What do I do if someone is trying to blackmail me with pictures and asking for money?
Someone scammed me into sending risky pictures/videos and now they are threatening that they are going to send them to my family/friends and the police if I don’t pay them money. What do I do? And can I get in trouble for this?
● Naked photo scammers are extremely common due to the internet and anonymity. DO NOT pay them anything. You can report them to the police for extortion.
● If the nasty photos of you/them were taken when you/they were under 18 years old, the Police and/or the FBI might be interested in prosecuting them for various CHILD PORNOGRAPHY crimes IF they can be traced and identified. If you were 18+, your state may have a "Revenge Porn" law that can be used, again IF they can be found.
● The hot young girl (or boy) is probably a hairy, smelly 40-year-old man in his underwear on his X-Box or computer in his mom's basement. Google: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog".
● The best advice is don't pay, don't send more pictures, block and ignore them, and don't worry about it. These scammers rarely, if ever, bother to post pictures or "send them to your family", because doing that takes time and effort, won't get them any money, AND it would expose them to additional criminal charges. Typically, they just move on to set up the next victim/horny sucker.
● You can also try this:
1. Tell them that you will send them a check if they give you their name and address. Then turn this over to the cops. (p.s. DON'T send a check.)
2. Text "her" that you are (your name)'s mom, and (your name) committed suicide because of what you did! You are a horrible excuse for a human being, and you can rot in hell. Then block "her" number.
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First, you have likely realized that sending nude photos to someone puts them in a position of power over you. Once they are out there, they will never go away. That said, this is a scam. It is extremely unlikely that someone is going to go to the trouble of posting such photos of you. They likely don't even know whose photo it is since these are spam accounts set up to get these pictures from hundreds if not thousands of people. As a result, do NOT respond to them, block the number, and don't do anything like this again - EVER!
If however, they do post it, then own it. You did something stupid, now you have to accept the consequence. Will it be painful; yes. Will it be embarrassing; yes. But if you just admit it was dumb, you shouldn't have done it and that it will never happen again, the power that you have given up is restored and you can move forward.
Sorry, this situation sucks, and believe me when I say lots of law enforcement and attorneys would LOVE to take groups like this down as quickly as possible, but most are not even in the United States.
