Someone Threatening to Post Video, Pics? Here's What to Do

Infopackets Reader Franco I. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

Please help - someone is threatening to share a video of me (in the buff) on Facebook!

A few days ago, I met a girl on Omegle (a chat website). We had lots of shared interests and seemed to hit it off pretty good. After some back and forth, things escalated to the point where she started sharing pictures of herself scantily dressed.

She asked for my phone number, then wanted to do a video call using Google Chat. As soon as I answered, she was already unclothed with toys in hand. She claimed her microphone was broken, so I never got to actually speak to her - only by keyboard. She asked to see what I looked like and kept insisting to see my face and below the waist.

Eventually I gave in. As soon as I did, the video call ended abruptly and she's made threats to ruin my life, career, and reputation if I don't agree to pay thousands of dollars using CashApp. She's already sent me a list of names of people I know through Facebook as proof. I panicked and gave her $500, but as soon as the money was sent, she asked for more. I shut down my social media (Facebook, Instagram) but I'm not sure if that will help. Should I block the blackmailer? Do blackmailers follow through? What is the worst that can happen? Can you help? "

My response:

I've written a few articles on this already - see:

• Being blackmailed on Google Chat? Here's What to Do
• Sextortion: What to Do and What Not to Do
• How Long Does Sextortion Last?
• Do Blackmailers Follow Through (and What to Expect)?

In short: the person you've been speaking to most likely isn't in your city, nor is she the beautiful woman you think she is. She is in fact most likely a recording of a previous victim of sextortion (hence her "microphone is broken"), and the people you've been speaking with are most likely part of an overseas group of cyber criminals located in Ivory Coast, Africa, or the Philippines (among other countries) that specialize in sextortion scams (i.e., sex extortion). I know this because I've worked on over 1,000+ sextortion cases and I know the scam inside and out, including how to stop them from exposing you and make them go away. (Contact me here if you are reading this and are panicking - I am happy to help).

I'll answer more of your questions below in order. Either click a link below or just keep on reading:

• Should I Shut Down my Social Media?
• Will Shutting Down My Social Media Make Things Worse?
• Should I Block the Blackmailer?
• Do Facebook Blackmailers Follow Through?
• Sextortion: What is the Worst that Can Happen?
• Can You Help?

Should I Shut Down my Social Media?

As I've said many times in the past, you can shut down your social media but it won't help the situation - in fact, it will likely make things worse.

Here's why -

If you shut down your social media, it won't stop the blackmailers from contacting your friends and family on Facebook or Instagram.

The reason for this is two-fold.

First, the scammers have already looked you up on social media and made a copy of all of your contacts before they threatened your exposure. They do this because most victims react by shutting down their accounts when put in the same situation, hoping that the scammers won't be able to follow through.

Second, both Facebook and Instagram are open platforms, meaning that anyone with an account can reach out to other users on the same platform. In other words, the blackmail scammers own multiple fake accounts on these platforms and can use your contacts to spread your nudes without any issues.

Will Shutting Down My Social Media Make Things Worse?

Based on my experience, scammers often check to see if shut down your accounts because they want to monitor you after making threats of exposure.

Shutting down your social media accounts essentially signals to the scammers that you're most likely going to run away without paying. This usually - but not always - results in the scammers escalating their threats. They do this by reaching out to friends and family as a way to prove their point, and to say that they aren't going anywhere any time soon. (Quite often, scammers will stick around for anywhere from 2 weeks to 60 days based on my experience).

This can be extremely stressful, and there are much, much better ways in dealing with this problem and I'm happy to help - just send me an email.

Should I Block the Blackmailer?

I get asked this question quite often.

The best answer I can give you is that you should block the blackmailer if you:

a) have little to lose and don't care if you get exposed - you have a 50% chance of exposure, after all, and

b) you cannot afford other methods of mitigation.

If you choose to hire a company to assist, please make sure you do your research. I say this because one of our competitors that claims to help with sextortion cases currently has an F rating on the Better Business Bureau website (bbb.org) and has over 84 complaints lodged against them for misleading their clients, according to accusations. On the other hand, our company and website has an A+ rating on the BBB, has been online for 23 years, and has zero complaints.

If you would like to speak to me by phone to discuss your case, I'm happy to answer some of your questions. Use our contact page to get in touch.

Do Facebook Blackmailers Follow Through?

As I mentioned, you have a 50% chance of being exposed and it largely depends on what information the scammers have on you, and what you have to lose. That said, some scammers make threats and don't follow through, some do follow through, and some scammers go the extra mile when it comes to exposing their victims.

