely to fade into obscurity and be forgotten, so much happens online with shit like this that people quickly forget and move on.
Don’t pay them, don’t do as they ask, tell them you’re going to the authorities and that they’ve been reported online aswell and block.
Unless you are famous or they are actively trying to ruin your lief for revenge or some other reason, sextortion just stops at extortion and nothing more. THey simply just want ur money. Just ignore and block.
Common scam. Block and forget they exist. Nothing will come of it.
I would not give in to blackmail. Chances are extremely good that they will disseminate the video regardless of what you do. Block this person and ignore them. Never speak or contact them again.
I got caught in the same situation, I just told them to go ahead and show it. Nothing anyone hasn’t seen before lol. Nothing happened
Just delete your Instagram for a while.
Very common and pls scam. Send them nothing. They arent going to send anything to anyone.
If anyone asks just say it’s AI
Don’t pay them, they’ll keep coming back. Just block em.
I think at the end of the day, posting your content online means they now have no bargaining chip, no cards to play. They’re unlikely to bother doing that if you just cut contact, don’t send any money, don’t respond.
These people just want the money, ruining the public image of some random (likely in a different country too) is a pointless and futile outcome for them.
Contact authorities. They will help you.
If it was me I’d tell them to go ahead. I would be super embarrassed if they leaked it, but I’d rather be embarrassed than let them get away with it. This happened to my brother and he called me in a panic. I told him not to send anything, just block them and ignore it. Nothing happened, they never sent anything to anyone.
Just let it get exposed
Ask for their bank details. Find that bank’s customer service email and send them screenshots of one of their accounts being used for extortion purposes. Send screenshots of that to scammer.
Go post this in r/scams. They will help you understand why your best course is to just block and ignore these people.
This is probably a online scam by phillipines scammers. So first thing they will not leak your video so don’t pay them anything. Second if you want to to police and tell them what happened. Third block them and don’t talk to them as they will put fear into you. That’s all.
One of my friend was in similar situation so if you want to talk you can talk to me. My friend was from India.
I have. The scammer used a tinder profile and was very forward. Having been single for a couple of years I thought it was exciting. When they were forward (before actually meeting) I played along. I was less than 20 at the time.
They had followed my private instagram account. They had screenshotted a bunch of followers.
When they sent me the “evidence” and demanded money, I told them I had none. I proceeded to block that instagram account and did not allow any others to follow me.
I sent apologies to the people that they threatened to send the information to, and they explained the situation. None of them responded, but I don’t actually see any of those people anymore.
The biggest thing is to not give them money. If you give them money it’s like hooking a fish. Do damage control- set your accounts to private. Facebook and instagram both have these settings.
If they don’t get money- they have no reason to harass you
It’s a common scam. I had somebody try it on me years ago (on Google plus). They tried to tell me they were giving the money to some charity, so I told them I gave it to that charity directly (I didn’t) and reported them and blocked them!
50/50 it’s a scam
I’ve been messaged on my phone from someone claiming to have hacked my phone and recorded me jerking off, then threatening to send it to all my friends and family. Told them to get fucked and send away.
Don’t give them anything. They will always come back for more. Live and learn.
100% a scam. As others have said, don’t engage with them further.
https://www.ice.gov/features/sextortion
Call their bluff. Tell them it gets you off and they are so happy to do it free for you. 100% they will move on to the next victim
I had someone threaten me one time, they threatened to release a video of me baitin to my friends and family, I told them to kick rocks and release if they want to and that they’re perverts for even watching the video in the first place.
Happened to my friend. It’s usually a threat and they won’t ever actually do it. Obviously they might still do it but in most cases they don’t. If all else fails, it’s AI.
Police.
I’m sorry you’re in this position. It is a serious crime in the UK and the person blackmailing you is a serious criminal.
You need to go to the police. They have advanced mechanisms and rules to help you protect your privacy.
I have two daughters under 20 and this is what I’d advise them if they got into this situation.
Leak them yourself and take the power from them.
