Resources
What it is, how it works, and what you can do — written for the person it is happening to.
If you are in immediate danger
If you believe you are in immediate physical danger, contact your local emergency services or a trusted person who can help you immediately.
If this is happening to you
The pressure you are feeling is deliberate. It is meant to stop you from thinking clearly and to keep you from telling anyone. You have more time and more options than the situation is designed to make you believe.
Urgency is the pressure being applied to you. Stepping back for a few minutes costs you far less than a rushed decision.
Where it is safe, save screenshots, usernames, profile links, dates, and any payment details before they are deleted.
Change affected passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and sign out sessions and applications you do not recognize.
Isolation is what makes extortion effective. One trusted person makes the situation easier to carry and easier to act on.
Platforms have dedicated reporting routes for blackmail, sexual extortion, harassment, and impersonation.
Many countries operate a national cybercrime reporting service. Extortion is a crime, and you are permitted to report it.
If you would like to submit an incident through AEN's partner, CyberShield.help handles victim reporting on our behalf.
If you are under 18, please involve a trusted adult and the appropriate authorities. You will not be in trouble for asking for help, and you do not have to explain the situation on your own.
AEN does not encourage confronting, retaliating against, tracking, hacking, or exposing anyone. Doing so can put you at greater risk and can complicate a later report. Route it through platforms, authorities, and our reporting partner instead.
If you are in immediate danger
If you believe you are in immediate physical danger, contact your local emergency services or a trusted person who can help you immediately.
Awareness
Plain explanations of the shapes it takes, the pressure behind it, and what you can do.
Online extortion is when someone threatens to cause you harm — usually by releasing private material, private information, or damaging claims — unless you give them something. That demand is often money, but it can also be more images, account access, or continued contact. The threat is the tool; compliance is the goal.
Extortion appears in many shapes. Recognizing the shape does not make you responsible for it.
Situations that turn into extortion often share early signals.
Extortion works by isolating a person and rushing them. Shame, urgency, and secrecy are used deliberately to stop you from pausing or asking for help. Being manipulated is not a failure of judgment — these approaches are practiced and repeated against many people. The pressure to act immediately is itself a warning sign.
You have more options than the situation is designed to make you feel you have.
If it is safe to do so, keep a record before conversations disappear: screenshots of messages, usernames and profile links, dates and times, payment details if money was sent, and any links used. Store it somewhere private that only you control. Keeping a record does not commit you to any particular next step — it simply keeps your options open.
Change the passwords on affected accounts and on any account sharing that password. Turn on two-factor authentication, ideally with an authenticator app. Review active sessions and connected applications, and sign out anything you do not recognize. Check that recovery email addresses and phone numbers are still yours. Tighten privacy settings and limit who can contact you.
Most platforms have reporting flows for blackmail, sexual extortion, harassment, and impersonation, and many treat these categories as a priority. Report the account and the specific messages or content. Reporting is separate from blocking — where the platform allows it, report first, then restrict contact.
Extortion is designed to keep you isolated, and that isolation is what gives it force. Telling one person you trust — a friend, a family member, a colleague, or a support organization — changes the situation immediately. If you are under 18, involve a trusted adult and appropriate authorities. Support services exist for exactly this, and using them is not an overreaction.
Questions
Short answers to the things people ask most often.
AEN is the Anti-Extortion Network — an independent network focused on online extortion. It exists to raise awareness, support victims, document incidents responsibly, and work alongside trusted partners.
AEN works across six areas: awareness, victim support, documentation, investigation, reporting, and collaboration. In practice that means helping people recognize extortion, helping victims understand their options, organizing information responsibly, reviewing material where appropriate and lawful, helping relevant information reach the right platforms or organizations, and working with others toward better responses.
No. AEN is an independent organization and is not a law-enforcement agency. We have no policing powers and cannot act as a substitute for reporting a crime to the authorities in your country.
Use the Report an Incident button anywhere on this site. It takes you to CyberShield.help, our reporting partner, who handle victim reports. If you are in immediate physical danger, contact your local emergency services first.
Victim reporting is provided in partnership with CyberShield.help. AEN does not operate its own victim-report database or ticketing system — reports go through our partner.
CyberShield.help is AEN's victim-reporting partner and the pathway we direct victims toward. Their site is at cybershield.help.
Yes. Team members are listed on the Teams page with the usernames they can be reached at. Please note that for an incident report, the CyberShield pathway is the appropriate route rather than an individual member.
First, don't panic, and don't feel pressured to respond immediately — urgency is part of the pressure being applied to you. If you believe you are in immediate physical danger, contact your local emergency services or a trusted person who can help you right now. Otherwise, preserve evidence, secure your accounts, tell someone you trust, and report through the platform and the CyberShield pathway.
You are not the first person this has happened to, and it does not make what happened your fault. Demands very often continue after a payment, so paying again rarely ends it. Keep records of the payment, contact your bank or payment provider to ask about their options, and include the payment details when you report.
Please involve a trusted adult and the appropriate authorities. You will not be in trouble for asking for help. Many countries have dedicated child-protection and reporting services for exactly this situation, and telling an adult you trust is the fastest way to reach them.
If you are experiencing online extortion, you don't have to navigate it alone. AEN works with trusted partners to provide victims with a pathway toward reporting and support.
Victim reporting is provided in partnership with CyberShield.help.
AEN is an independent organization and is not a law-enforcement agency.