Abuse Using Technology

“Sextortion” is when someone threatens to share sexual or intimate materials unless you do what the person tells you to do. It is a type of blackmail or extortion. The person may ask for money, sexual favors, more sexual images, or something else. Just like with other types of image abuse, sextortion can involve images that were taken with or without your permission. You may have previously shared the images with the person or s/he may have gotten them through someone else or through hacking.

Sextortion can also be used as a tactic to get money from someone who is not known to the victim. For example, someone may contact you over the internet falsely claiming to have sexual images of you and threatening to share or post them unless you pay a certain amount of money or send additional images. In those cases, the person is usually contacting many people with the same threat, hoping that some victims will be frightened enough to do what the scammer demands.

You can learn more about sextortion from the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.