If you pay them, they will threaten you more and ask for a bigger payment. They will keep threatening you as long as you keep paying them to threaten you. You’re going to have to stop paying them some time. It might as well be before you start.
Fuck them. Call their bluff. They won’t do shit. And if they do, wear it like Armour.
Dont pay them. Report it to the police. Tell your family that hackers are using an AI altered video to try to blackmail you. It’s a super common scam.
Let them.
I had sombody secretly take a video of me yanking it. They tried to blackmail me but I told that I didn’t care and to go ahead and post it. They either will or won’t. If they do pursue charges. They will never stop asking holding it over you.
It’s unlikely they’ll bother sending it, these people want fast money. If you’re not going to pay then there’s no point sharing the video. Also, they don’t have any leverage if they share the video.
https://preview.redd.it/ccmoegmr4u1f1.jpeg?width=501&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13752fbdd5e7515124ed8501d1e18fd2823ba2d6
Do not pay. If you do they’ll just ask for more
Block and ignore. If they have pictures or videos, I don’t want to say who cares, but maybe have that mentality. If you’re afraid of family or friends seeing it. Tell them the truth or say your whatever got hacked.
Don’t let these people have control or power over you.
My friend had this happen and basically ignored them and nothing happened.
It became a felony as of today, to do that to anyone.
Cease contact, refuse to pay, call their bluff, move on.
It doesn’t matter if they follow through or not: they will inevitably release it if they plan to once you hit a point where you will not be able to ingratiate them with meeting their demands.
Best you can do is contact the authorities and open a case if they release it. Chances are it won’t matter because they are likely not even in your country and live somewhere that won’t cooperate with other nations’ police.
Anyways, I’m sure you learned your lesson, but don’t jerk off with/to strangers on webcam.
BTDT, I told them “do your worst, you’d be doing me a favor advertising for me” never heard from them again
Go look at the r/scams sub. This is posted there at least once a day.
Block, ignore, and stop being horny online.
Relax. This happens 500 times a day. Do not give them money. Block them and move on with your life. If they leak it… meh. Whatever you did, everybody else has done it – most of them this morning. Half the planet has seen exactly whatever you have and actually so has the other half but they probably didn’t want to see it. You may hear a joke or two for 10 minutes then it’s over.
Leak it first. Make it worthless.
Just ignore. When it’s out, just tell everyone that it’s an AI.
This is a known SCAM, don’t do shit, and block them.
Trump literally just signed a law about this so there’s that
This happened to me years ago. They threatened to post it on Facebook. I laughed and said “go ahead”, and blocked the number.
Even if you do pay them or what not, you’ll forever be in their grasp and they’ll most likely leak it anyway.
Only real thing you can do here is take it as a lesson learnt and not to do it again.
The same thing happened to my daughter. She was 15 and sent a few videos and pictures to someone who claimed to be from her school. Never actually met this person in real life.
A year later this person decided to sextort her. But not for money. They wanted more videos. And if she didn’t provide them then they’ll send the txts to her friends. Her family. Her teachers. Etc. etc.
They did send screenshots to me and my wife but we did not respond. We told her to ignore and we contacted both the sheriffs office and even the FBI. Both said nothing they can do. So now my daughter lives in fear of when these people decide to hit her up again.
It’s disgusting.
Put it on onlyfans for like 4500$. If they release it, lawyer up and figure how many times it’s been seen. And sue for that x 4500$.
It’s a bluff IG will remove a video of that nature if it gets posted. So call their bluff.
If you’re in the USA, that’s illegal. Contact the police
Just put out the word that someone may be trying to extort you and that they are threatening to post AI generated pornographic videos of you and sorry in advance to anyone who gets sent something that they don’t want to see.
The nice thing about the current AI craze is that this is entirely believable with how well video generation is getting.
If it didn’t have your face I would say upload it to Reddit then send them a link and tell them to pound sand. But your best course of action is just to ignore it. They don’t want to spend time on a target who won’t reply or send money.