I can also tell you that the majority of scammers tend to stick to either Facebook or Instagram, with Facebook being the gold standard because the platform uses your first and last name, and most people associate their family members with their accounts. If the scammers know who your wife or girlfriend is, I guarantee you she will be the first target.

If you don't have a Facebook account, then the scammers will target Instagram and sometimes LinkedIn. Some clients I speak to don't have any social media, but scammers have still managed to look up their significant other using tools like beenverified.com and similar, or just by searching the web.

I know how to avoid all of this from happening - contact me here if you would like to speak to me by phone.

Sextortion: What is the Worst that Can Happen?

First and foremost, if you pay the scammers anything at all, they will never, ever stop asking for more. So don't do that because you will definitely make it worse. On the other hand: if you don't pay them anything, they will get extremely agitated and may start reaching out to family and friends through Facebook or Instagram (usually) to prove a point.

When they do reach out to people, quite often the blackmailers will share a video of you in the buff (or a link to the video that's been uploaded elsewhere), or they will share collage of images of you which can either be derived from the video, or from multiple pictures that you sent.

It's important to note that even if the scammers don't have a picture of video of you - or if the video or picture of you is dark and grainy (as many have claimed) - the scammers will often substitute it with another video or photo from another victim and say it's you.

When the blackmailers upload the video outside of social media, they typically send it to raunchy websites and then leave your full name and phone number in the description. This can be damaging because if someone searches for your name in a search engine, that might pop up.

Some scammers may choose to upload your video YouTube, or some other random website. A few years ago, I worked on case where the scammers sent a link to the victim's video on his workplace's Facebook page. Unfortunately the victim contacted me after this happened and I wasn't able to prevent it, and he ended up getting fired from his job.

I've also spoken to many victims that have said the scammers already contacted their wife or girlfriend and were still tormenting them with threats to reach out to others (usually family members, but not always). Again, this happened before I able to assist in the matter so wasn't able to prevent it.

Most of the time the scammers will make threats to reach out of the victim's significant other (i.e., wife, partner). If there is no significant other, then they will target family members. Following that, they usually go after your contacts on social media. Some claim to have planted malware on the phone and were able to extract phone contacts. I have worked on a handful of cases where scammers were able to provide proof of the contact extraction by showing a list of names.

I'm happy to say that all of this can be avoided using the appropriate mitigation strategies I've honed over the years. Speaking from experience: scammers do things in a way that you would least expect on top of what I've already mentioned in this article. This comes as a great surprise to many victims, to say the least, which is why being able to know what paths the scammers are likely to take can help you defeat sextortion with little to no exposure.

Contact me if you would like assistance.

Can You Help?

Is someone threatening to share intimate photos or videos on Facebook or Instagram? If so, I can help.

Since 2019, I've worked on over 1,000+ sextortion cases. I have plenty of experience and know first-hand what the scammers can and can't do. I also know how to prevent your exposure and make them go away.

I offer multiple contingency plans using several worst case scenarios - including: what to do about your social media (and how to prevent the scammers from contacting friends and family), what to do about your wife or girlfriend in case the scammers reach out to them, and what to do about your job. These are the top 3 questions I get asked the most because these are what the scammers target.

The fact is, the blackmailers are very aggressive and use lots of dirty tricks to force you to pay or inflict misery. They are especially crafty when it comes to exposing you because they do things you won't ever think of (unless you've gone through it before - which is why I can help). A good portion of my plan is to explain what these worst case scenarios look like and solutions to those problems - so that you can avoid it from happening to you.

If you're interested in speaking with me, I'm happy to give a call to answer your questions - just drop me an email. Our company and website is BBB A+ accredited, and has been online for 23 years. Rest assured you will receive top notch service because I treat all my clients with dignity and respect.

I look forward to serving you!

About the author: Dennis Faas is the CEO and owner of Infopackets.com. Since 2001, Dennis has dedicated his entire professional career helping others with technology-related issues with his unique style of writing in the form of questions-and-answers; click here to read all 2,000+ of Dennis' articles online this site. In 2014, Dennis shifted his focus to cyber crime mitigation, including technical support fraud and in 2019, sextortion. Dennis has received many accolades during his tenure: click here to view Dennis' credentials online DennisFaas.com; click here to see Dennis' Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science (1999); click here to read an article written about Dennis by Alan Gardyne of Associate Programs (2003). And finally, click here to view a recommendation for Dennis' services from the University of Florida (dated 2006).